From: matus@matus1976.com
Date: Thu May 08 2003 - 23:51:03 MDT
> matus@matus1976.com wrote,
> > "The development of modafinil brings to light a crucial social question.
> > What would be the impediment for its use, if a compound such as
> > modafinil is
> > more like caffeine than amphetamine in terms of safety, and yet, as
> > effective as the amphetamines?"
> >
> > from - http://www.modafinil.info
> >
> > I would suggest contemplating trying modafinil (aka Provigil). This has
> > been mentioned on the list before, its probably the 1st drug that taken
> > regularly could reduce the need and desire for sleep. I have
> > been taking it
> > for some time now, and find it quite effective. If you are
> looking for a
> > way to stay awake and alert throughout the day, this might be an optimal
> > choice.
> >
>
>
> I would be very interested in hearing your experiences with this.
> How many
> hours do you sleep per day while on this drug? How do you feel? Have you
> noticed any fatigue, mental dullness, or lack of physical energy?
> For what
> purpose are you taking this drug; to reduce the number hours of sleep
> required, or to combat sleepiness during the day?
>
I have been taking this off and on for probably about four months now. For
about a month straight, I was working a 40 hour/week daytime job, a 20 hour
per week evening job, and another 10 - 20 hours on personal projects.
During this time, my typical day consisted of working from 7am to 5 pm
(including commute), then 3 - 4hours each evening from home on the computer,
then 2 - 3 hours on project work. Another hour or two of miscellaneous
computer work, and I would hit the sack around 3 - 5 am. Getting up at 7
again the next morning. 1 100mg modafinil tab kept me awake and alert
throughout the 8 hour workshift, even kept me up during boring corporate
meetings in stuffy board rooms that would normally knock me out even with a
full nights sleep. Taking only 1 pill per day in this manner I would
usually end up 1 evening each week taking a 2 or 3 hour nap. Before taking
modafinil, I would be very tired throughout the day even with a good 7 - 8
hours of sleep each night, often having trouble staying awake during
meetings and on the drive home (very dangerous, I highly recommend anyone
who has trouble staying awake driving to pull over right away, its the
leading cause of vehiclular accidents and death behind chemical alterations
AFAIK)
My 40hour week job ended, and I discontinued this pattern, taking it only on
late nights or long drives. For these, it is phenomenal at keeping one
awake, and causes no jitteryness or loss of memory or shortening attention
span like caffiene does.
Recently my various work has required more time, and I decided to try the
modafinil every 8 hours, which is what is required to singificanly impact
the need for sleep (taking 1 each day, I still seemed to require a little
bit of 'catch up' sleep, though not as much as if I was taking none at all).
For two weeks I was taking it every 8 hours, and going on less than four
hours a sleep each night, pulling 2 all nighters in that time. As far as I
could tell, none of this impacted me negatively, some of the following
mornings I was doing heavy physical labor helping a friend clear a lot where
he is building a new house, which including cutting down trees with
chainsaws and various other rather dangerous work when going on very little
sleep, my ability to perform these functions did not appear to be affected
whatsoever. My non-extropic friend was quite surprised to hear of my lack
of sleep for the previous week.
Unfortunately, I ran out of pills. Modafinil is not a cheap drug, without
health insurance coverage itll run you ~$5.00 per pill. Before my 2 week
experiement and post my hectic 70hour schedule I resolved to take it only
while doing productive things. No staying up all night watching the history
channel or playing video games. I was interested in seeing it run out so I
could again compare my modafinil behavior with my regular behavior, I became
much more aware of the normal daytime drowsiness and sleepyiness I would
feel two or three times each day without any modafinil. I experience no
daytime sleepiness while using it.
The major clinical studies done on this which produced significant sleep
reduction were 200mg every 8 hours for days on end, this would amount to $30
per day modafinil habit. Perhaps if I was in a higher income bracket I
could normally swing this. Those studies reported individuals going 2 or 3
days straight with no sleep, no concentration problems, and no jitterness or
microsleep episodes. With just 1 100mg tablet every 8 hours, I could pretty
much cut my sleep requirements in half, with no ill effects (that I know
of). I plan on expirmenting with using other, cheaper stimulates (caffiene
primarily) to boost my wakefullness during my normal wakefull hours, and
hopefully have nearly the same effect as the 3 100 mg tabs every 8 hours,
but go on 2 100mg tabs and 1 200mg caffiene tabs, then sleeping 4 hours. I
did find I could have pulled more all nighters during my 3 tab per day
trial, but pyschologically I become *very* unmotivated during some of those
late evenings, I think I needed to have a psychological seperation between
the days, and would be perfectly willing to get right up 4 hours later and
put another 12 - 16 hours into whatever I needed to do that day.
I did not seem to experience any negative mental effects, seemed just as
able to remember old things and learn new things. My phsycial energy seemed
fine as well, no less than normal (aside from sleepiness, physical energy in
reference to capability to do something before muscle tiring or exhaustion)
Although I would note that the general feeling of fatigued body and muscles
was present, but just barely. Its hard to explain, its like staying up a
day straight and working hard, then getting 2 - 4 hours a sleep, and having
to get up again. The exhaustion and lack of concentration was not there on
modafinil, but there was some 'remnant' achyness and soreness, though not
significant. Im not sure if this would build up with continual use, and the
extent of this seemed to diminish to barely noticable to my 2 week 3 tab/day
trial. It was much more noticable during my initial usage, the 1 tab/day
while working 70 hours per week.
To answer your purposefullness question, you hit my two primary reasons. I
would like to require less sleep, as I see we spend 1/3rd of our lives
sleeping, needing less sleep would result in a practical life extension,
increasing my number of subjective wakefull people hours experienced. I
noticed this accutely when I realized half of my wakefull hours saw my
girlfriend asleep, and I realized how much I was doing while she was
sleeping. Over the two week period, I experienced probably 3 more days of
awake time than she did. However, as I noted, I seemed to often need a
psychological seperation between the days, though this may be something
someone could overcome. If not a practical reduction in sleep needs, at the
very least, this would help to keep me awake and alert throughout the day
when I would normally experience many boughts of drowsiness. Admittedly It
would be better if I was in better shape, and combining optimal health with
modifinl might result in a significant reduction in required sleep time.
One may need the continued 200mg 3times /day dosage to singificantly reduce
required sleep, but I dont know what the extended long term consequences of
this would be. I did experience a few seconds on two different occurances
during my two week trial of wakefull hullicinations, no idea if this would
get worse with a higher dosage / less sleep.
Modafinil is a strange drug, it doesnt *keep* you awake like caffiene and
other stimulants and you can sleep while taking it regularly, if you want
to. It seems to reduce the bodies demand for sleep, but will not keep you
from sleeping.
My girlfriend, who due to a Thyroid disorder, normally requires 8 - 10 hours
sleep now regularly gets 6 - 8 hours and takes 1/2 of a 100mg tablet each
day. She also reports that modafinil acts as a mild appetite suppressent
(cant say if it had this affect on me) and a mild mood enhancer.
Thus concludes my very subjective single data point clinical trial of
Modafinil. Hope that helps in your decision to use / not use modafinil.
Michael Dickey
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