From: mdkline@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Mark D. Kline)
Subject: Re: L-tryptophan and insomnia
Keywords: amino acids   FDA   alternative approaches
Organization: Syracuse University
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 92 18:52:49 EDT

In article <l1vnckc.strnlght@netcom.com> strnlght@netcom.com (David Sternlight) writes:
>
>Steve Dyer indicates that l-tryptophan may still be off the market
>because it's not certain that the problems with it were caused by
>the contaminant.

Tryptophan is still off the market and is likely to remain so 
indefinitely, because it has yet to be shown effective for anything,
and the contaminated product raised the issue of safety.

>
>A friend of mine, who was perhaps lucky not to get a bad batch or was
>not susceptible to the problems with it, had seemingly powerful and
>effective symptomatic relief from insomnia by taking it. Since she's
>also tried other over-the-counter substances claiming relief from
>insomnia, without success, it's unlikely her success with l-t was due
>to the placebo effect.
>
>Is the anti-insomnia modality of l-t known, assuming there is one? Are
>there any other over-the-counter substances known to be effective
>against insomnia, preferably with few or no side effects? She's tried
>the "usual" over-the-counter sleep pills and they don't help.

The sleep inducing properties of tryptophan, such as they are,
have been presumed due to the fact that the amino acid is a precursor
of serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved with sleep (and lots of other
things).  Eating tryptophan does increase brain serotonin transiently.  
Although some people did swear by tryptophan for insomnia, there's no 
study that shows that it works better than placebo.

Insomnia is enormously subjective and extremely common.  Many
insomniacs can be awakened from a sound sleep and will SWEAR that they
were awake, and drastically underestimate the amount of time they spend
asleep at night. A substantial percentage of patients with insomnia
seen at sleep disorder clinics have a psychiatric disorder (e.g.,
depression or an anxiety disorder) which causes or exacerbates the
insomnia -- treat the illness, the insmonia gets better.  Most
chronic insomnia is best treated with behavioral ("sleep hygiene") 
measures - attention to lifestyle, environmental, and behavioral
issues which interfere with getting enough or good enough sleep.
Anybody with chronic insomnia or significant daytime drowsiness
really ought to see a physician knowledgable about sleep disorders
(who might be an internist/pulmonologist, neurologist, or psychiatrist).

Just about any medication taken for sleep can be habit forming
from a behavioral standpoint.  Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) 
is now available OTC and is sometimes used for sleep
in a dose of 50 mg.  Some people swear by this, but many find
it only helpful for a few nights then it stops working.

Thre is a good book entitled _Wide Awake at 3:00 AM - By Choice or By
Chance_ (sorry I can't remember the author), which is very entertaining
and has lots of scientifically solid information on biological rhythms
and sleep.  David Hauri, noted sleep expert, contributed an excellent
chapter on the "Nonpharmacologic Treatment of Insomnia" in the APA
Annual Review of Psychiatry a couple of years ago.

--
================================================================= 
mark kline                              mdkline@rodan.acs.syr.edu
suny health science center, syracuse    voice: (315) 422-1050
================ courtesy of syracuse university ================
Newsgroups: sci.med.physics