MODAFINIL: IT'S NOT ALL IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE?

With a pill called modafinil, you can go 40 hours without sleep -- and see into the future. (Peter Bennett)

Back in 1970, a group of scientists working with the French pharmaceutical company, Lafon, created a series of benzhydryl sulfinyl compounds including adrafinil.

The latter drug was offered as an experimental treatment for narcoleptic in France in 1986.

Since time immemorial, the interest in portends that could eschew sleep without side effects has proven to be a question of somewhat substantial weight.

As pills go -- Modafinil -- a primary metabolite of adrinil, which has similar activity but much more widely used, has shot to fame lately due to its remarkable effects on users.

It has been prescribed since 1994 in France under the name Modiodal and in the US since 1988 as Provigil. It was approved in the UK in 1992, and even during the Falklands war, the military was plying it to keep its soldiers awake for days on end without having similar side effects as illegal drugs.

I joined all the dots, and with great trepidation I ordered on the internet a box of the soit-disant go-pills.

The first hour after downing the pill could have been like gobbling paracetamol; the expectation of some mechanism being kicked in did not seem to be an ad-hoc modus operandi that could pep my brain up. But slowly, a hum creeped up on me; very slyly though. I felt a mere living beast interfering with my cerebral network. The underlying intensity played with softly manner upon my reckoning and ability to observe with trenchant judgment the results of an altered state of mind.

The drug was about to spread its emery tentacles that would rasp upon my central nervous system. Sleep was about to dwindle down as I donned my Stakhanovite hat.

The concentration was sharp as tack and then I threw myself effortlessly into studious applications of mine.

Perhaps drinking a couple of espressos could have had the same kick, Modafinil should be purposefully consumed when you plan on being active either mentally or physically.

As I was waiting with bated breath for the kick-off of the drug, waves of nervousness splashed relentlessly against my mood. I felt the agitation welling up and pinging me in the side of my head. Its effect starting moaning under the weight of my suppressing it, this is when, I mishandled its function. Ergo, I tensed up and plunged into some fictitious scenarios of mine that spiralled my fear with felocity into a realm of panic.

Your mind needs to be geared up for action or you’ll start fidgeting about with twitchy spurts of anxiety. Once you have the beast unleashed, let it go its own way, and draw on its energy to apply yourself to specific work. The dance macabre is soft and smooth.

Also, it might be so suble to feel at times as it flutters inaudibly within you, it may appear to have no potency. The only way to notice it is through activity. But in most cases, its slight push has proven to keep the brain firing on all cylinders without the side-effects -- well so far.