Modafinil is an effective stimulant in situations of sleep deprivation. It appears to enhance performance with minimal side effects and aftereffects, unlike the more powerful amphetamine stimulants.

Modafinil 200 Australia (Provigil) is an oral tablet that treats excessive sleepiness due to narcolepsy, sleep apnea, and shift work sleep disorder. It is usually taken in the morning for narcolepsy and sleep apnea, and before your night shift starts for SWSD.

It Helps You Stay Alert

Modafinil is a wakefulness-promoting medication that helps to keep you awake on the night shift. It is prescribed for conditions like narcolepsy and sleep apnea, but it is also used off-label as a cognitive enhancer by people who want to improve their memory and learning abilities. However, research has not shown that Modafinil is effective in improving intelligence or IQ, and it can actually have harmful effects on your mental health if used improperly (see this article).

Modafinil (brand name Provigil) is typically taken once per day, in the morning. It is recommended that you take it as directed by your doctor, and avoid consuming alcohol or other stimulants while taking this medicine. It is important to note that this drug can have serious side effects, including severe skin reactions like Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN). It is also contraindicated in patients with certain medical conditions, such as structural cardiac disease and severe hepatic impairment.

While some have feared that wake-promoting medications like Modafinil would be abused by college students and others looking to extend their wake period without getting enough sleep, postmarketing studies have not found this to be a significant issue.

Modafinil (Modalert Tablet) is also much less likely to cause addiction or dependence than some traditional stimulants. It is also not likely to interfere with your ability to drive, although it is recommended that you avoid doing so until you know how this medicine affects you.

It Helps You Focus

While many people buy Modafinil online without a prescription, doing so can lead to serious health problems. Modafinil is a controlled substance in Australia, and should only be taken under the care of a licensed doctor. Buying Modafinil from online vendors can also be illegal, as it is against Australian law to import or sell prescription-only medications.

In studies of healthy non-sleep-deprived participants, Modafinil has been shown to improve cognitive performance on tasks that require cognitive control. One study found that a 4-day regimen of Modafinil 200 mg reduced errors on the WCST and Hayling sentence completion test (H-SCT), compared to placebo. Another fMRI study of eight healthy individuals administered a single-dose of Modafinil 200 mg after sleep deprivation, showed that the drug improved working memory capacity and associated cortical activation, when compared to placebo.

It Helps You Get More Sleep

Many shift workers struggle to get enough sleep. Modafinil is a wakefulness-promoting medication and has been shown to improve cognitive function in people with narcolepsy, excessive daytime sleepiness from obstructive sleep apnea, and shift work sleep disorder (sleepiness during scheduled working hours and difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep during scheduled sleeping hours for people who regularly work night or rotating shifts). It also works to counteract the effects of sleep loss and can help with shift work schedule changes, as well as improving symptoms such as fatigue, headache, dizziness, nausea, and xerostomia in people with OSAHS.

In a study of people with narcolepsy, modafinil at 200mg taken once daily in the morning improved accuracy on the Wisconsin Card Sort Test and the Stroop test compared to placebo. It was also more effective than 600mg of caffeine and 20 mg of amphetamine, which are commonly used as stimulants for the treatment of fatigue, in improving performance on these tests.

Modafinil has also been shown to reduce the effects of sleep deprivation on memory, logical reasoning, and reaction time (RT) in healthy sleep-deprived people. However, it does not fully compensate for the impact of night shifts on sleep, and only has modest effects on shifting performance during simulated night shifts (see Walsh et al 2005).