randomWalks

"A few years ago, America's Food and Drug Administration approved a drug called Modafinil, sold under the brand name Provigil, to combat daytime sleepiness in narcoleptics. Modafinil makes up for patients' deficiency in a neurotransmitter called orexin, though no one knows quite how.
"What is clear, however, is that the drug can keep awake people who are tired for other reasons. That in itself is nothing new: coffee and amphetamines have a similar effect. But Modafinil's special attraction is that it does not seem to produce a "rebound" effect, whereby sleep eventually catches up after a prolonged period of wakefulness. The drug seems capable of keeping people alert for several days and nights without apparently building up any kind of sleep debt."

"Even if the drug is safe, it seems dangerous to mess with your body's sleep needs," Scammell said. "Aside from the obvious effects on brainpower, which modafinil does seem to counter, there is evidence that lack of sleep hurts the endocrine system and the immune system."

originally posted by Greer