A friend of mine has used this before and they did alternating low ~30mg doses that same someone had previously used a similar dose Adderall in highschool and early college and preferred the feeling of Modafinil.
They told me they had read multiple studies before hand as well as personal accounts (such as from the venerable https://www.gwern.net/).
That person told me that the feeling was less intense but enough to keep the significantly longer periods of focus without feeling complete lock-in like you might experience on other similar drugs. That said, they also did say the dehydration was heavy and to keep that in mind.
They said the reason they alternated was they had found that given the longer 15 hour-ish half-life they felt effects strong enough the following day that if they dosed again it started making them feel uncomfortable. That said they are typically very sensitive to most substances. They also felt that you should do your dose early enough, 7-8am, so that by the time 1am or so rolls around you can still get mostly a normal sleep.
They also told me that one time they had done multiple consecutive doses and the come down depressive like symptoms were just as bad as the same symptoms from coming off consecutive doses of Adderall. They thought that if you're prone to dangerous depression this one might not be for you.
They did not endorse doing this but to each their own.
If you do want to use stimulants to boost productivity, it probably has to be a somewhat rare thing. I've had a handful of positive experiences with modafinil when I wasn't taking it regularly. There was this one time, I had a lot of work I needed to do but I kept procrastinating on it. I cleared up my schedule for an entire day and took modafinil in the morning. I started working and just did not stop. I was more productive than ever, all the way until 10PM. At some point during the day my mom called me and I picked up the phone. I had a normal conversation with her that laster multiple minutes, while putting together a graph for a presentation I was working on, and I felt like I was doing both things at once without any loss in efficiency. Normally, I could never have a phone conversation while also focusing on a work task, I felt superhuman in that one moment.
BUT... I later got a prescription for modafinil, which I took daily for 3 months. My experience was that you build a tolerance, just as you do with caffeine or with any other stimulant. Initially, I would take it in the morning and feel very focused for most of the day. Eventually, the stimulation would only last until noon or so, at which point I would crash and get extremely irritable. I remember the guy I shared an office with telling me to "just chill" because I kept getting frustrated at a programming issue and cursing. I was getting super pissed off at really minor things. On top of that, there were also side-effects. It made my acne quite a bit worse and my hair much more oily. This is also typical of stimulants in my experience.
I reached a point where there was zero benefit to taking modafinil anymore. It just made me have annoying mood swings, so I discontinued it, and went back to coffee, which I gradually reduced to just one coffee a day, and I felt a lot better. I haven't used modafinil in years and I don't really care to push my body like that anymore.
My general advice for people who want to try this is that there is unfortunately no free lunch with stimulants. You can use them every once in a while to get an extra boost in focus and energy, but you usually end up more tired later, like you have to pay back a debt to your system. Even just taking a stimulant for one day will lead to a little bit of tolerance buildup. You'll probably feel slightly more tired and unmotivated a day or two or three later.
Yup. I have a prescription for modafinil, but I only use it when desperate times call for desperate measures. (Like having to lead a session but I'm having a terrible pain day).
I know whenever I use it I'm going to pay for it later.
Actually, given my first few doses always feel great, it probably isn't nocebo. If anything, perhaps the initial 'good' dose might be placebo (placebic?) in nature.
> They also told me that one time they had done multiple consecutive doses and the come down depressive like symptoms were just as bad as the same symptoms from coming off consecutive doses of Adderall.
Modafinil may be milder than traditional stimulants in some ways, but that doesn’t make it free of downsides or side effects. It actually has substantial effects on dopaminergic systems, despite having other additional actions.
The gentleness of Modafinil was greatly exaggerated all over the internet for a decade or more. This led some people to unhealthy use patterns. It’s definitely associated with rebound effects and extended use (especially redosing) will leave anyone in a below-baseline state the next day (even if not entirely obvious to themselves, especially with low doses)
Yup, definitely that's why they had read a lot of studies first and figured out the mechanism of action is largely the same to other stimulants and moved to a much lower dosage and larger spacing when they take it. You can do a lot of damage if you're not careful. The gentleness is definitely overstated.
I used to describe Modafinil as "the best sleep you ever had, in pill form". As someone with chronic sleep issues and ADHD, it allowed me to function during some of the worst months of my life.
The way I eventually settled on to 'dose' Modafinil is two pills (200mg) on Monday morning, then one pill on Wednesday morning; this kept my serum levels at a level where I got the positive effects for a whole work week, yet could still relax on the weekend.
I haven't been in a situation where I felt I needed this for a while, now.
They told me they had read multiple studies before hand as well as personal accounts (such as from the venerable https://www.gwern.net/).
That person told me that the feeling was less intense but enough to keep the significantly longer periods of focus without feeling complete lock-in like you might experience on other similar drugs. That said, they also did say the dehydration was heavy and to keep that in mind.
They said the reason they alternated was they had found that given the longer 15 hour-ish half-life they felt effects strong enough the following day that if they dosed again it started making them feel uncomfortable. That said they are typically very sensitive to most substances. They also felt that you should do your dose early enough, 7-8am, so that by the time 1am or so rolls around you can still get mostly a normal sleep.
They also told me that one time they had done multiple consecutive doses and the come down depressive like symptoms were just as bad as the same symptoms from coming off consecutive doses of Adderall. They thought that if you're prone to dangerous depression this one might not be for you.
They did not endorse doing this but to each their own.