A nasal spray could help students remember more from those all-night cram sessions by reducing sleep deprivation’s negative effects like short-term memory loss, recent research has shown.

The nasal spray improved short-term memory in animal tests and the spray’s main component, Orexin-A, is a peptide found naturally in the brain, said Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency spokeswoman Jan Walker.

In studies, Orexin-A improved short-term memory, something that other research shows is negatively affected by sleep deprivation.

Though research on this particular nasal spray is in its early stages, and has not yet been tested on human beings and its side effects are unknown, scientists have tested Orexin-A on monkeys and received positive results, Walker said.

University of California at Los Angeles neuroscience researcher Jerome Siegel and his colleagues worked on the nasal spray and recently published a paper on their research results in the Journal of Neuroscience in December 2007, Walker said.

Despite the “success” of the drug in animal tests, Walker said DARPA has conducted the fundamental research of Orexin-A. She said the overall and side effects need to be addressed with clinical trials before the nasal spray could be generally available.

Walker said there is a difference between the nasal spray and other drugs containing research peptides, because research for the nasal spray “was not intending to show whether or not Orexin-A prevented or reduced sleepiness, but whether the substance ameliorated some of the cognitive deficits associated with sleep deprivation.”

Although there is less research on the use Orexin-A in nasal sprays, the peptide’s effects on sleep have been researched before, said Sleep Health Center Regional Medical Director Doug Kirsch.

“There is evidence that Orexin plays an important role in sleep,” he said. “When it is deficient, patients often develop narcolepsy.”

The stimulants used in medications to treat Attention Deficit Disorder or daytime sleep medications are from the amphetamine classifications and are used to improve alertness and offset the effects of lost sleep, Kirsch said. Such medications have been used by the Army, he said.

Kirsch said he thinks these medications are “effective,” but warned of the drugs’ side effects.

“The most effective treatment for sleepiness is to get enough sleep on a daily basis and to do the appropriate things to get enough sleep every night,” he said.