LSD increases sleep duration the night after microdosing.
Nathan Allen, Aron Jeremiah, Robin J Murphy, Rachael Sumner, Anna Forsyth, Nicholas Hoeh, David B Menkes, William Evans, Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, Frederick Sundram, Partha Roop
Translational Psychiatry April 15, 2024 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-024-02900-4 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Placebo-controlled Double-blind Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 80 |
| Population | Healthy adult male volunteers |
| Intervention | LSD |
| Dose | 10 µg |
| Duration | 6-week intervention |
| Topics | Microdosing LSD |
| Keywords | Sleep research Clinical trials Sleep medicine Psychedelics |
| Citations | 15 |
| Key findings | Microdosing LSD increased sleep duration by 24.3 minutes per night on nights after dosing compared to placebo. |
Abstract
Microdosing psychedelic drugs at a level below the threshold to induce hallucinations is an increasingly common lifestyle practice. However, the effects of microdosing on sleep have not been previously reported. Here, we report results from a Phase 1 randomized controlled trial in which 80 healthy adult male volunteers received a 6-week course of either LSD (10 µg) or placebo with doses self-administered every third day. Participants used a commercially available sleep/activity tracker for the duration of the trial. Data from 3231 nights of sleep showed that on the night after microdosing, participants in the LSD group slept an extra 24.3 min per night (95% Confidence Interval 10.3-38.3 min) compared to placebo-with no reductions of sleep observed on the dosing day itself. There were no changes in the proportion of time spent in various sleep stages or in participant physical activity. These results show a clear modification of the physiological sleep requirements in healthy male volunteers who microdose LSD. The clear, clinically significant changes in objective measurements of sleep observed are difficult to explain as a placebo effect. Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of repeated microdoses of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in healthy volunteers; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=381476 ; ACTRN12621000436875.
Comparable studies
Other randomized controlled trials on LSD and microdosing, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary Report on the Effects of a Low Dose of LSD on Resting-State Amygdala Functional Connectivity. Healthy young adults, 18 to 35 years old | 2019 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 20 |
| Acute Mood-Elevating Properties of Microdosed Lysergic Acid Diethylamide in Healthy Volunteers: A Home-Administered Randomized Controlled Trial. Healthy male volunteers | 2023 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 80 |
| Low doses of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) increase reward-related brain activity. Healthy adults | 2023 | Within-subject, double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment | n = 18 |
| Greater subjective effects of a low dose of LSD in participants with depressed mood. Adults with mild depressed mood (scoring high or low on the Beck Depression-II inventory) | 2024 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 39 |
| Inter-individual variability in neural response to low doses of LSD. Healthy participants | 2024 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 53 |