Modafinil's the only drug I could ever see becoming habit forming for me. I was lucky enough to get a prescription for it a while back, and there's times when I rather miss it. It doesn't work for everyone, and not everyone takes to it in the same way. But for those who get the effects mentioned by the articles author, it's simply amazing. I'm not exagerating when I say that it bordered on a mystical experience for me. Being able to be aware of the body's messages about sleep, but being able to shrug it off as an itch instead of what can feel like a gaping wound the shape of a nights sleep, is incredible. Even more so for the fact that one is, for the most part, left mentally and emotionally unaffected. The only side effect seemed to be better ability to concentrate, and better ability to harness creative ideas into concrete product. I'm a programmer, and I wrote some of my absolute favourite programs during the timeframe I was on it.
And that is also the downside. Humans, or at least this human, have a great ability to overplay experiences in the past. It's really easy to find myself moving at a good clip with a project, but still not be able to feel 'quite' as good about the progress from that glow of modafinil fueled work that was in my past. And, sadly in some sense, the science does seem to back the subjective feelings of not only being more awake - but just plain more intelligent. It's gotten pretty good results in increasing performance across a fairly wide range of mental tasks, some of which don't respond much to traditional stimulants. There's cousins of the drug being worked on that seem, potentially, quite a bit better in that respect. But it's way too early to really speculate too much on that.
Oh, and hi. First post here. I should have done a traditional intro, but I couldn't help registering to comment on this while doing a search for nap help
