Mind Wars
The legal, ethical, and social implications of neuroscience.
by Jonathan D. Moreno, Ph.D
Stay Awake, Comrades
The Chinese Army's Anti-Sleep Pill
Published on April 15, 2012 by Jonathan D. Moreno, Ph.D in
Mind Wars
Are you losing sleep over America’s competition with China
for global dominance? Not to worry. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has a
pill that will keep you feeling well, alert and comfortable for 72 hours. So at
least while you’re not sleeping you can be productive.
In a little-noticed announcement last fall, the PLA
proclaimed that it has developed an anti-sleep pill called Night Eagle.
Apparently the putative communists/state capitalists haven’t mastered the
Madison Avenue branding arts: “Night Eagle” seems better suited for an erectile
dysfunction treatment than an aid for pulling all-nighters. (Though one could
imagine a functional connection.)
The little blue pill’s unveiling came as part of the Academy
of Military Medical Sciences’ 60thanniversary celebration, but with no word on
its ingredients. Nonetheless, the formulation is almost certainly less
revolutionary than it might seem within loyal party cadres. In the U.S. a drug
called modafinil (marketed as Provigil), has been around for decades, approved
by the Food and Drug Administration as effective in the treatment of
narcolepsy. Controlled studies have shown that modafinil not only helps
patients with sleep disorders but can keep people with normal sleep cycles
awake and alert for days. Physicians have long prescribed modafinil “off-label”
for insomniacs, shift workers, long-haul truck drivers and travelers who have
to cross time zones. However, the risks of long-term use are unknown. One would
surely be ill-advised to routinely try to forego the body’s fundamental need
for sleep.
Of course warfighters have good reason to seek help in
staying awake. Fatigue is a principle source of error in combat zones, where
long periods of boredom are punctuated with seconds of chaos. Extending the period of useful wakefulness
among soldiers has long been a dream of military commanders. The Prussian army
experimented with cocaine (but then so did everyone else), and 20th century
armies have relied on nicotine, caffeine and, more recently, amphetamines. A
number of armed forces use modafinil, including the U.S., British and French.
Reading between the lines, the PLA’s pride in Night Eagle
suggests a desire to demonstrate China’s capacity in pharmaceutical
development. However, The People’s Republic’s aggressive industrial policy is
frequently accused of violating intellectual property rules by deconstructing
and re-engineering products developed elsewhere. It happens that as of last
month the generic drug giant Teva has been granted exclusive rights to
modafinil, which has just gone off-patent, and the company is trying to capture
part of the rapidly growing Chinese market for all medications. Night Eagle
might fly into competition with modafinil, and it is almost certainly a
remarkably similar formula.
Of course, the great irony in all this is the urgency of the
competitive relationship between the two countries, which might soon be
battling over a sleep gap. No less a prophet than Karl Marx himself would be
surprised at the easy availability of sleep suppressants for the laboring
classes. Certainly his great work, Das Kapital, predicted no such thing even as
it foretold the inevitable collapse of capitalism.
Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but a
good night’s sleep! And a world of wakefulness to win.
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