How Long Does Modafinil Last?

For many users of this nootropic, the answer to the question: “How long does modafinil last?” is important in helping them understand its benefits.

Thus, after taking a certain dose of the drug, you can expect to enjoy enhanced cognitive function for several hours.

You can plan your tasks better and so that they take place within the time when you still have a Modafinil high.

How long Modafinil lasts depends on its half-life, the time it takes for the drug to be completely removed from your body.

In this article, we shall explain to you everything you should know about the length of time the effects of Modafinil last in your body.

What Is Modafinil?

Modafinil is a pharmaceutical drug (sold under the brand name Provigil) that promotes wakefulness and acts as a prescription for narcolepsy and other conditions.

Thus, it helps its users to reduce the occurrence of sleepiness during the day, enhancing cognitive function during working hours.

But of course, the FDA has approved Modafinil for the treatment of other conditions like sleep apnea, shift work sleep disorder, and sleep apnea.

Today, there are trials for Modafinil as a treatment for depression, age-related memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenic cognitive impairment, and post-anesthesia grogginess.

Given Modafinil’s attributes as a nootropic capable of keeping military men alert while at work, people in different careers and industries are using it off-label for other purposes.

As such, it is not uncommon for people to use the drug for increased focus, enhanced memory, improved mood, and sustained mental alertness.

While it is not clear the specific mechanisms with which Modafinil acts in the body, scientists are studying the properties of the drug to explain how it works.

For that matter, Modafinil acts at the hypothalamic level, stimulating the neurons that produce hypocretin and the tuberomammillary nucleus.

It also curtails the cortex and posterior hypothalamus from releasing GABA, activating wakefulness, and inhibiting sleep.

Its popularity is seen in the number of students, pilots, entrepreneurs, surgeons, and CEOs that are using this smart drug to help them maintain focus while working through complex tasks.

With Modafinil, you can sustain your concentration levels for longer than is otherwise possible.

What Is Modafinil’s Half-Life?

Before we can say anything about how long Modafinil lasts in the human body, it is important to look at its half-life.

With reference to ingested drugs, half-life refers to the time it takes to reduce the concentration of a drug in the body to one half of the original, wholly via biological processes.

That’s why researchers refer to it as a biological half-life or elimination half-life.

After one half-life, the concentration of the drug in the body becomes half (50%) of the dose you had consumed.

When another half-life passes, the concentration of the drug will be at a quarter (25%) of the original dosage.

With each passing half-life, the body eliminates proportionally less of the medicine you can find no traces of it in the body.

After the fourth half-life, the drug would have all but completely lost its effect in the body.

It is clear that the half-life of Modafinil would affect how long the drug lasts in the body. Studies into the half-life have proposed varied figures with the official monogram from the manufacturer putting the half-life at 15 hours after multiple doses.

Another study of its use as a narcolepsy treatment says the half-life of Modafinil is 9 to 14 hours while another one on multiple uses put it between 12 and 15 hours. Other studies seem to agree that the half-life of Modafinil is at 15 hours.

We can go on and on talking about the studies that have gone into ascertaining the half-life of Modafinil.

However, we can conclude that at a dose of between 100mg and 200mg, the half-life of Modafinil lies between 12 to 15 hours.

Given the discussion about the half-life of Modafinil, it is clear that the drug can stay in the human body for days.

However, its effects do not last that long. According to scientists, it takes 1 to 2 hours for the concentration of Modafinil in the body to reduce to half. That’s the reason scientists recommend that shift workers take Modafinil perhaps 1 hour before the beginning of the shift.

However, some users have reported feeling the Modafinil effect only 30 minutes after taking this smart drug. Users also said they have enhanced cognitive function for 10 to 12 hours after taking 200mg of Modafinil.

Now that you know all about Modafinil’s half-life and roughly how long it lasts in the body, you should know when to take it.

The right time to consume Modafinil is in the morning before 10 am so that you can go to bed by 11 pm. In that case, you should never take it after 1 pm unless you want to stay awake all night long.

Benefits

So, if Modafinil lasts for 12+ hours in the human body, what are some of its positive effects? How useful is it to the human body?

According to various scientific studies and testimonials from users of the drug, Modafinil has several benefits, including the following:

1. Prolonged Mental Focus

One of the most important Modafinil benefits is how it helps prolong your focus on important tasks during the normal workday.

Even the tasks you find complicated and boring will become enjoyable and fun to do. The thing about Modafinil is that it improves your focus, helping you accomplish more no matter how smart you are.

In one review of studies into this subject, researchers found Modafinil to enhance cognitive function in otherwise unfocused youth with ADHD.

The drug improves cognitive performance concerning vigilance, serial reaction time, and logical reasoning. In fact, some users have found the drug to be as good as caffeine but without the side-effects.

2. Improved Mental and Physical Energy

For individuals who want to remain productive after midnight, Modafinil is the go-to nootropic drug.

Apart from helping you keep your alertness at high levels, the drug removes the urge and need to sleep. Researchers who took a peek into Modafinil and its ability to improve mental energy said the drug performs well with little or no effects.

No matter your line of work, you will have your alertness restored to the levels you have after a good night’s sleep.

Even so, another study involving government officials found that using the drug can help you meet strict deadlines without giving an excuse.

Shift workers also use Modafinil to endure a series of long shifts followed by four or five-hour breaks.

That means the workers were able to maintain high levels of productivity without having much rest.

3. Doesn’t Produce Withdrawal Symptoms

If you have ever used stimulants, then you know how much you can be overwhelmed by anxiety, jitters, and withdrawal symptoms.

That cannot be said about Modafinil, which is very different from the usual addictive amphetamines.

For that matter, studies into the drug have found it to be unlikely to lead to abuse. The smart drug also doesn’t interfere with normal sleep patterns nor promote tolerance. So, you can use it without worrying about getting “hooked.”

As a result, users of this drug feel less anxious, aggressive, and do not have any withdrawal symptoms.

That’s in total contrast to other stimulants that result in addictive tendencies. Instead, Modafinil improves cognitive function more smoothly than other stimulants.

Downsides

Given that Modafinil lasts in the body for a long time, it can have detrimental effects when you don’t use it properly. The following are some of the possible downsides of that:

1. Interference with the Sleep Cycle

Even though unintended, Modafinil may interfere with your normal sleep cycle, especially if you take it late in the day. That means you will go to bed as usual but fall asleep much later than you expect.

Interference with the sleep cycle means having less sleep and a possible hangover when you wake up the following day.

That’s because the effects of the drug can last for more than 12 hours, meaning you should take it early in the day (before 10 am). That way, you will fall asleep by 11 pm and wake up refreshed and raring to go.

However, if you keep missing the daily recommended 7 to 8 hours of sleep, you may end up with serious mental problems.

2. It Requires a Solid Plan for Activity

Did you know that taking Modafinil without a concrete plan to be active can be detrimental to your well-being? Experts recommend that you should plan to start working as soon as you swallow the pill.

That’s because once the Modafinil effect kicks in, you start operating on autopilot until you finish the task.

If the effects of the drug find you watching videos, you are likely to keep doing that for the rest of the day.

Modafinil Dosage

Before you take Modafinil, consider how long you want to stay focused and whether you will sleep at night.

That would help you choose a dose that works for you. For example, one individual may stay alert for 6 to 8 hours on 100mg of the drug and another 12 hours.

When starting out, it’s good to start with a 100mg dosage of modafinil early in the morning for 1 to 3 days a week. With that, you will learn the dosage that works for you and adjust appropriately.