DSIP Dosage: Studied Doses, Timing Before Bed

Key takeaways

• There is no approved or validated DSIP dose. The human studies gave 25 to 30 nmol/kg by slow intravenous injection or infusion, about 1.5 to 1.8 mg for a 70 kg adult, usually once a day for one to seven days.
• Timing followed each protocol: a morning infusion in healthy volunteers, an injection immediately or an hour before bed in most insomnia studies, and late-afternoon doses in the last trial. Sleep effects began about an hour later, and the investigators found that slow injection was essential.
• Charts sold online list 100 to 300 mcg under the skin before bed, roughly five to fifteen times less than the studied dose, by a route no human study has used.
• The results were mixed: one investigator reported normalized sleep, two independent double-blind studies found little or no benefit, and FDA called the evidence inconclusive and at best preliminary in 2026.
• No US pharmacy may compound DSIP, so there is no labeled product, no reconstitution example here and no dose we can recommend.

The only DSIP doses with human data are 25 to 30 nmol per kilogram of body weight, about 1.5 to 1.8 mg for a 70 kg adult, given by slow intravenous injection or infusion in sleep laboratories between 1981 and 1992, usually once a day for one to seven days. The 100 to 300 mcg subcutaneous doses on charts sold online were never studied. For how DSIP compares with everything else sold for sleep, see the best peptides for sleep; for the growth hormone stack sold the same way, see CJC-1295 for sleep; and for the full compound history, the DSIP profile.

Every studied dose, in one table

Two features of that table matter more than any single row. Every dose was intravenous, and every positive insomnia result came from the same investigator. FDA's 2026 review noted that the positive studies lacked an adequate control group: the 1987 study, for example, gave placebo only on baseline and post-treatment nights and compared patients with their own baseline and with an outside group of normal sleepers, despite being described as placebo-controlled. The two independent studies, both double-blind against placebo, found little or nothing (FDA emideltide review 2026).

Converting nmol/kg into milligrams

The trials dosed DSIP by moles per kilogram, which hides how much peptide that is. DSIP is a nine-amino-acid peptide of about 849 daltons, so:

• 25 nmol/kg is about 21 mcg per kilogram, roughly 1.5 mg for a 70 kg adult (FDA gives the same figure, 21.23 mcg/kg).
• 30 nmol/kg is about 25 mcg per kilogram, roughly 1.8 mg for a 70 kg adult.

In all the human studies FDA could identify, 209 people received between 25 and 150 nmol/kg intravenously for 1 to 15 days (FDA emideltide review 2026). The insomnia trials sat at the bottom of that range.

The seller charts versus the studies

The charts that circulate online, typically 100 to 300 mcg injected under the skin 30 to 60 minutes before bed, differ from the studies in three ways.

The dose is five to fifteen times smaller. 1.5 mg divided by 300 mcg is 5; divided by 100 mcg it is 15. Nobody has published a reason to expect a fraction of the intravenous dose to do what the full dose did, and the full dose itself did not reliably beat placebo.

The route was never studied. DSIP is broken down in the blood by enzymes and has a plasma half-life of about eight minutes. FDA found no pharmacokinetic, efficacy or safety data for subcutaneous DSIP, the route its nominators proposed, and questioned whether the free base could be dissolved at the proposed 1 mg/mL strength without a co-solvent (FDA emideltide review 2026). Nasal sprays sold as DSIP have no human data at all.

The speed of delivery seems to matter. The original investigators reported that slow injection was essential (Schneider-Helmert 1983). In healthy volunteers, the same intravenous dose was completely ineffective when pushed in over one minute and worked best when infused over four to eight minutes (FDA emideltide review 2026). A subcutaneous injection absorbs on its own unmeasured schedule, so nobody knows whether it resembles the delivery that worked, the one that did not, or neither.

Timing: what the studies did before bed

"Take it before bed" is the one part of the seller charts that echoes the research, and even that is looser than it sounds.

• Morning doses can affect night sleep. The first study infused healthy volunteers at 9 a.m.; they slept more over the next two hours and fell asleep faster the following night, 13 to 22 hours later (Schneider-Helmert 1981).
• Bedtime doses had a delay. In six insomniacs injected immediately before bed, there was a slight arousing effect in the first hour and sleep was promoted from the second hour onward (FDA emideltide review 2026). Later protocols injected about one hour before bed, and the investigators reported a sleep-induction latency of about one hour with effects lasting up to 20 hours (Schneider-Helmert 1983).
• The final trial dosed in the late afternoon, between 5 and 7 p.m., before each of three nights, and found weak effects (Bes 1992).

So the most-cited positive studies injected DSIP slowly into a vein about an hour before bed, under a researcher's supervision, for a week or less. None of that tells you when, or whether, a subcutaneous injection at home would do anything.

Why there is no reconstitution example

Our dosage pages normally show how a prescribed vial converts into syringe units. We do not do that for DSIP, for three reasons. There is no legal product: no US pharmacy may compound it, so no vial carries a pharmacy label stating its content. The content itself is uncertain: FDA noted that different salts and derivatives, including different active molecules, are sold under the DSIP name, that the bulk substance is poorly characterized, and that endotoxin testing for injection was lacking (FDA emideltide review 2026). And a units table would turn an unstudied dose into something that looks like a protocol. Our reconstitution calculator is built for prescribed vials whose label states the amount of drug.

Safety at the doses that were studied

In the insomnia trials, intravenous DSIP was well tolerated, with no significant adverse events reported. In a withdrawal study of 107 people with alcohol or opiate dependence, nine had minor transient effects (sweating, headache, nausea, vertigo); two developed low blood pressure at the first injection, one of whom had progressively lower blood pressure after a second dose; and a third had repeated brief episodes of discomfort with sweating and nausea. FDA also flagged immunogenicity, an immune reaction to the peptide or its impurities, as an unresolved risk for an injected nine-amino-acid peptide, and found no safety data at all for the subcutaneous route (FDA emideltide review 2026). An anesthesia study in which DSIP raised heart rate is described in the DSIP profile.

Legal status

DSIP (emideltide) has never been an approved drug. FDA placed it in Category 2 in 2023, removed it in April 2026 after its nomination was withdrawn, and on July 24, 2026 its advisory committee voted 6 to 7, with one abstention, against allowing pharmacies to compound it for insomnia, narcolepsy or opioid withdrawal. No US pharmacy may dispense it, and every DSIP product sold in the United States is an unapproved drug; see the legal tracker.

What to do instead

If you are reading dosing charts because you cannot sleep, the treatments with evidence are cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and, where needed, FDA-approved medications with labeled doses. Snoring with pauses in breathing, restless legs or daytime sleep attacks call for a sleep evaluation first. Our best peptides for sleep guide lays out the trial numbers for all of them alongside every peptide sold for sleep.

Frequently asked questions

+−What is the DSIP peptide dosage?

There is no approved or validated dose. The human studies from 1981 to 1992 gave 25 to 30 nmol per kilogram of body weight, about 1.5 to 1.8 mg for a 70 kg adult, as a slow intravenous injection or infusion, usually once a day for one to seven days. A 1995 hormone study infused 3 to 4 mg. We report these studied doses so you can judge a claim, not as a recommendation, and no US pharmacy may dispense DSIP.

+−Is there a DSIP peptide dosing chart?

Charts circulate online, usually listing 100 to 300 mcg injected under the skin 30 to 60 minutes before bed, several nights a week. They are not derived from any human study. The studied route was intravenous, the studied dose was roughly five to fifteen times larger, and no study has measured what a subcutaneous injection of DSIP does to blood levels or to sleep.

+−When should DSIP be taken before bed?

There is no evidence-based timing for the products sold now. In the studies, healthy volunteers received DSIP intravenously at 9 a.m.; most insomnia studies injected it immediately before bed or about an hour before; and the last trial infused it between 5 and 7 p.m. Sleep effects appeared about an hour after the injection. Those timings applied to slow intravenous doses given by investigators in sleep laboratories and do not transfer to a subcutaneous injection at home.

+−How long does DSIP take to work?

In the 1980s intravenous studies, the investigators reported a latency of about one hour before sleep was promoted, a slight arousing effect in the first hour after injection in insomniacs, and effects lasting up to several hours into the night and, in healthy volunteers, into the following night. DSIP itself is cleared from plasma within minutes. Whether any of this happens after a subcutaneous injection has never been studied.

+−Can DSIP be injected subcutaneously or used as a nasal spray?

Neither route has human data. FDA's 2026 review found no clinical, pharmacokinetic or safety data for subcutaneous DSIP, the route its nominators proposed, and questioned whether the free base could even be dissolved at the proposed 1 mg/mL strength without a co-solvent. Nasal sprays sold as DSIP have no published human studies of any kind.

+−How do you reconstitute DSIP?

We do not publish a reconstitution example for DSIP, because there is no legal product with a pharmacy label to reconstitute. A vial sold as DSIP has no verified content, concentration or sterility, and FDA noted that different salts and derivatives, including different active molecules, are sold under the same name. Our reconstitution calculator is built for prescribed vials whose label states the amount of drug.

+−Can a doctor prescribe DSIP in the US?

Not legally through a pharmacy. DSIP (emideltide) has never been an approved drug, and on July 24, 2026 FDA's Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee voted 6 to 7, with one abstention, against adding it to the list of substances pharmacies may compound. A prescription cannot create a legal source, and every DSIP product sold in the United States is an unapproved drug.

Sources

1. StudySchneider-Helmert D et al. Acute and delayed effects of DSIP (delta sleep-inducing peptide) on human sleep behavior. Int J Clin Pharmacol Ther Toxicol 1981;19:341-5. (1981)
2. StudySchneider-Helmert D, Schoenenberger GA. Effects of DSIP in man. Multifunctional psychophysiological properties besides induction of natural sleep. Neuropsychobiology 1983;9:197-206. (1983)
3. StudySchneider-Helmert D. Efficacy of DSIP to normalize sleep in middle-aged and elderly chronic insomniacs. Eur Neurol 1986;25:448-53. (1986)
4. StudySchneider-Helmert D. Effects of delta-sleep-inducing peptide on 24-hour sleep-wake behaviour in severe chronic insomnia. Eur Neurol 1987;27:120-9. (1987)
5. StudyMonti JM et al. Study of delta sleep-inducing peptide efficacy in improving sleep on short-term administration to chronic insomniacs. Int J Clin Pharmacol Res 1987;7:105-10. (1987)
6. StudyBes F et al. Effects of delta sleep-inducing peptide on sleep of chronic insomniac patients. A double-blind study. Neuropsychobiology 1992;26:193-7. (1992)
7. StudySpäth-Schwalbe E et al. Delta-sleep-inducing peptide does not affect CRH and meal-induced ACTH and cortisol secretion. Psychoneuroendocrinology 1995;20:231-7. (1995)
8. RegulatoryFDA. Briefing document for emideltide-related bulk drug substances (emideltide free base and emideltide acetate), Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee meeting of July 23-24, 2026. (2026)