Natural Cure...

They (NativeRemedies.com) claim that "Using up-to-date scientific knowledge of insomnia and natural sleep patterns, SerenitePlus combines herbal and homeopathic remedies in a new and improved formula". Well, for keyword "Serenite" Medline returns 0 articles, the same for "SerenitePlus". Only one of its ingredients (Passiflora incarnata) has proven sedative effect. So my question is - where the heck is that so-called-up-to-date-science-knowledge?

...except the point is not to find a cure for insomnia, it's to keep you awake (and alert).

I find it interesting that the "shift work" clinical trial is being funded by DARPA. Clearly, there are certain advantages to having an Army of soldiers whose performance did not degrade with lack of sleep...or perhaps do not require sleep at all. I'm reminded of a discussion in which we debated acceptable methods to achieve effectiveness in a military... assuming no long-term ill effects, are there any ethical implications of drugging soldiers into a perpetually hyper-alert state in an effort to increase military efficiency? What if you do assume some lasting ill effects? Would it be acceptable to inflict a certain degree of harm on soldiers ("the few") if it would benefit the society they were sworn to protect ("the many")? If so, how much harm could be inflicted before crossing the threshold of unethical conduct?

On a side note, none of the studies mention how long the effects of the drug can be sustained - that is, could you continue to take the drug for days at a time? I'd like to know if a person taking this drug would still experience the hallucinations and such that accompany severe sleep deprivation of more than 72-96 hours or so. Even assuming that the drug forstalls the mental breakdown, I'd be interested to see how long the rest of the body can go without sleep.