Spray-and-sleep idea has Indiegogo backers eager to rise

(Medical Xpress)—We know that adequate sleep is one of the most important paths to good health. We also know that any indiscriminate use of pills to help us sleep is one of the biggest health risks we can take. A group from Palo Alto believes they have a better path. Spray a melatonin recipe on your neck and sleep happens. Their solution is called Sprayable Sleep, a spray bottle that the person can use by just misting on the neck a couple of times at a go, about an hour before the user hopes to fall asleep.

Sprayable Sleep comes from a company called Sprayable. Its two cofounders are Ben Yu, who studied biochemistry at Harvard, and Deven Soni, with a background as VC investor. Chongxi Yu, PhD, serves as chief scientific advisor; his field is bioorganic chemistry. Yoshi Luk is the company's design lead. Palo Alto-based Sprayable is based at Stanford, incubated at Stanford's StartX Startup Incubator. What's in the spray? Water, tyrosine, a derivative of a natural amino acid, and melatonin, the natural hormone that regulates your circadian rhythm. Each bottle has 30 uses of the colorless, unscented spray.

If melatonin already occurs in our bodies, why need any assistance? Ben Yu said that if you did want to leverage melatonin naturally, you would best get up at sunrise and go to bed at sunset and avoid all artificial light. This, however, would be a fool's waking dream for millions inundated by electronics as part of their surroundings. Because of all the unnatural light in our environment, he added (as from televisions, smartphones, and lightbulbs) our bodies produce melatonin later in the evenings and there may not be enough built-in melatonin in a person's system to support sleep when needed.

They have been developing, testing, patenting and perfecting Sprayable Sleep for over two years and now have turned to crowdfunding on Indiegogo to bring the spray forward. Interestingly, the group's funding goal was $15,000 but at the time of this writing $162,291 was raised, and with 28 days still to go. Said Yu to backers: "We're just amazed at the support from all of you, and wanted to take this moment to celebrate and thank all of you."

A $15 pledge gets a silver-colored bottle with 60 sprays – 30 uses—with delivery in the US targeted for July and internationally in August. On the site's FAQ page, the question is posted about whether it is safe for use for pregnant women. "At the present time," they answered, "there is isn't enough data to conclusively establish the safety of melatonin for pregnant women. As such we don't recommend Sprayable Sleep by anyone who is pregnant." Asked a similar question regarding children, they answered, "Like above, there just isn't enough research to conclusively establish the safety of melatonin in children, either. As such, we don't recommend the use of Sprayable Sleep by anyone under the age of 18."