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The insomnia of ‘sleeping in a strange place’: Effects of l-tryptophane

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Abstract

Forty-two normal human subjects were studied in the sleep laboratory for one night each. Fourteen were given placebo at bedtime, 14 took l-tryptophane 1 g, and 14 took l-tryptophane 3 g. Both tryptophane groups had significantly lower sleep latency than the placebo group. The usually discarded ‘first laboratory night’ produces a mild situational insomnia in normal persons and thus can be useful in certain sleep studies.

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Hartmann, E., Elion, R. The insomnia of ‘sleeping in a strange place’: Effects of l-tryptophane. Psychopharmacology 53, 131–133 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00426482

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00426482

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