Three compounds in this library get sold with a sleep angle: DSIP, which was named for exactly that purpose; MK-677, a growth-hormone drug where a sleep-stage finding was a side result; and epitalon, whose developers frame it around the pineal gland and circadian rhythm. None is approved for sleep anywhere, and the human data behind all three is old, small, or both. This guide ranks them by what was actually tested, not by which one has the best marketing story.
Summary
| Compound | Best evidence | Stage |
|---|---|---|
| DSIP Stocked locally | Small double-blind human insomnia trials | Human pilot studies from 1987 and 1992, with conflicting results; nothing since |
| MK-677 | A small placebo-controlled study measuring sleep stages as a secondary outcome | One human study (14 participants total); not replicated |
| Epitalon | An uncontrolled human report on night-time melatonin, plus a pineal-gland rationale | Thin human data with no reported participant numbers; mostly animal and cell work otherwise |
DSIP: the peptide named for sleep, with a mixed trial record
Delta sleep-inducing peptide (DSIP) is a nine-amino-acid peptide first isolated in 1977 from the blood draining the brains of rabbits in an induced sleep state. Decades later, its own long-time researchers, Kovalzon and Strekalova, published a 2006 review titled "a still unresolved riddle", noting that no gene, precursor protein or receptor for DSIP has ever been identified, and that the link between DSIP and sleep "has never been further characterized."
The human trial record is small and split:
- Schneider-Helmert (1987) gave 14 people with chronic insomnia DSIP or placebo under double-blind conditions for 7 nights and reported substantial improvement in sleep and daytime alertness.
- Bes and colleagues (1992) ran a double-blind trial in 16 people with chronic insomnia, DSIP or placebo, over three consecutive nights. Sleep efficiency and time to fall asleep looked only slightly better with DSIP, subjective sleep quality did not change, and the authors concluded it was "not likely to be of major therapeutic benefit."
Both trials used intravenous infusion in a sleep laboratory, not the subcutaneous injections sold today, and no trial has tested DSIP for sleep since the early 1990s.
The animal record behind DSIP is just as mixed. Rabbit and rat studies from the 1970s and 1980s, done before the human trials, gave inconsistent results: some research groups reported more sleep after injecting DSIP directly into the brain, while others, including Kovalzon's own team, found an effect only with modified analogues of DSIP rather than the natural peptide itself. That inconsistency in animals is part of why the field never moved past small human pilot studies.
MK-677: a secondary finding in a growth-hormone trial
MK-677 (ibutamoren) is not a peptide; it is an oral small molecule that mimics ghrelin to raise growth hormone. It was never developed as a sleep treatment, but a 1997 study by Copinschi and colleagues measured sleep architecture alongside its main hormonal endpoints. In 8 young adults, 25 mg at bedtime increased deep (stage IV) sleep by about 50% and REM sleep by more than 20% compared with placebo. In 6 older adults, REM sleep rose by nearly 50%.
That is one small study, and MK-677 also raises appetite and fasting glucose in its longer trials, effects that have nothing to do with sleep. See the MK-677 page for the full trial record.
There is a physiological reason a growth hormone secretagogue might touch sleep architecture at all: the body's own GH release happens mostly in pulses during slow-wave, deep sleep, not evenly across the day. That timing overlap is the plausible link researchers point to, not proof that raising GH pulses changes sleep quality in a lasting or reliable way. It is also why the Copinschi trial measured sleep alongside hormone levels in the first place, rather than sleep being the compound's original target.
Epitalon: a circadian rationale, thin on direct evidence
Epitalon is a four-amino-acid synthetic peptide developed by Vladimir Khavinson's group as a stand-in for epithalamin, a mixture of peptides extracted from animal pineal glands. The pineal gland regulates melatonin and the body's day-night rhythm, which is the basis for pitching epitalon at sleep and jet lag.
A 2007 paper by Korkushko and colleagues reported that both epithalamin and epitalon raised night-time melatonin in elderly people with low pineal function. The published abstract does not give participant numbers, doses or statistics, which makes it hard to weigh against the DSIP and MK-677 trials above. It is also a melatonin-level finding, not a measure of sleep quality or duration. The rest of epitalon's evidence, covered in more depth on its own page, is cell and mouse longevity work unrelated to sleep specifically.
Why "sleep peptide" searches rarely land on strong evidence
Melatonin, the hormone most closely associated with sleep-wake timing, is not a peptide and falls outside what this site covers, but its trial base dwarfs anything discussed here. DSIP was hoped to be a natural analogue of that kind of sleep-regulating signal when it was named in 1977; the trial record since has not supported that role. None of the three compounds above has been compared head to head with melatonin, sleep hygiene measures, or standard insomnia treatment in a published study, so there is no basis for ranking them against those more established options, only against each other.
Safety notes
The DSIP trials reported no serious adverse events, but they were short and involved a few dozen people combined, with no long-term safety data. MK-677 raises fasting glucose and, in a frail older population, was linked to a heart-failure safety signal in its hip-fracture trial; the side effect management guide and bloodwork in the Philippines cover what that means for monitoring. Epitalon's human safety data is limited to small, uncontrolled reports from its own developers.
Status in the Philippines
None of DSIP, MK-677 or epitalon is registered with FDA Philippines, and none is approved as a medicine anywhere. None is a scheduled controlled substance under RA 9165. All three are sold locally only through research-chemical or gym-supply channels. Persistent sleep problems are worth a visit to a licensed physician: conditions like sleep apnoea, depression, anxiety and thyroid disease are common, treatable causes that no peptide addresses.
