Sleep Support: An Individual Randomized Controlled Trial

Published: Feb. 18, 2020, 8:32 p.m.

https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/02/17/sleep-support-an-individual-randomized-controlled-trial/

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I worry my sleep quality isn\u2019t great. On weekends, no matter when

I go to bed, I sleep until 11 or 12. When I wake up, I feel like I\u2019ve overslept. But if I try to make myself get up earlier, I feel angry and want to go back to sleep.

A supplement company I trust, Nootropics Depot, recently released a new product called Sleep Support. It advertises that, along with helping you fall asleep faster, it can \u201cimprove sleep quality\u201d by \u201cimprov[ing] sleep architecture, allowing you to achieve higher quality and more refreshing sleep.\u201d I decided to try it.

The first night I took it, I woke up naturally at 9 the next morning, with no desire to go back to sleep. This has\xa0never happened before. It\xa0shocked\xa0me. And the next morning,\xa0the same thing happened. I started recommending the supplement to all my friends, some of whom also reported good results.

I decided the next step was to do a randomized controlled trial. I obtained sugar pills, and put both the sugar pills and the Sleep Support pills inside bigger capsules so I couldn\u2019t tell which was which. The recommended dose was two Sleep Support pills per night, so for my 24 night trial I created 12 groups of two Sleep Support pills and 12 groups of two placebo pills.