Sleeping Through the Night Is Easier With Modafinil

Modafinil is an FDA-approved drug used to treat excessive sleepiness caused by narcolepsy, shift work sleep disorder, or obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome. It is also used off-label as a cognitive enhancer and has been shown to improve performance in healthy people during sleep deprivation.

 

Compared to placebo, modafinil (200, 400 mg) decreased errors on the Wisconsin Card Sort Test and interference on the Stroop Task in participants subjected to 85 hours of sleep deprivation.

 

Modafinil is a wakefulness-promoting agent

 

Modafinil Australia is a powerful cognitive enhancer that is FDA-approved to treat daytime sleepiness caused by conditions such as narcolepsy and shift work sleep disorder. It also can be used along with breathing devices to prevent excessive sleepiness caused by obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome.

 

Several double-blind placebo-controlled studies have shown that modafinil improves performance on a variety of cognitive tasks in healthy individuals. For example, one study of eight healthy subjects who were subjected to overnight sleep deprivation found that a single dose of modafinil 200 mg significantly reduced errors in the WCST and in a version of the Hayling sentence completion task, compared to placebo. This performance improvement was associated with activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and anterior cingulate cortex, as measured by fMRI.

 

Another study of narcolepsy patients treated with modafinil found that it was effective in reducing subjective and objective measures of excessive sleepiness and that it increased wakefulness during the day. This finding was consistent with the results of other double-blind, placebo-controlled studies of modafinil in narcolepsy patients.

 

The arousal and alertness-promoting effects of modafinil are mediated by changes in monoamine systems, primarily DA and NE, but also 5HT. Several studies of the monoamines by microdialysis have shown that modafinil elevates extracellular DA and NE, but not 5HT, in rat brain regions.

 

It helps you stay alert

 

Several clinical trials have shown that modafinil significantly decreases daytime sleepiness in people with narcolepsy, obstructive sleep apnea, or shift work sleep disorder. It does so without affecting nighttime sleep or increasing sleep latency during the nighttime shift. Its effectiveness and tolerability make it a useful alternative to psychostimulant medications such as methylphenidate.

 

Modafinil has also been shown to improve alertness in patients who use continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) for obstructive sleep apnea. It does so by enhancing wakefulness and compensating for reduced quality and quantity of sleep.

 

In studies of healthy non-sleep-deprived individuals, Modalert 200 Australia has been shown to enhance cognition. A single dose of 400 mg of modafinil significantly improved performance on the Wisconsin Card Sort Task and arithmetic errors in the Stroop test, similar to 600 mg of caffeine or 20 mg of amphetamine.

 

Many people take modafinil as an off-label drug for cognitive enhancement. It is marketed as a “smart drug” that will help you study for exams, complete complex projects, or power through 14-hour work days. However, the vast majority of users of this drug are not sleep-deprived.

 

While modafinil may make you feel less sleepy, it is unlikely to help you perform better at work, and it comes with significant risks of dependency and addiction. It is far better to try to change your work patterns and get more sleep.

 

It helps you focus

 

Unlike other stimulants, such as amphetamines (Adderall) and methylphenidate (Ritalin), modafinil does not stimulate the central nervous system to produce excitement or euphoria. Instead, it appears to promote wakefulness ’under conditions where vigilance is sought by the person who takes it’.

 

The drug shuts off the urge to sleep and helps people stay awake longer, allowing them to finish a report, label videos, or organize their closets while others sleep, drive from Washington to Santa Fe for 31 hours straight, start a novel, or party all night long.

 

In a sleep-deprived study, medical students given 200 mg of modafinil performed better on tests of learning and memory than those taking placebo. They also made fewer errors in a driving simulator and solved more complex problems than those who took a placebo. These improvements were greater than those seen in a similar study of patients with untreated mild to moderate sleep apnea.

 

But the newspaper coverage of modafinil also raises concerns that it might serve to blur or further erase the distinction between treatment and enhancement, reworking or reconfiguring our bodies as cyborg components in a 24/7 society (cf. Haraway 1990; Gray 1995). This might be a further instance of the colonization of our sleepy lives through pharmacological means.

 

It helps you get more sleep

 

Unlike amphetamines, modafinil doesn’t cause jitters or an energy crash. It is also non-abusable in naive patients, doesn’t cause rebound sleepiness, and does not interact with alcohol or sedatives. In addition, it is effective in treating narcolepsy and obstructive sleep apnea.

 

In one study, a combination of modafinil and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) significantly reduced daytime sleepiness in patients with milder obstructive sleep apnea. In another trial, modafinil increased alertness in narcolepsy patients and improved their ability to follow complex instructions.

 

In a third trial, CPAP and modafinil were used together to treat residual sleepiness in people with untreated mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea and narcolepsy. The results of the study showed that a single dose of modafinil improved ESS scores, even in patients with a history of prior CPAP treatment.

 

Smart drugs are becoming increasingly popular with entrepreneurs and millennials, who often rave about a seemingly inhuman ability to focus on work for hours without suffering from fatigue or crashing into a deep sleep.

 

However, the long-term effects aren’t fully understood, and it is best to avoid taking them for non-approved reasons unless you have a prescription from your doctor. If you do take it, be sure to tell your physician about any other medications you are taking, including over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbs.

 

 

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