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PeptideHormone

Delta sleep-inducing peptideDSIP

A naturally occurring nonapeptide named for a sleep effect that never fully replicated.

Research peptideLimited

A peptide keeps whatever name its first experiment gave it, long after the finding itself stops holding up.

Identity

Class
Endogenous nonapeptide (Trp-Ala-Gly-Gly-Asp-Ala-Ser-Gly-Glu)
Source
Isolated from mammalian brain and blood; distribution poorly mapped
Receptor
No established receptor; no defined signaling pathway

Key properties

Evidence floorPreclinicalREF1PRE1
Molecular weight
~848.8 Da
REF
Half-life (native)
~7 min (rapidly degraded)
PRE
Model dosing

Approximate values for the native hormone; engineered analogs are often deliberately larger and far longer-acting. Each figure carries its own provenance tier, and the floor is the weakest of them - the Standard.

Mechanism

DSIP was isolated in the 1970s from the cerebral venous blood of sleeping rabbits and named for the delta-wave sleep it appeared to induce. Decades later it remains, in the words of its own review literature, an 'unresolved riddle': it is genuinely endogenous, yet no receptor, no biosynthetic gene, and no consistent physiological role have been pinned down, and the original sleep effect has proven hard to reproduce.

Reference notes

  • It is one of the rare 'research peptides' that is unambiguously endogenous — the puzzle is what, if anything, it actually does.
  • Reported effects sprawl across sleep, stress buffering, thermoregulation, and antioxidant activity, but none are firmly established.
  • Its plasma half-life is extremely short, which complicates any simple dose-to-effect story.

Common questions

What is Delta sleep-inducing peptide (DSIP)?
A naturally occurring nonapeptide named for a sleep effect that never fully replicated. Structurally it is Endogenous nonapeptide (Trp-Ala-Gly-Gly-Asp-Ala-Ser-Gly-Glu).
How does DSIP work?
DSIP was isolated in the 1970s from the cerebral venous blood of sleeping rabbits and named for the delta-wave sleep it appeared to induce. Decades later it remains, in the words of its own review literature, an 'unresolved riddle': it is genuinely endogenous, yet no receptor, no biosynthetic gene, and no consistent physiological role have been pinned down, and the original sleep effect has proven hard to reproduce.
How strong is the evidence for DSIP?
PeptideHormone grades DSIP at the "Limited" evidence tier — the evidence is sparse, older, or mostly community-reported. It is catalogued as a community research peptide outside the approved-drug system, and the tier is an editorial judgment about the public literature that can change as the science does.
What is the half-life of DSIP?
The reported circulating half-life of DSIP is ~7 min (rapidly degraded).

In the literature

Live registry counts · retrieved
Registered trialsREF
0
  • Ph 10
  • Ph 20
  • Ph 30
  • Ph 40
Open on ClinicalTrials.gov
PubMed recordsREF
462
Since 20225 · 1%
Open on PubMed

Searched as Delta sleep-inducing peptide, DSIP. Counts are search hits from the primary registries, not a curated set and not a grade – a measure of how much work exists on DSIP, not how it turned out.

Selected literature

Curated peer-reviewed reviews, sourced from PubMed. Selected for relevance, not exhaustive — open any entry on PubMed for the full record and its primary citations.

  1. 1.Delta sleep-inducing peptide (DSIP): a still unresolved riddle · Journal of neurochemistry, 2006 · PMID 16539679
  2. 2.Delta-sleep-inducing peptide (DSIP): a review · Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 1984 · PMID 6145137
  3. 3.Delta sleep-inducing peptide · European journal of anaesthesiology, 2001 · PMID 11437870

External references

DSIP in the public knowledge graph — the same entity resolved across the authoritative chemistry and protein databases.