Modafinil and adrafinil: wakefulness-enhancing eugeroics
Modafinil and its less potent precursor adrafinil are popular modern nootropics credited with boosting brain power while reducing fatigue and sleepiness. Both modafinil and adrafinil produce similar effects: increasing alertness, promoting wakefulness, inhibiting daytime sleep, delaying the onset of fatigue, and lowering the perception of tiredness.
How they work:
Modafinil and adrafinil are classified as eugeroics, which are wakefulness-promoting nootropics that work by encouraging long-lasting mental arousal. Eugeroics were developed in the 1970s to treat narcolepsy, insomnia, apnea, and other sleeping disorders.
Specific functionality distinguishes these two nootropics from traditional stimulants such as caffeine and amphetamines, which induce wakefulness by increasing physiological activity systemically. Modafinil and adrafinil target brain chemicals in the amygdala and hypothalamus regions rather than the nervous system as a whole.
What they can do:
- The primary benefits expected from modafinil and adrafinil are wake-up calls to action. They have become popular “smart drugs,” widely used by shift workers, students, and others to extend energy and maintain wakefulness while performing at optimal cognitive levels.
- As eugeroics, they tend to work more gradually, providing a “smoother” transition to high, sustained energy and a gradual, less abrupt decline in effect compared to other stimulants.
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