If your theory is true, explain the fact that taking DHEA in the
early evening or at night will not wake you up, nor will it keep you
awake. Rather, it seems to enhance REM sleep in large enough doses.
According to your theory, if DHEA is "used up", replacing it will
stimulate you enough to wake you up.
Also, you don't go directly into slow wave sleep. You move through
several stages of sleep (I and II) before SWS. In addition, melatonin
does not immediately surge - it increases gradually into the evening and
night. There's no sudden large release, it's a bell curve more or less.
How are cocaine and caffeine related structurally? Bupropion and
cocaine inhibit dopamine reuptake - caffeine binds to the Adenosine
receptor. Methamphetamine is structurally very different from
cocaine, too.
There are no "pleasure centers" in the brain. Areas which are
involved in reinforcement of behavior (which might be considered
pleasure centers, although not accurately) are excited, not inhibited,
during behaviors which would be reinforced. Nicotine does not "relax"
the pleasure center. It may, however, reduce dopamine release in the
nucleus accumbens, but there's no good evidence for this. Of course
pleasure and stimulation are simultaneous, increased dopaminergic
activity occurs during reinforcement - since increased dopamine
transmission is a hallmark of antidepressant activity, this would make
sense. As would the fact that many stimulants (e.g. cocaine) increase
dopamine activity.
Yeah, the placebo effect is pretty strong in people. Show me a
double blind study instead of you trying it on yourself.
Andrew Ray
aray at emory.edu
Dep't. of Neurology
Emory University Neuroscience Program