Modafinil: Stay Awake and Alert For Days?
January 20th, 2006
If you are a hardcore sleephacker, you may be interested in the drug Modafinil, also known as Provigil.
According to GizMag.com, the drug’s manufacturers claim that:
Modafinil improves memory, and enhances one’s mood, alertness and cognitive powers. The drug has a smoother feel than amphetamines and enables the user to stay awake and alert for 40 hours or more. Once the drug wears off, you just have to catch up on some sleep.
Test on military fighter pilots (the armed forces are quite interested in this med) show that on long flight missions, pilots taking Modafinil begin to dramatically improve performance compared to non-medicated pilots at about 25 hours of wakefulness, hitting peak benefit at around 33 hours. The benefit continues on past the 40-hour mark.
Provigil/Modafinil was invented by the french in the late 1970’s but only maketed in the US starting in 1998. It has some uses for ADHD, narcolepsy and some other sleep disorders, but not Chronic Fatigue.
The ethics of using this medicine for purposes of productivity, as the military intends, seem to be a grey area, but we would advise against recreational use.
Read More:
Modafinil - the time-shifting drug [GizMag]
Modafinil [WikiPedia]
Modafinil Fact Sheet [MedLine Plus]
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Entry Filed under: Caffeine, Freaky, General Health, Sleep
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3 Comments Add your own
1. MisterTut | January 24th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
I can’t help but notice that someone in Turkey is visiting this article multiple times every day.
Very interesting…
2. Levi Wallach | February 24th, 2006 at 11:45 am
Hmmm, why do I see this as the next big ellicit drug amongst college students (even HS students?) both for cramming as well as staying up during all night raves and not worrying about getting to class the next day? I bet you as with every drug like this that helps productivity on the front end, there’s gotta be some consequences on the backend. In other words what comes up must come down. Maybe in order to get back to moderate hoerence you need to sleep for 20 hours straight?
3. psychosis related to Provigil | February 20th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
“…advise against recreational use.” I liked that. Very responsible of you to say that. Provigil, being a stimulant, is prone to be abused. Add to that the fact that it is accessible to almost everyone. psychosis related to Provigil use have been evident on several studies and this is likely to happen in large doses and prolonged use of the drug.
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