Peptides for Sleep: What Is Actually Prescribed and What It Costs

Sleep is not one state. It runs in cycles of roughly ninety minutes, each moving through light sleep, slow-wave sleep (also called deep sleep or N3) and REM. Deep sleep is concentrated in the first half of the night, REM in the second half, which is why an early night and a late night of equal length are not equivalent.

The largest natural growth-hormone pulse of the day occurs shortly after sleep onset, inside that first block of slow-wave sleep. GH output falls with age, and so does the share of the night spent in deep sleep. That is the whole reason GH-axis peptides appear in a sleep conversation: they are timed to a pulse that already exists rather than added as a sedative on top. It also explains the usual patient description, that sleep feels heavier rather than that it arrives faster. A 1998 review in Sleep laid out the coupling: sleep onset itself triggers the pulse even when bedtime is shifted, and the same hypothalamic releasing hormone drives both.

A 2000 study in JAMA pooled sleep recordings and hormone profiles from 149 healthy men aged sixteen to eighty-three. Slow-wave sleep fell steeply between young adulthood and midlife and growth hormone secretion fell in parallel; later in life the change was different, with more fragmented sleep, less REM and higher evening cortisol. The loss of deep sleep and the loss of the overnight growth hormone pulse are one event seen from two sides, and most of it happens before fifty.

"Bad sleep" usually means one of two things: a night that is too light and too broken, or a nervous system that will not stand down at lights-out or fires at three in the morning. The animal work on DSIP is built around the second picture. A 1985 paper in Neuroendocrinology reported that intravenous DSIP reduced the corticosterone release triggered by corticotropin-releasing factor in rats, and a 2001 paper in Stress found it reduced stress-induced activation in the hypothalamus and septum of rats. Selank is in the SERENITY Blend for the same reason: for many people the bedtime problem is arousal.

None of the above matters if the night is being interrupted mechanically. Obstructive sleep apnea fragments sleep dozens of times an hour without the sleeper knowing it; evening alcohol, caffeine after midday, a wake time that moves by hours across the week and an overnight blood-sugar swing all degrade deep sleep faster than any vial improves it. A physician's first job is to sort the complaint, because the peptides on this page address only one bucket.

Delta sleep-inducing peptide is a nine-amino-acid peptide first isolated in the 1970s from the cerebral venous blood of rabbits during induced sleep, which is where the name comes from. Research describes it as involved in sleep regulation and stress-response signalling, not as a sedative. The reported effects concern sleep architecture, meaning how the night is distributed between stages, rather than how long it takes to fall asleep.

The defining observation is a 1977 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: infused into rabbit brains, the synthetic peptide increased delta-wave and spindle activity, the EEG signatures of deep non-REM sleep. A 2006 review in the Journal of Neurochemistry called DSIP "a still unresolved riddle," because no receptor and no gene encoding it has ever been found. The FDA lists it under its international name, emideltide.

It is the only peptide here named for sleep, and also the one where the evidence is thinnest: the human studies are small, old and inconsistent. An honest prescriber says that out loud. The directions are to inject 0.25 mL (25 units) subcutaneously Monday through Friday nights at bedtime; bloodwork is not routinely required. DSIP suits light, broken sleep with a clear stress component, once apnea has been excluded. The full reference is what is DSIP.

SERENITY Blend is four independently studied peptides — DSIP, Selank, CJC-1295 and ipamorelin — compounded together in one multi-dose vial. The combination has never been studied as a combination; every evidence question about SERENITY Blend is four questions about its parts. The rationale prescribers give is that a bad night has more than one cause: DSIP for the shape of sleep and the stress axis, Selank for the anxiety carried into the evening, CJC-1295 and ipamorelin for the overnight growth hormone pulse. Bedtime is the one time of day at which all four rationales point the same way. By mass the SERENITY Blend is mostly a secretagogue preparation, and the ratio is fixed by the formulation. The directions are to inject 0.25 mL (25 units) subcutaneously Monday through Friday nights at bedtime; bloodwork is commonly required before prescribing because of the GH-axis components. It is the usual first prescription for the person who sleeps seven or eight hours and wakes unrefreshed, with stress on top. The full reference is what is SERENITY Blend.

CJC-1295 / Ipamorelin pairs two growth hormone secretagogues that act through different receptors on the same pituitary cell. CJC-1295 is a modified fragment of growth-hormone-releasing hormone that binds the GHRH receptor; the form generally used in compounded blends is the short-acting version without the albumin-binding drug affinity complex, which is why it is dosed daily. Ipamorelin binds the ghrelin receptor. The 1998 paper in the European Journal of Endocrinology that characterised ipamorelin titled it "the first selective growth hormone secretagogue," because in animal models it released growth hormone without raising ACTH, cortisol or prolactin, which matters at bedtime; a 1999 study in Pharmaceutical Research reported dose-dependent release in human volunteers.

What is known in humans about CJC-1295 comes from the long-acting DAC form: a 2006 trial in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism reported dose-dependent rises in growth hormone and IGF-1 in healthy adults, with the pituitary's pulsatile pattern preserved. No published trial of CJC-1295 / Ipamorelin, or of either component, has sleep as an endpoint. The directions are to inject 0.25 mL (25 units) subcutaneously once daily Monday through Friday on an empty stomach; it is also available as a pre-filled pepti Pen cartridge. It suits shallow sleep alongside slow recovery from training, where the GH axis is the main conversation and stress is not. The full reference is what is CJC-1295 / Ipamorelin.

Sermorelin is the first twenty-nine amino acids of growth-hormone-releasing hormone, closer to the native signal than CJC-1295 and shorter acting. It has a history nothing else on this page shares: sermorelin acetate was the active ingredient of an FDA-approved drug, Geref, for two decades. Growth hormone works largely through IGF-1 made in the liver, which is the marker a physician tracks on labs. The differences between the two GHRH analogues are covered in CJC-1295 vs sermorelin.

Sermorelin also has the closest thing to bedtime-specific human data here. A 1997 study in Metabolism gave single nightly injections of GHRH(1-29) — sermorelin — to healthy elderly men for six weeks and reported increased growth hormone and IGF-1, and a 1992 study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism reported twice-daily GHRH(1-29) raising the low GH and IGF-1 levels of old men. Neither was designed around sleep. The directions are to inject 0.25 mL (25 units) subcutaneously Monday through Friday nights; bloodwork is commonly required, and it comes as a vial or a Pen cartridge. The full reference is what is sermorelin.

Ipamorelin + Sermorelin is the same two-signal logic as CJC-1295 / Ipamorelin — a GHRH-receptor agonist and a ghrelin-receptor agonist converging on one pulse — built on the sermorelin side. Prescribers reach for Ipamorelin + Sermorelin when they want the shorter-acting GHRH analogue with the formerly approved history plus ipamorelin's selectivity. The directions are to inject 0.25 mL (25 units) subcutaneously Monday through Friday nights at bedtime, and bloodwork is commonly required. No trial has studied the pair together, and none has measured sleep. The full reference is what is Ipamorelin + Sermorelin.

Selank is a synthetic heptapeptide: tuftsin, a natural immune-signalling fragment, with a three-amino-acid tail added to slow its breakdown. Russian research describes it modulating GABAergic and serotonergic signalling and affecting brain-derived neurotrophic factor, with anxiolytic effects reported without benzodiazepine-style sedation. A 2018 paper in Protein and Peptide Letters described Selank as a positive allosteric modulator of the GABA-A receptor in rat brain membranes, and a 2001 paper in the Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine reported it inhibiting the enzymes that degrade enkephalins.

Selank is not a sleep peptide in the strict sense. It earns its place in a sleep blend, and as a standalone prescription for a mind that will not switch off at bedtime, because for many people the obstacle is arousal. The injectable directions are 0.25 mL (25 units) subcutaneously once daily Monday through Friday; a Selank nasal spray exists for people who would rather not inject. Bloodwork is not routinely required. The full reference is what is Selank.

Epithalon is a synthetic tetrapeptide, Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly, modelled on a pineal gland extract, and it comes up in sleep conversations because of its circadian claims. The research is limited, comes largely from a single group, and is routinely overstated online. The circadian thread is real but mostly animal: a 2001 paper in the Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine reported Epithalon affecting melatonin and cortisol rhythms in old monkeys, and a 2003 study in the Journal of Endocrinological Investigation reported it changing melatonin secretion by the pineal gland of old rats.

Pitched as a sleep fix, Epithalon is ahead of its data. The directions are to inject 0.25 mL (25 units) subcutaneously once daily Monday through Friday; bloodwork is not routinely required. It is priced on its cost page. The full reference is what is Epithalon.

This is where the human data for the whole category sits, and it is unusual for a compounded peptide: there are randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies of DSIP in people. They are small, old, intravenous and split.

The first appeared in the Lancet in 1981: six middle-aged chronic insomniacs received an intravenous infusion or placebo before bed in a crossover design, and the authors reported longer sleep with fewer interruptions and no daytime sedation. A 1986 paper in European Neurology summarised further double-blind work from the same group. Two independent groups did not agree: a 1987 crossover study in the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology Research found no significant difference from placebo nights, and a 1992 study of sixteen chronic insomniacs in Neuropsychobiology found higher sleep efficiency but concluded that short-term treatment was not likely to be of major therapeutic benefit. Neither found slow-wave sleep itself increased, and none of the work used the subcutaneous route that is prescribed today.

The link between growth-hormone-releasing hormone and deep sleep is not a marketing invention. A 1992 study in Neuroendocrinology gave repeated intravenous pulses of GHRH to healthy young men during the night and reported more slow-wave sleep, more growth hormone and lower cortisol, with somatostatin producing the opposite pattern. A 1993 study in the American Journal of Physiology, titled "sleep-promoting effects of growth hormone-releasing hormone in normal men," reported the same direction of effect when GHRH was given in the early part of the night. A 2004 review in Sleep Medicine Reviews, "GHRH and sleep," pulled together two decades of animal and human work supporting a role for GHRH in promoting non-REM sleep.

The record is not one-sided. A 1998 study in the American Journal of Physiology was titled "evidence against a role for the growth hormone-releasing peptide axis in human slow-wave sleep regulation": a ghrelin-receptor agonist of the same class as ipamorelin raised growth hormone in healthy men without changing slow-wave sleep. The one week-long trial of an oral secretagogue that did report better sleep, a 1997 study in Neuroendocrinology of MK-677, used a molecule that is not a compounded product — it currently sits in Category 2 of the FDA's 503A list — and is not something Pepti supplies.

So the honest summary for CJC-1295 / Ipamorelin, sermorelin and Ipamorelin + Sermorelin is this: GHRH itself has controlled human studies showing more slow-wave sleep when given intravenously overnight; the ghrelin-receptor side has a controlled study that found no sleep effect; and none of the compounded products has been the subject of a published trial with sleep as the endpoint.

Selank has controlled human trials, but they are small, Russian, compared against an active benzodiazepine rather than placebo, and not described as randomised or blinded. A 2008 paper in the Korsakov Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry treated sixty-two patients with generalised anxiety disorder or neurasthenia with Selank or medazepam and reported a similar anxiolytic effect, describing Selank as mildly activating rather than sedating. A 2014 paper in the same journal compared it with phenazepam in sixty patients. A 2021 review in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology characterised Selank as poorly studied outside its country of origin. None of the trials measured sleep.

Every human circadian result attributed to Epithalon online should be checked against what was actually given. The 2004 elderly-subjects melatonin study and the geroprotection follow-ups from the same group used epithalamin, the pineal extract, not the tetrapeptide. The FDA's reviewers, preparing for the July 2026 advisory committee, found no effectiveness evidence for insomnia; the committee voted the other way, which is covered below.

There are no randomised controlled trials of any of these compounded products with sleep as the endpoint, and there are no randomised human trials of subcutaneous DSIP at all. What exists is: small placebo-controlled intravenous DSIP studies in chronic insomniacs from 1981 to 1992 with split results; controlled overnight infusion studies of GHRH in healthy young men that reported more slow-wave sleep; a controlled study of a ghrelin-receptor agonist that did not; human hormone-release trials for CJC-1295 and ipamorelin and long-term endocrine trials for sermorelin, none of which measured sleep; and small Russian comparator trials of intranasal Selank for anxiety. There is also a substantial body of prescriber experience, which is real but is not a trial.

That does not make the category useless; a great deal of prescribing rests on mechanism plus clinical experience. But the honest framing is "described in physiology and small older human studies, and used clinically," not "proven for sleep." Any source telling you otherwise is overselling it.

• It does not establish that subcutaneous DSIP at bedtime does what intravenous infusion did in the 1980s. Nobody has run that trial.
• It does not establish that a bedtime GH secretagogue increases slow-wave sleep in adults. The GHRH studies used overnight intravenous pulses in young men, not a subcutaneous injection before bed in a fifty-year-old.
• It does not establish an effect size or a timeline. The timelines later on this page are prescriber experience, not trial endpoints.
• It does not establish that four peptides together do more than one alone. No study has compared SERENITY Blend with its components.
• It does not establish long-term safety over years of continuous use.
• It does not establish efficacy for any condition as an FDA-approved treatment. None of these is approved for anything.

On 15 April 2026 the FDA announced the removal of twelve peptides from Category 2 of its interim 503A bulk drug substances list — the category for nominated substances flagged as raising significant safety risks — effective about a week later, and scheduled its Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee to review several of them. The FDA was explicit that removal from Category 2 does not by itself place a substance on the 503A bulks list or into Category 1. The FDA's safety-risks page, current as of 22 April 2026, now lists emideltide, epitalon, Selank acetate, CJC-1295 and ipamorelin acetate under "bulk drug substances nominated but withdrawn." The 503A category list as updated 14 May 2026 carries none of the peptides on this page in Category 1, 2 or 3; Category 2 is down to six substances — cesium chloride, domperidone, germanium sesquioxide, ibutamoren mesylate, kisspeptin-10 and quinacrine for intrauterine use.

The FDA brought emideltide to its Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee on 24 July 2026, evaluated for opioid withdrawal, chronic insomnia and narcolepsy. The committee voted 6 in favour, 7 against, with 1 abstention, and so did not recommend adding emideltide to the 503A Bulks List. It was the only one of the seven peptides considered that week — BPC-157, KPV, TB-500, MOTS-c, epitalon, semax and emideltide — not to receive a favourable vote. A committee vote is advice, not a decision; the FDA issues its own determination afterwards, and as of September 2026 it has not. DSIP is not in Category 2, is not on the bulks list, and continues to be prescribed and dispensed by state-licensed pharmacies pursuant to a prescription. It is not an FDA-approved drug.

Epitalon was discussed on the morning of 24 July 2026, evaluated for the proposed use of insomnia as a subcutaneous injection. The committee voted 7–4, with one abstention, to recommend adding Epitalon to the 503A Bulks List, against the position of the FDA's own reviewers. The FDA's final determination is pending, and no proposed rule has been published.

Selank acetate was placed in Category 2 in September 2023 and came off it a year later, when the FDA recorded that the nominator had intended to nominate a different substance. It now sits among substances "nominated but withdrawn," appears in no category on the 14 May 2026 list, and was not on the July 2026 agenda. It has never been evaluated by the advisory committee.

Both components of CJC-1295 / Ipamorelin went through the committee in full. On 29 October 2024 the committee considered ipamorelin, evaluated for growth hormone deficiency and post-operative ileus, and voted 0 yes, 12 no, 1 abstain against adding the free base, and the same against the acetate. At its December 2024 meeting the committee considered the CJC-1295 family, evaluated for growth hormone deficiency, and voted 0–13 against CJC-1295 free base and 1–12 against the acetate; the DAC forms were each voted against 0–13. Both nominations were subsequently withdrawn; the FDA's safety-risks page lists both as "nominated but withdrawn," and the 14 May 2026 list shows neither in any 503A category. One detail is easy to misread: ipamorelin acetate remains in Category 2 under the separate 503B policy for outsourcing facilities, a listing dated 29 September 2023, which is a different pathway from the 503A pharmacy compounding of a patient-specific prescription.

The committee evaluates a substance for the specific uses in its nomination package against the approved drugs that already exist for them. Its vote is not a finding that a peptide is unsafe at prescribed doses, and it is not a ban.

Sermorelin acetate was the active ingredient of Geref, held by EMD Serono: the diagnostic presentation (NDA 19-863) was approved on 28 December 1990 and the treatment presentation for growth hormone deficiency in children (NDA 20-443) on 26 September 1997. EMD Serono notified the FDA in December 2008 that it was discontinuing both. On 4 March 2013 the FDA published a Federal Register determination that both Geref products "were not withdrawn from sale for reasons of safety or effectiveness," after reviewing its files and the post-marketing adverse-event data. Drugs@FDA lists the application as discontinued. Sermorelin is not on the 503A category lists at all. A compounded sermorelin vial is still not an approved product, but the active ingredient has an FDA safety and effectiveness record behind it that nothing else on this page has. The plain-English version of all of the above is in are peptides FDA approved.

The 2026 WADA Prohibited List places growth hormone releasing factors in section S2, prohibited at all times, and names them: "growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) and its analogues (e.g. CJC-1293, CJC-1295, sermorelin and tesamorelin)" and "growth hormone secretagogues (GHS) and their mimetics [e.g. anamorelin, capromorelin, ibutamoren (MK-677), ipamorelin, …]." So CJC-1295 / Ipamorelin, sermorelin, Ipamorelin + Sermorelin and SERENITY Blend are all prohibited for tested athletes in and out of competition. DSIP, Selank and Epithalon are not named on the list; a tested athlete should still check the current list for their sport and tell their physician before starting anything.

Snoring, witnessed pauses in breathing, a dry mouth or headache on waking and a very sleepy afternoon add up to obstructive sleep apnea until proven otherwise. It is common, under-diagnosed, and it produces exactly the complaint this page is about by mechanically interrupting the night. No peptide substitutes for a sleep study, and a physician asked for a sleep peptide by someone describing those symptoms should send them for one first.

If the problem is lying awake for an hour, or a schedule that drifts later every night, the diagnosis is usually insomnia disorder or a circadian timing problem. The first-line treatment for insomnia is cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, which has the strongest evidence in the field and is not a medication. These peptides are not sedatives and are not aimed at sleep onset.

Evening alcohol, caffeine after midday and an inconsistent wake time are the three most common reasons a night is shallow. Beta-blockers, corticosteroids, some antidepressants and stimulants all change sleep architecture. A physician reviews the full medication list on your intake for this reason.

Hyperthyroidism, low iron with restless legs, overnight blood-sugar swings and the hormonal transitions of perimenopause and menopause each fragment sleep and each has its own workup; at-home blood testing covers the thyroid, metabolic and hormone markers without a lab visit. Anxiety and depression both disturb sleep and are treated directly rather than through a sleep peptide. Selank overlaps with signalling a psychiatrist may already be managing, which is why existing psychiatric medication is on the caution list below.