Abstract
Five healthy volunteers given L-tryptophan for ten consecutive nights had an increase in non-rapid-eye-movement sleep (non-R.E.M.) and delta wave sleep while they manifested a decrease in R.E.M. sleep. Seven patients with insomnia receiving L-tryptophan for either 5 or 10 consecutive nights had increases in total sleep and non-R.E.M. sleep when compared with placebo control periods. Since reducing brain serotonin by synthesis inhibition reduces R.E.M. sleep and increasing brain serotonin by 5-hydroxytryptophan administration increases R.E.M. sleep, it seems likely that L-tryptophan produces its sleep effects through a non-serotonin mechanism. Further evidence for this hypothesis derives from the finding that L-tryptophan produced significant increases in non-R.E.M. and decreases in R.E.M. sleep when given in the presence of p-chlorophenylalanine, a drug which blocks the metabolism of tryptophan to serotonin.
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