Don’t sleep on taking some crap.
“Poop pills” have been an innovative way to potentially treat various ailments, from preventing peanut allergies to advanced cancer and liver disease.
Now, struggling insomniacs may find relief with a “crapsule” before bedtime, according to new research from China.
Insomnia often stems from a combination of factors, such as stress, daily habits, sleep schedule, health issues and more.
Emerging research has found another culprit, indicating the gut microbiome may play an important role in how well we sleep.
A poop transplant — otherwise known as a fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) — improved chronic insomnia in several adults, according to a small study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.
Recruiting 80 adults with long-term insomnia, half of the participants were first given two days of antibiotics to clear out existing gut bacteria.
They then received 60 FMT capsules containing gut bacteria isolated from fecal samples of healthy donors who were deemed good sleepers, with a booster dose of 20 capsules two weeks later.
Researchers used an overnight sleep assessment called a polysomnography that records brain waves, eye movements, heart rate, oxygen levels and breathing patterns to determine how well participants slept.
Sleep efficiency — the percentage of time spent asleep while in bed — of the group taking the “crapsules” increased from 79% before the transplant to 93% after one month of treatment.
Meanwhile, the other half who took placebo pills experienced barely any increase in sleep efficiency, shifting from around 85% to only 87%.
The treated group also woke up less throughout the night, a key sign of insomnia, with time spent awake after falling asleep dropping from 79 to 17 minutes.
The placebo group’s sleep-wake time actually increased from 37 to 42 minutes.
The group treated with a fecal transplant continued to self-report improved sleep even up to six months after treatment.
While the findings are promising, the study group was small, with sleep only being measured once after one month of treatment.
Also, the incorporation of antibiotics makes the results of better sleep unclear as to how much influence the poop transplants had.
Overall, though, the findings of the study are in line with previous research suggesting a link between gut bacteria and sleep.
The gut and brain communicate in various ways, including via chemicals made by gut microbes that travel to the brain via the bloodstream, Kenji Hashimoto, a forensic mental health researcher who wasn’t involved with the study, explained to Live Science.
These chemicals may steer inflammation, stress responses and the body’s sleep-wake control.
On the other hand, disrupted sleep can also affect the gut microbiome, raising the question of which came first: unhealthy bacteria causing insomnia, or insomnia reshaping the microbiome?
While more research is needed to better understand the biology behind the improvements, the initial findings showed that “poop pills” continue to be an experimental approach for insomnia.
