On Provigil, and the perils of leaving home without it

Oh, it sucks. I was exhausted all day.

I suppose this is as good a time as any to express my impressions of Provigil. Which, by the way, is pronounce "pro vig' il" (as in, it promotes vigilance) and not "pro' vi gil" as I initially guessed. In a word, it's pretty damn good.

When I finally decided to go the "sleep doctor" I was sleeping anywhere from 8-10 hours per day, on average. That was a normal night's sleep and one or two naps during the week, sleep in on weekends. Even getting that much sleep, I was still generally very tired. And if I had to go a few nights with only getting 6 hours of sleep, forget about it. I would basically just shut down. My MSLT* score was about 10 minutes, which is apparently the cutoff for someone that might require treatment.

After starting the Provigil, I''m feeling significantly better. Sleeping a much more reasonable 7-8 hours per night, rarely feel the need for a nap. Still sleeping in on weekends, but really, who doesn''t? The effects of the drug are sort of weird, basically somewhere between not being tired and being somewhat tired but easily able to ignore it and still concentrate.

* Multiple Sleep Latency Test -- Basically a measure of how quickly you fall asleep when taking a nap during the day.