Modafinil

Modafinil, alertness and mental faculty boosting

Over the years various groups of people had an aid to keeping themselves alert and to boost their mental faculties, when they might otherwise begin to flag due to tiredness and fatigue. These goups of people are taking Modafinil as and aid. 

Modafinil is a prescription medicine designed to treat a range of sleeping disorders, particularly narcolepsy, obstructive sleep apnea and fibromyalgia. So, the question naturally arises why should people start taking Modafinil for other then the purposes for which it was designed? A quick bit of sleep history 

Falling asleep without Modafinil

It’s a simple fact that these days our opportunities for getting the right amount of sleep that we might naturally need, are few and far between for the vast majority of the population. Not getting enough natural sleep and feeling fatigue is a problem that has been developing over a few hundred years now; it is not only a ‘modern’ problem arising from our ‘modern’ lifestyles that leads people to taking Modafinil.

Ever since industrial scale manufacturing techniques were pioneered in the mid 18th century, ‘the man’ has wanted us to work more and more hours to keep his machines working and the profits rolling in. Add to this the improvements in indoor lighting, initially gas lighting around the 1820s and then the wide-scale adoption of electric lighting some 100 years later, and working into, if not through, the night became quite common. This in itself disrupted our circadian rhythms, the natural cycle of sleep and wakefulness we have according to whether it is dark or light, having to work when our bodies told us it was time to sleep and vice-versa.

Of course in those long distant pre-Modafinil days taking other stimulants wasn’t unheard of when feeling fatigue. Frequently workers took in caffeine from tea and coffee or even the more affluent using cocaine.Modern issues of alertness and boosting mental faculties

Modafinil can boost mental faculties

Today of course it is not the case that most of us have to work in industrial manufacturing or indeed have to work in jobs where we are required to work into, let alone through, the night. However, increasing numbers of us are still unable to satisfy our natural circadian rhythm and to truly perform at 100% efficiency throughout the day. These people could think og taking Modafinil (or Provigil) and benefit from it. Whilst for some people they could undoubtedly do things themselves to help restore their state of natural sleep patterns, for many other people it is not a realistic option.

Although increasing numbers of us might not work in industrial manufacturing we are in jobs requiring more than a simple 9 to 5 mentality or work pattern. We increasingly find ourselves asked to be in the office earlier to take a trans-Pacific conference or work late for a trans-Atlantic one, whilst always still being there during our core hours of work.

On getting home you’re technically still in the office working on your laptop etc; the day, or rather working hours, never seem to end. When you do finally collapse into bed around midnight due to fatigue, it doesn’t seem 5 minutes until the automated lighting system wants to wake you up before its daylight.Modafinil a possible solution

OK, so the problem is that we can’t get the natural sleep we should have and in not getting the correct amount of rest we not only become tired and feel fatigue but subsequently our mental faculties, abilities if you will, become impaired making us less efficient.

Throughout this article we’ve mentioned a medicine called Modafinil, but so far have only said it was designed to treat specific sleeping disorders; so why mention it as a possible help in maintaining the alertness of people who are not ill, or, indeed, of it being able to boost mental faculties. The reason for this is quite simply that clinical studies in the USA, the UK and France have all shown that peopel that are taking Modafinil remain alert and boost their mental faculties.

Even better, the studies have shown Modafinil to be a benign and non-addictive medicine and not to give a ‘high’ or the symptoms associated with more dangerous stimulant medicine s, like amphetamines or cocaine, that can help people to ‘stay awake’.