Induction of Sleep by Simultaneous Administration of Posterior Pituitary Extracts and Water

Abstract

THE following investigation arose from considerations based upon well-known observations on the state of normal sleep. These are: (a) that during sleep the urine volume output is decreased and the blood diluted; (b) that many drugs (caffeine, etc.) which cause wakefulness are diuretics; and (c) that severe muscular work which, it is recognized, often facilitates the onset of sleep, has an antidiuretic action. It was thought, therefore, that the antidiuretic principle of the posterior pituitary, if given together with water, might possibly bring about an internal milieu so similar in many ways to that of normal sleep (for example, antidiuresis, dilution of the blood) that this state might eventually cause, deepen or prolong natural sleep.