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Modafinil / Provigil

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11:28 / 05.01.04

So what do the more techy types make of this then?

Loads of other info available on Google, but I always shake my head in amazement at these claims of 'no side effects' and 'new wonder drugs'...After all, heroin was prescribed as a 'no side effects' treatment for cocaine addiction, which itself was being prescribed to treat alcoholism etc. way back in the thicky ignorant days when all drugs were widely available and we weren't 'at war' with some of them.

What do peeps think of this potential for never having to sleep again? Surely it can't be good for you, can it? I love sleep.

Mmmmmnm. Sleeeeep.

[/homer]

13:01 / 05.01.04

I've heard of modafinil before. Apparently, it was developed as a narcolepsy treatment, but someone discovered that it can reduce the amount of sleep required by normal people. If I remember correctly, people who use it are supposed to be able to get by on five hours of sleep a night.

There are people who naturally only need an hour or two of sleep a night. So, I assume that it would be possible to develop a drug that simulated this condition for the rest of us. However, I haven't been able to find any primary sources on lifespan or mental health for this population.

I was planning on experimenting with modafinil on a starting schedule of five days every two months, and waiting to see if anything scary happened. However, I'm going to wait until I've done some more research before starting. If I find anything interesting, I'll post it here.

Cheap. Easy. Cruel.

14:59 / 05.01.04

I would be interested to hear your findings Thjatsi. When I was in college, I could run for weeks on end averaging three hours of sleep per night. I would love to be able to do that for just a week now. Keep me posted...

00:04 / 06.01.04

5 hours a night? No way. Last time I read about this here, it let you stay awake for 4 days solid. (Anyone watching Shattered?)

14:55 / 06.01.04

so... where's a reliable place to buy this thing, then?

20:27 / 07.04.04

I've done it. Its keen. Mental alertness and generally decent mood, but not in any way that made me feel "high". I found I could sleep on it, but was perfectly fine otherwise. Taken on a weekend drug binge, it substantially reduced hangover and other burn effects from everything else I abused myself with, though 3 days later I went down pretty hard to make up for it.

Its neat. I like it. It works pretty much as advertised.

03:01 / 08.04.04

REM behaviour disorder: a type of psychosis that develops, related to lack of REM sleep and lack of dreaming

If you don't sleep, you don't hit a REM cycle. If you don't have a REM cycle, you don't dream. If you don't dream periodically, you go crazy. Staying up for weeks on end doesn't look so appealing if I'm going to start wearing a stuffed monkey for a hat and trying to tightrope walk on telephone wires.

13:32 / 08.04.04

Let me just add that this by no means a "stay up for weeks" sort of drug. That's Meth

With this, I found I could sack out for a couple of hours to get the minimal rest I needed, and was perfectly alert and functional all weekend. It lated from about friday evening to sunday night, after which I went down pretty hard, but recovered quickly from after a full nights rest. My summary of it is that its great for a temporary boost, like for a weekend. But taken on a continual basis can not possibly be good for you.

Its really just an amphetemine. It doesn't magicly negate your need for sleep, it raises your overall adreneline levels (from one summary I read, and it seems to be the case) so you can function without it for longer, but not so much to make you psychotic. Its a mild, but long lasting boost. A bit like taking about 2mg of Aderall, but with 5 times the duration.

21:14 / 09.04.04

I first heard about this on techtv about a year and a half ago and I was so fascinated that I tried to write a screenplay around the concept of the drug. The main character would be a test subject for an early form of the drug but would find that because he didn't have sleep to reorganize his thoughts, he quickly developed all sorts of mental illness and eventually killed himself. I had to give it up because at the time I couldn't find any information on the drug. Now there's plenty of info on the drug, but if it's too late because the public will know about the whole thing soon. Goddamn.

02:33 / 12.04.04

*Smile, no side effects.... Hahahaha... I was on provigil for a really long time.. In fact, I just got off it a few weeks ago. So yea, it's definately almost speed...... Great drug if you're looking to take mild speed... Not so good if you're not. It will definately keep you awake... you can't go to sleep if you are jittery and nervous.. Lower doses keep ya awake w/o the shitty speedish reactions, but it's definately wierd....

18:32 / 12.04.04

My dad has to take Provigil to counteract the drowsiness side effect of his other medication. He reports a strong nausea side effect from Provigil - he can't even be a passenger in a car without vomiting (but he can drive). But maybe this is a reaction between medications? Is that an atypical side effect for Provigil.

21:43 / 23.04.04

I haven't had the nausia effect, nor seen it in anyone who took the stuff.

02:04 / 24.04.04

Generally speaking, "wonder drug" and "no side effects" are media constructs rather than pharmacological claims. They're no more reliable than "becoming a millionaire: made easy" or "organic viagra: break down walls with your cock".

00:56 / 23.11.06

Disclaimer: It's been about two years since I looked at the literature for this, and I'm writing this completely from memory. If you think I've made a mistake or have a question, let me know, and I'll do my best to respond to it.

WHAT IS IT?
As was mentioned above, modafinil is a relatively new drug that alleviates the effects of sleep deprivation. The thing that differentiates this drug from caffine or amphetamines is that it tends not to make the user feel wired, and doesn't appear to result in an accumulation of sleep debt. Sleep debt, in case you were wondering, is basically the effect that when you loose sleep, you're forced to pay it back at some point in the future. Modafinil seems to remove this need, while other drugs do not.

SIDE EFFECTS
As a general rule, using modafinil occasionally shouldn't be a problem for the short term. Somewhere around 10% of people get strange side effects, such as nausea, heart trouble, or severe anxiety. There's also a bit of concern over temperature regulation as modafinil seems to slightly increase temperature. I've looked at some of the studies that address this issue, and I think they're crap, since they didn't take into account the fact that it's normal to have a decrease in body temperature during sleep deprivation. As a result, it's not clear to me whether modafinil is actually increasing body temperature or if it is preventing the normal decrease in body temperature that occurs during sleep deprivation.

However, no one has any idea what using this drug for long periods of time would do to someone. The best long-term study I've seen was on nacroleptics who had been using modafinil for three years without any serious problems. However, their situation is obviously different from that of someone who would be taking it to avoid sleep entirely.

05:39 / 25.11.06

Just to respond to TeN's consideration on writing a story, don't fret, J.G Ballard already beat everyone to the punch with Manhole 69. Essentially a story about the terrific (in the true sense of the word) psychic damage sleeplessness provokes in a limited mammilian hardwiring. Taken from NYTIMES book review "...three volunteers have had their medullas meddled with, and they can now exist without sleep. They don't have to snooze their way 'through an eight-hour peep show of infantile erotica' every night. But all this wakefulness becomes a curse. 'Continual consciousness is more than the brain can stand.' The three volunteers shrink into themselves, behaving like stiff, wax-work dummies in their own dark sleep."