Better Working through Chemistry

A piece in Fortune touts Modafinil, an anti-narcolepsy drug used "off label" to keep people awake, alert, and hyperfocused, but without the side effects of caffeine or Ritalin or the addictive potential of amphetamines. A friend of mine who's tried it claims that it lives up to the hype. My only concern is that it sounds too good to be true: I can't help but suspect we'll all eventually start losing our memories like the victims of the insominia disease in One Hundred Years of Solitude or something.

Comments

[Larry]

Actually you meant "Fortune" magazine. The folks at AOL Time Warner -- oops, I meant just Time Warner -- must hate when that happens.

[Russ]

I've always imagined how much more productive we could be if we didn't need to spend 1/3 of our lives sleeping. Looks like before long, I might have a chance to find out.

[Douglas Fletcher]

We could all be more productive if we didn't spend 1/3 of our lives working.

[Anonymous]

Imagine how much more destructive social servants would be if they didn't spend 2/3 of their lives sleeping.

[Curt Warner]

What are the side effects of caffeine that are so horrible?

[Anonymous]

The sluggish feeling many experience 30 minutes after taking it.

[Zathras]

Whoa, everyone. The uses described in the article are niche uses: potentially useful to some people in some situations, but nothing revolutionary either culturally or economically. A big ticket use for Modafinil -- say, as a substitute for Ritalin as a treatment for ADHD -- is barely being experimented with yet.

[hey]

right... i can think of millions who can use this... anyone in college... anyone who orders a triple anything at starbucks, or a dopio espresso, anyone who has bought mountain dew, red bull, jolt, caffeinated water, guarana anything, or those messed up "energy" drinks....

can see lawyer's, doctors, investment bankers and consultants buying these by the pallet.. very cool

[PLC]

I am an off-label Modafinil user (the brand name is Provigil). I can assure you that it is a wonder drug. I work at a large, well-known software firm in Redmond, WA where I put in one to two all-nighters per week.

In the past, I had to rely on caffeine to stay up for 48 hour shifts, but by 3 or 4 am, I would feel sick to my stomach, would have a terrible headache, and would be unable to concentrate. With Provigil, I can stay awake almost indefinitely and feel perfectly alert and aware the whole time.

The only side-effect is that a lack of sleep will definitely make you shorter - after three days with no sleep, I'm almost 2 inches shorter than normal.

I've also used Provigil to great benefit while mountain climbing. While most people need take 2-3 days to climb Mt. Rainier, I did it in one 20 hour push this summer, thanks to this wonder drug (and I started the climb immediately after a full day at work).

[Anonymous]

a lack of sleep will definitely make you shorter - after three days with no sleep, I'm almost 2 inches shorter than normal.

What the hell?

[PLC]

You get shorter because of spine compression. This, obviously, has nothing to do with sleep and everything to do with gravity and the position one normally assumes while sleeping.

[Citizen]

^ Seriously?! Dag, I've gotta get a chair that reclines A LOT more, for work.

[DanW]

No side effects!? Non-addictive!? Baloney! You don't get something for nothing. Morphine was once touted as a non-addictive substitute for opium. After a time, it became clear to all that morphine was also addictive. When heroin was introduced, it was touted as a non-addictive substitute for morphine. You can repeat the same story for barbituates and chloral hydrate, and diazepine and barbituates. This new drug is clearly a psychostimulant. You will get psychostimulant side effects and habituation. Count on it.

[Larry]

Why, DanW, can't a technological or other advance result in us getting something for nothing? I hear this all the time, but nobody ever explains why. I think it's a fallacy.

Modern drugs generally provide better results with fewer side effects than older drugs. Isn't that getting something for nothing?

(P.S. My initial comment in this section was correct, the Hit & Run entry did mention Forbes at first, but evidently it was quickly edited.)

[Douglas Fletcher]

I think I'll just give it a few years while they experiment on software programmers in Redmond before I take any of this stuff. Who knows, maybe in a while we'll be saying "going Microsoft" instead of "going postal."

[Wirkman Virkkala]

I've read about modafinil sometime back, courtesy of Malcolm Gladwell, and have been, er, dreaming about modafinil ever since.

I certainly could use more "up" time, since like most adults, I seem to have so much to do. But so far I've resisted the temptation, for reasons that Dan W. indicates. The history of psychoactive drugs is one of hype and let-down, hype and let-down, as the limits of what can be done with drugs repeatedly strikes back after every innovation.

Still, modafinil is very interesting as drugs go. It does not work like the uppers and downers that have been the craze for over 40 years. It turns off a "trigger" in the brain, a trigger that sends us sleepward. Because of this, it strikes me that moderate use of this drug might not be as harmful as so many other drugs we've used in the past to regulate our sleeping and waking lives....

And if this sounds utopian - well, hope springs eternal, doesn't it? Even if I avoid it until Cephalon's patents wear out, and until more tests are done, I will still entertain the extravagant, utopian hope that PLC and his modafinil-using colleagues in Redmond make better software with fewer security lapses and fewer instabilities than Microsoft has in the past.

Now that's utopian!

[LM]

>>What are the side effects of caffeine that are
>>so horrible?

some of us can be kinda sensitive to the stuff

*remembers sitting in class sweating, twitching, and trying to keep heart in chest after a (larger) cup of coffee one morning*

Doctor says no, and surprisingly, actually sleeping seems to work better anyway 🙂

[CharlesWT]

I've used Modafinil and it does indeed work as advertised. I felt completely awake without feeling wired or jittery as I would with caffeine and other stimulants. As to side-effects, I tend to feel more sociable and more inclined to engaged in small talk. Also, it seems to intensify headaches, but not cause them. And I usually have an intense headache the day after using it.

The intense headaches and the sans prescription cost of $5 per tablet encourages only occasional use.

[s.m. koppelman]

It will be interesting to see what side effetcs emerge with prolonged, widespread use. If you eliminate a significant amount of sleep, will there be adverse psychological effects from eliminating REM, when the brain seems to do a lot of its cataloging and housecleaning? And will the spinal compression mentioned up there result in higher incidence of back problems for people who take this and continue to work upright?

Will Microsoft's health insurance pay for his back surgery?

As for addictiveness, who knows? One thing you can be sure of is that if it becomes a question, Jacob Sullum will be there to argue that there's no such thing as addiction.

[Kevin Carson]

s.m. koppelman,

Speaking of addiction, there's probably a "psychological addiction" to sleeping every 24 hours or so, regardless of any physical need to do so. Going a few days without sleep for a good reason is one thing; but I'd think you'd start feeling pretty emotionally and psychologically drained if you NEVER slept.

[James Merritt]

It would be one thing if a drug could keep you awake while replenishing your body and mind in the necessary ways that sleep does. I can't imagine that Modafinil does that, however.

More importantly, I thought the point of "progress" was to allow us to sustain ourselves and our societies while according to each the maximum amount of luxury and leisure time. Maybe some people want to stay perpetually awake in order to experience life to the fullest, but if we are trying to lower our sleep requirements in order to get more WORK done, isn't that a sign that at least some of us are moving in the wrong direction?

[Grover S. Westminster]

I just might be the friend Julian mentioned. Modafinil works great. It keeps you up, and isn't zingy. But it doesn't keep you from needing to sleep. Nothing does. So if you stay up a long time on Modafinil, you'll remain alert, but you'll feel your fatigue mounting, sort of muted, as if you were tired in the background. But it builds. After too long awake, my muscles, especially in my back, begin to ache. Although it won't technically keep from sleeping, if you try to sleep, it will keep you from feeling motivated to go to bed. So it ends up screwing with your sleep schedule. Best, then, to take it only on exceptional occasions when you really need it. I've not noticed anything mildly addictive about it. Easy to take some for a few days, and then not for weeks/months.

[CharlesWT]

Occasional use of the drug doesn't seem to cause a sleep deficit. I've stayed awake for two days, got a normal night's sleep and woke up feeling like I hadn't missed any sleep at all.

[CharlesWT]

"Best, then, to take it only on exceptional occasions when you really need it."

Like those times you need to drive straight through from Kuwait to Baghdad...

[Plutarck]

Anything can be addictive - so to say the drug isn't addictive isn't really a meaningful thing to say, and perhaps is best considered utterly wrong. That it does not produce physical dependence and is not particularly habit forming or addictive to most people could be true, however.

Addiction, simply put, is a behavior, and seemingly universally one of obsession. One can just as well be addicted to heroine as to gambling as to conflict as to chaos as to a smothering depression of mediocrity and that which is unsatisfactory.

Therefore, the quest to find something which is not addictive is a doomed one, because it is the nature of humans, not of substances, that produces addiction.

[Chuck Divine]

That's what we really need -- a pill to allow to spend more time at work. After all, what's wrong with NASA that lots more work won't solve? And Enron? Those lazy bastards didn't spend 24/7 at the job. More work -- that's what the good old USA needs to fix all its problems.

In case it's not obvious -- the previous was sarcasm.

People need the diversity of experience that comes from not spending all your time at work to be really able to solve problems.

Modafinal might have some uses in some situations. But thinking you'll accomplish more by forgoing sleep seems illusory. You might just spend more time running down blind alleys.

[CharlesWT]

The pill allows you to enjoy your weekend after pulling an all nighter on Friday...

[skyrocket]

It is a wonderful drug but a little unpredictable.
Wearing off and leaving you so drained you can't get home or going almost 3 days without sleep.
As for no noticeable clinical weight loss, how does a stone in two months sound. The GI problems are there more often than there not but all this into consideration I love it. I take 100mg most days and occationally 200mg. The effect does seem somewhat dose dependant.

[annonymous]

I am taking this stuff for Narcolepsy - which i suddenly came down with after being hospitalized for an addiction heroine. ***I might add that I was working in the software industry when I became hooked***
After being off the heroine for 6 months I was still sleeping 16-18 hrs a day.
Modafinil is working OK it gives me anxiety sometimes, but at least I can stay awake for the duration of the "day" now.

[La Battaglia Juliana]

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