Modafinil eliminates the feeling of being tired, but not the body’s need for sleep. Being in sleep deficit weakens the immune system, and I’ve seen long-term modafinil use without sleep recovery end in pneumonia. So, if I take modafinil to work on a project or stay alert for a long drive, and I finish before the modafinil wears off, I’ll go to sleep anyway, because even if my brain doesn’t care whether it gets sleep or not, my body needs it. With stimulants like caffeine, getting to sleep before the stimulant wears off is difficult and leads to less sleep.
Some people take modafinil to be smarter or concentrate better without changing their sleep schedules. If you were to combine it with polyphasic sleep, the goal would not be to reduce sleep further.
Modafinil has a very long half life, 12-16 hours. Stimulants that interfere with sleep require scheduling. The shorter the half-life, the easier the scheduling. This is an advantage of nicotine over caffeine and caffeine over amphetamine. Modafinil has an even longer half life, but it doesn’t require knowing your bedtime so far ahead.
The point of modafinil is remove the need for sleep. You might say it interferes with sleepiness. It may be surprising, but it turns out that sleepiness is not necessary for sleep. Indeed, going to bed early when changing time zones is a demonstration of this, but many people find it a challenge.
People on modafinil are not sleepy at their normal bedtime, but many of them report not having difficulty getting to sleep if they choose. I think more people on modafinil have problems failing to sleep because they forgot or got distracted than fail after getting in bed.
In contrast, most people report that caffeine or amphetamine before bed causes their minds to race and interferes with sleep, making it difficult and low quality.
Isn’t the entire point of modafinil to interfere with sleep?
My experience with modafinil has been that sleep is possible, but not necessary.
Why do it, if it is not necessary?
Modafinil eliminates the feeling of being tired, but not the body’s need for sleep. Being in sleep deficit weakens the immune system, and I’ve seen long-term modafinil use without sleep recovery end in pneumonia. So, if I take modafinil to work on a project or stay alert for a long drive, and I finish before the modafinil wears off, I’ll go to sleep anyway, because even if my brain doesn’t care whether it gets sleep or not, my body needs it. With stimulants like caffeine, getting to sleep before the stimulant wears off is difficult and leads to less sleep.
Some people take modafinil to be smarter or concentrate better without changing their sleep schedules. If you were to combine it with polyphasic sleep, the goal would not be to reduce sleep further.
Modafinil has a very long half life, 12-16 hours. Stimulants that interfere with sleep require scheduling. The shorter the half-life, the easier the scheduling. This is an advantage of nicotine over caffeine and caffeine over amphetamine. Modafinil has an even longer half life, but it doesn’t require knowing your bedtime so far ahead.
The point of modafinil is remove the need for sleep. You might say it interferes with sleepiness. It may be surprising, but it turns out that sleepiness is not necessary for sleep. Indeed, going to bed early when changing time zones is a demonstration of this, but many people find it a challenge.
People on modafinil are not sleepy at their normal bedtime, but many of them report not having difficulty getting to sleep if they choose. I think more people on modafinil have problems failing to sleep because they forgot or got distracted than fail after getting in bed.
In contrast, most people report that caffeine or amphetamine before bed causes their minds to race and interferes with sleep, making it difficult and low quality.