Nootropic
DSIP (Delta Sleep-Inducing Peptide)
DSIP is a nine-amino-acid peptide isolated in the 1970s by Monnier, Schoenenberger and colleagues from the cerebral venous blood of rabbits in electrically induced delta-wave sleep, which is where the name comes from.
Also known as Delta Sleep-Inducing Peptide · Delta Sleep Inducing Peptide · Trp-Ala-Gly-Gly-Asp-Ala-Ser-Gly-Glu
At a glance
Dose summary
No reliable human half-life has been published for DSIP (Delta Sleep-Inducing Peptide), so none is listed rather than guessed at.
No regulator and no trial set these numbers. They describe what people actually do, recorded so you can see the range rather than guess at it — which is not the same thing as a recommendation.
Reconstitution
What to draw, at the usual vial
A 5 mg vial reconstituted with 2 mL of bacteriostatic water gives 2.50 mg/mL. A typical 200 mcg dose is 0.080 mL — pull the plunger to 8 units on a U-100 syringe.
Same dose, other vial sizes
| Vial | Water | Concentration | Draw | Units | Doses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 mg | 2 mL | 2.50 mg/mL | 0.080 mL | 8 units | 25 |
The highlighted row is the one quoted above: the smallest listed vial that holds at least four typical doses. Change any of it — a different vial, more or less water, a different dose — on the reconstitution calculator, which draws the syringe to true U-100 graduations.
Mechanism & evidence
What it is, and what is known
DSIP is a nine-amino-acid peptide isolated in the 1970s by Monnier, Schoenenberger and colleagues from the cerebral venous blood of rabbits in electrically induced delta-wave sleep, which is where the name comes from. It is not approved anywhere and has no modern development program. The human evidence is old, small and sparse, and it does not show what the name implies. The controlled work is a handful of studies from roughly 1977 to the early 1990s, mostly with a few dozen subjects at most, and the effects on sleep architecture were modest and inconsistent between groups.
Some of the more repeatable findings were not in insomnia at all but in chronic pain and in opiate and alcohol withdrawal. DSIP is not a sedative and does not behave like one: it does not reliably knock anyone out, and whether an injected dose crosses the blood-brain barrier intact in meaningful quantity is still disputed. Treat any claim of a strong hypnotic effect as unsupported. On dosing, the classic human studies gave roughly 25 nmol/kg intravenously - about 1.5 mg for a 70 kg adult - which is both a different route and a much larger amount than anyone injects subcutaneously today.
That figure has deliberately NOT been used to set the ceiling here. The 100-500 mcg subcutaneous range with a typical dose around 200 mcg reflects contemporary community practice, taken shortly before bed; there is no trial behind that range, and no dose-response curve exists for this route. Plasma half-life is reported in minutes, so no hourly figure is listed. The four-week cycle length is convention rather than evidence - no study has run long enough to establish a course length, and nothing is known about tolerance or long-term use.
The caveat
A handful of small studies from 1977 to the early 1990s, with modest and inconsistent effects on sleep. Nothing supports the subcutaneous doses used today.Tolerability
Reported side effects
- Injection site stinging or redness
- Morning grogginess or a hungover, heavy feeling on waking
- Vivid or unusually intense dreams
- Headache
- Dizziness or a brief drop in blood pressure shortly after injecting
- Paradoxical alerting - a minority of users report harder, not easier, sleep onset
- Transient flu-like malaise in the first few doses
Hard stops
Do not use this if
- Pregnancy, possible pregnancy, or breastfeeding
- Under 18
These are flags, not a screening. They do not replace a conversation with a clinician who knows your history.
Handling
Storage
Keep it cold, keep it dark, and label the vial with the date you mixed it. Discard anything cloudy or past the window above.
Combinations
Commonly stacked with
Stacking multiplies the side-effect surface and makes it impossible to tell which compound did what. Add one thing at a time.
Where it shows up
Protocols using this compound
References
Sources
Educational information only, not medical advice. Talk to a licensed clinician before starting, changing, or stopping anything.