How badly do you want that 40 winks?
For those that tire of counting sheep, the boffins at the Peking University of Mental Health have a brand-new insomnia treatment for you to try: faecal microbiota capsules.
The double-blinded, randomised control trial – results of which were published in the Journal of Internal Medicine – saw 80 people with diagnosed chronic insomnia receive either placebo or a course of antibiotics followed by faecal microbiota capsules.
At one month after treatment, the poop-pill-popping participants had significantly improved objective sleep efficiency scores compared to their counterparts on the placebo arm.
There was also some evidence of reduced waking after sleep onset among the intervention group.
According to the researchers, although both groups had improved sleep efficiency scores at one month post-trial, those in the intervention group showed greater and more sustained benefits at two and six months post-trial.
Perhaps most shockingly, however, is that the faeces-laden capsules were generally well tolerated – with one notable exception.
“One participant experienced a moderate treatment-related adverse event within 12 [hours] after capsule ingestion, characterized by vomiting and low-grade fever; symptoms resolved spontaneously without specific treatment, although the participant subsequently withdrew from the study,” the researchers wrote.
“Two additional participants reported mild, self-limited treatment-related adverse events, including nausea in one participant and transient fever in another; neither event led to treatment interruption or study discontinuation.”
Gut microbial composition has been linked to insomnia and sleep quality in previous observational studies.
“Experimental work has further shown that transplantation of microbiota from individuals with insomnia can induce insomnia-like phenotypes and alter central sleep-wake circuits in recipient mice,” the researchers wrote in the Journal of Internal Medicine.
“Together, these findings support a possible contributory role of gut microbial ecology in arousal regulation.”
To this humble Back Page scribe, the seeming success of this trial raises the classic question of the cure being worse than the disease.
How could you sleep at night, knowing you had ingested a stranger’s poo through your mouth?
Surely the blinded nature of the trial was instrumental in ensuring that there were enough participants. That, or people truly are desperate for a good night’s sleep.
Something tells this wretched copywriter that the scientists may struggle to find volunteers willing to test out the concoction in a non-blinded state.
Send your stress-tested nighttime routine to Holly@medicalrepublic.com.au.
