DSIP — delta sleep-inducing peptide, called emideltide in FDA's records — is sold on its name. The research-market pitch is that it is the body's own sleep peptide, isolated from the blood of sleeping rabbits in the 1970s and shown in human trials to normalise insomnia. This page tests that claim the simplest way available: it lists every human study that gave DSIP and measured sleep, and notes who ran each one.
The molecule, the dose figures and the unit problem are on our DSIP dosage page; the adverse-event record, including FDA's 2026 review, is on DSIP side effects. Peptide Lexicon's sleep peptides overview sets DSIP beside the other compounds sold for sleep. Nothing here is a recommendation; persistent insomnia is a question for a physician or a sleep clinic.
How the studies were found
One PubMed search, run on 2 November 2026:
("delta sleep-inducing peptide"[tiab] OR DSIP[tiab] OR emideltide[tiab]) AND (insomnia[tiab] OR sleep[ti]) AND humans[mh]
It returns 70 records. Most measure the body's own DSIP in blood, spinal fluid or tissue rather than giving it to anyone. We read every title and abstract and kept the records in which people were given DSIP and sleep, or a brain-wave measure of sleep depth, was recorded. Fourteen remain. Reviews, letters without data and studies of other outcomes (hormones, withdrawal, pain) were set aside; the hormone studies are on the dosage page.
The fourteen records
| Year | First author (group) | Who | Design | Reported result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Schneider-Helmert (Swiss group) | 6 healthy volunteers | Double-blind crossover, IV infusion in the morning | Sleep up 59% in the 130 minutes after infusion vs placebo; better sleep the next night |
| 1981 | Schneider-Helmert (Swiss group) | 6 chronic insomniacs | Single IV injection | Longer, less interrupted sleep; slight arousal in the first hour |
| 1981 | Schneider-Helmert (Swiss group) | Insomniacs | Lancet letter, randomised | "Improves sleep in insomniacs" (no abstract) |
| 1983 | Schneider-Helmert (Swiss group) | Five studies summarised | Double-blind, single and repeated IV | Sleep "normalised" after four injections; higher daytime alertness |
| 1984 | Schneider-Helmert (Swiss group) | Two insomnia studies summarised | Single and repeated IV | Improvement after single injections, build-up over four |
| 1984 | Laffont (with the Swiss group) | 1 patient, brain-stem lesions | Case report | Sleep improved, effect reversible |
| 1984 | Kaeser | 7 severe insomniacs | Open, no control group, 10 injections | Sleep normal in 6 of 7 at 3–7 months |
| 1986 | Schneider-Helmert (Swiss group) | Insomniacs; 1 narcolepsy case | Summary of double-blind studies | Benefit reported |
| 1986 | Schneider-Helmert (Swiss group) | 18 insomniacs aged 29–83 | 6 IV doses over a week, no placebo group | Sleep at normal values by follow-up |
| 1987 | Schneider-Helmert (Swiss group) | 14 middle-aged insomniacs | Double-blind, placebo-controlled, 7 nights | "Substantially improved" sleep; better daytime performance |
| 1987 | Schneider-Helmert (Swiss group) | 1 woman, delayed sleep phase | Case report | Sleep phase advanced 5 hours |
| 1987 | Monti (Uruguay) | Insomniacs | Double-blind crossover, 4 nights, IV | Changes not different from baseline or placebo; "of little clinical significance" |
| 1992 | Bes (Netherlands) | 16 insomniacs | Double-blind, matched-pair parallel groups, IV | Weak effects, partly a placebo-group artefact; subjective sleep unchanged; "not likely to be of major therapeutic benefit" |
| 2009 | Pomfrett (UK) | 24 women under anaesthesia | Randomised vs saline, IV | DSIP reduced delta rhythm and lightened anaesthesia depth |
Sources: the PubMed abstracts listed at the foot of this page, read 2 November 2026. "Swiss group" means the record lists D. Schneider-Helmert as an author; G. A. Schoenenberger co-signs six of the ten.
What the count shows
The table splits cleanly in two.
- Ten of the fourteen records carry the originating group's name, and all ten report benefit. Three of the ten are summaries of the group's earlier studies or a case report, so they are not ten separate experiments; the largest single group of patients in any of them is 18, and that study had no placebo arm.
- The three controlled studies from other groups found little or nothing. Monti's team in Montevideo and Bes's team in Amsterdam used the same 25 nmol/kg dose by the same intravenous route in chronic insomniacs, and both judged the effect clinically unimportant. Pomfrett's team in Manchester tested the hypothesis that DSIP is a natural hypnotic in the most controlled setting available — anaesthetised patients on continuous EEG — and recorded the opposite: less delta activity, a higher bispectral index (lighter anaesthesia) and a faster heart rate.
- The one other positive record is Kaeser's open study of seven patients, which had no comparison group and noted that a long history of drug dependence "may be a problem".
So the positive record is essentially one laboratory's, assembled between 1981 and 1987. Every attempt by a separate group to measure the same thing under blinded conditions came back weaker or reversed. That is the pattern the advisory committee had in front of it in July 2026, and it is why a literature larger than most research peptides' did not carry the vote; the committee and its 6-to-7 result are covered on the DSIP dosage page.
The size of the effect, where one was measured
Only the 1981 volunteer study gives a headline number in its abstract: total sleep 59% higher (median) in the 130 minutes after a morning infusion than after placebo, in six people. That is a nap-length window after daytime dosing, not a night of sleep in an insomniac. The insomnia studies describe improvements in sleep efficiency, latency and waking time in words rather than figures in their abstracts, and the two independent insomnia studies found that the changes either matched baseline and placebo nights (Monti) or rested partly on an unexpected shift in the placebo group (Bes).
Route and timing
Every study in the table gave DSIP into a vein, as a slow injection or a timed infusion, usually in a sleep laboratory. The 1983 summary states that "slow injection proved essential". Several studies dosed in the afternoon or morning rather than at bedtime, and the Swiss group reported a delay of about an hour before any sleep effect, with slight arousal first.
The research market sells DSIP as a powder for subcutaneous injection. No study counted here used that route, and none measured how much DSIP reaches the brain from under the skin. FDA's review gives a plasma half-life of about 8 minutes after intravenous dosing (detail on DSIP side effects). One Russian paper describes an intranasal DSIP preparation, deltalicin, used for two months in diabetic retinopathy; it measured visual responses, not sleep.
What is not established
- A sleep benefit replicated by an independent group. None of the three attempts reproduced the originating group's findings.
- Any study since 2009. PubMed holds no human sleep-related record after Pomfrett's, and ClinicalTrials.gov lists no registered study of DSIP or emideltide for sleep (searched 2 November 2026).
- Effects in sleep disorders other than chronic insomnia, beyond single case reports.
- Subcutaneous or intranasal sleep data, and any safety record longer than about two weeks of dosing.
Other compounds sold for sleep have their own records on this site: epitalon, whose claims rest on the pineal gland rather than on sleep stages, and the wider cognitive peptides page.
Sources
- Schneider-Helmert D, Schoenenberger GA. Experientia 1981;37(9):913–7. PMID 7028502.
- Schneider-Helmert D, Graf M, Schoenenberger GA. Lancet 1981;1(8232):1256–7. PMID 6112579.
- Schneider-Helmert D et al. Int J Clin Pharmacol Ther Toxicol 1981;19(8):341–5. PMID 6895513.
- Schneider-Helmert D, Schoenenberger GA. Neuropsychobiology 1983;9(4):197–206. PMID 6689058.
- Schneider-Helmert D. Eur Neurol 1984;23(5):358–63. PMID 6391925.
- Laffont F et al. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 1984;57(1):32–4. PMID 6198141.
- Kaeser HE. Eur Neurol 1984;23(5):386–8. PMID 6391926.
- Schneider-Helmert D. Eur Neurol 1986;25 Suppl 2:154–7. PMID 3758119.
- Schneider-Helmert D. Eur Neurol 1986;25(6):448–53. PMID 3792404.
- Schneider-Helmert D. Eur Neurol 1987;27(2):120–9. PMID 3622582.
- Schneider-Helmert D, Hermann E, Schoenenberger GA. Dtsch Med Wochenschr 1987;112(23):922–5. PMID 3582201.
- Monti JM et al. Int J Clin Pharmacol Res 1987;7(2):105–10. PMID 3583493.
- Bes F, Hofman W, Schuur J, Van Boxtel C. Neuropsychobiology 1992;26(4):193–7. PMID 1299794.
- Pomfrett CJ et al. Eur J Anaesthesiol 2009;26(2):128–34. PMID 19142086.
- Kresiun NV, Godlevskiĭ LS. Eksp Klin Farmakol 2014;77(12):22–5. PMID 25739189.
- PubMed E-utilities and ClinicalTrials.gov API v2 searches as printed above, run 2 November 2026.