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Happy Tuesday!
I just dropped a brand-new deep dive on DSIP (Delta Sleep-Inducing Peptide) on Spotify.
Sleep is one of the biggest unspoken health crises on the planet.
Roughly 1 in 3 adults report insomnia symptoms at any given time, and around 1 in 10 meet criteria for full-blown insomnia disorder.
About 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. admits they don’t regularly get enough sleep.
This chronic sleep debt is driving up rates of anxiety, depression, metabolic disease, dementia risk, and overall mortality.
DSIP is NOT Ambien. It is a tool that interfaces directly with your sleep architecture, circadian rhythm, and stress response.
Today’s email is the written companion to the episode. Let’s dive in!
FYI, starting today, you can get 40% off any peptide vial (including DSIP) at BioLongevity Labs and an additional 15% off when you use code HUNTERW at checkout.
History
DSIP has one of the coolest origin stories of any peptide.
Back in the 1970s, Swiss researchers were studying rabbits in deep delta sleep.
They isolated a tiny 9–amino acid peptide from the blood of those animals that, when given to other animals, reliably pushed them into that same deep, slow-wave sleep.
They called it Delta Sleep-Inducing Peptide.
DSIP-like material has been found in human brain, plasma, pituitary tissue, and even breast milk, which strongly suggests it’s part of our endogenous physiology.
Your body already has some version of this signal built in.
Even cooler, DSIP can cross the blood–brain barrier, and there’s evidence it can be active via non-injection routes (like nasal sprays).
Mechanistically, it’s more like a multi-system modulator.
It touches the hypothalamus and pituitary, tweaks stress hormones like ACTH and cortisol, nudges luteinizing hormone and growth hormone, and influences neurotransmitters tied to stress, mood, and pain.
That’s why I now frame it less as a “sleep drug” and more as a circadian rhythm peptide that just happens to impact sleep dramatically.
Human Data
Most of the DSIP human data is from the late 1970s and 1980s, but when you look closely, the numbers are wild.
In a large European withdrawal trial (about 100 inpatients going through acute alcohol or opiate withdrawal), DSIP was given intravenously. About 97% of the alcohol withdrawal patients had rapid symptom improvement, and 87% of the opiate withdrawal patients had marked alleviation of tremors, anxiety, agitation, headaches, etc., often within hours, without standard sedative drugs.
In a chronic pain pilot study, 6 out of 7 patients with things like migraines, psychosomatic pain, and tinnitus-associated pain had significant pain reduction after DSIP therapy. Many of these cases were long-standing and hard to treat. Their depressive symptoms improved alongside the pain.
In small insomnia trials (including a multi-study series by Schneider-Helmert and colleagues), insomniacs given DSIP for a few nights saw complete normalization of sleep patterns. Sleep architecture returned to the range seen in people without insomnia after just four nights of treatment. No next-day hangover and actually better daytime alertness and cognitive performance than placebo.
When you see 86–97% response rates in messy real-world conditions like withdrawal and chronic pain, it should at least make you lean forward.
Benefits
So what does any of that translate to if you’re a sleep-deprived human in 2025?
Here’s what people (including myself, my wife, and a ton of you who have written in) tend to notice with DSIP:
Deeper, more restorative sleep. Not necessarily “I got knocked out,” but “I woke up and felt like I actually slept in my bones.” On wearables, that usually shows up as more deep and REM sleep, fewer nighttime awakenings, and a smoother heart rate curve.
Better stress resilience. Early human and animal data showed reduced stress responses, and in the real world, people report feeling less “fragile” to stressors the next day. DSIP raises your stress ceiling a bit.
Support in rough seasons. If you’re walking through a highly stressful life event (business crisis, divorce, caregiving, grief), stacking better sleep with a calmer nervous system is huge. DSIP seems to help some people navigate those seasons without completely frying their adrenals.
Potential pain and withdrawal support. If you’re dealing with chronic pain or you’re working with a clinician on tapering off substances (alcohol, benzos, opiates), DSIP is one of the few peptides with human data in those specific lanes. It’s not a magic cure, but it’s an intriguing adjunct.
And then there’s the jet lag/circadian piece, which I’m personally leaning into more. DSIP acts as a tool to resync your clock after travel or schedule shifts.
Dosage
In the research world, most people are doing subcutaneous injections in the 100–500 mcg range. Here’s how I personally approach it:
Starting dose: 100–200 mcg subQ. See if you notice anything over a few nights like sleep depth, ease of falling asleep, fewer nighttime wakeups, morning mental clarity.
Working range: 300–500 mcg subQ. For me, I didn’t feel much at lower doses because I already sleep well. At 500 mcg, I clearly notice deeper sleep and better metrics on my Oura ring.
Timing: I like it 1–3 hours before bed, and I’ve found 2–3 hours is the sweet spot. Think of it as setting up your circadian software for the night instead of hitting a sedative panic button at lights-out. An empty stomach helps, but it’s not mandatory.
Frequency: I mostly use DSIP during high-stress periods, for travel/jet lag, or when I want to push sleep quality even higher. If someone has a chronic issue, I’m comfortable with 8–12 week blocks, then cycling off or adjusting the dose.
If you hate needles, there are nasal spray formulations that many people do very well on.
My wife Taylor loves DSIP, whether injectable or nasal. For her, it’s a night-and-day difference in sleep quality.
As always, start low and go slow with the dosing.
Final Thoughts
As I stated earlier, DSIP is not Ambien in peptide form.
Rather than smashing your brain with sedation, DSIP seems to nudge your biology back toward its intended state.
It’s not in my personal “top five” peptides, but it is one I plan to always keep in the house, especially for my wife, for travel, for high-stress phases, and for those clients where sleep, stress, and pain all overlap.
It has real human data behind it, decades before most people were even talking about peptides.
Is it a panacea? No. Some people don’t respond much, even at higher doses.
But as a tool in the toolbox for sleep, circadian rhythm, stress, and pain, it absolutely deserves a seat at the table.
I love you all and thank you for supporting me in doing this as my life’s work!
Best,
Hunter Williams
Further Reading