Modafinil and caffeine | What you should know

It's curious how effective Modafinil and caffeine Can they be combined together?

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last five or more years, the answer should be pretty obvious. Modafinil has been proven time and time again to be one of the best cognitive enhancers in the world.

Study after study validates its safety and usefulness, and people around the world are raving about how it completely changed their productivity forever.

Itself, It's a powerful smart drug to have. regardless of which nootropic stack you are taking.

And although caffeine has been around for much longer, everyone and their mom consumes it immediately when they wake up in the morning. It's the most well-known stimulant, no matter where you go, and it's ridiculously cheap.

But what happens when you combine caffeine and modafinil? Can your brain handle the overwhelming increase in focus and energy?

Continue reading to find out…

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What is modafinil?

Modafinil is a medication that promotes wakefulness and is only available with a prescription.

It is usually given to patients who suffer from excessive daytime sleepiness and fatigue caused by a wide variety of conditions:

• Obstructive sleep apnea
• Narcolepsy
• Restless leg syndrome
• Depression

But in the real world, people don't just use Modafinil to treat their problems. Healthy, high-performing people are using it to outperform their competitors.

In fact, modafinil is so effective that it has been shown to help military pilots improve their cognitive functions while experiencing higher levels of alertness over a 40-hour period [1].

But how does this happen? How does modafinil affect our brain chemistry in a way that makes us more productive? We still don't know the exact answer, but we do know that it significantly alters serotonin, norepinephrine, and especially dopamine levels.

What Modafinil does is block the activity of something called the “dopamine transporter,” which breaks down dopamine. This naturally leads to a higher level of dopamine available for the brain to use.

Soon, Modafinil is ridiculously powerful and there is no reason to avoid its use. But how does this relate to the combination of modafinil and caffeine?

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Modafinil and caffeine | The basics

Caffeine works in a different way than modafinil, but produces a similar result.

It mainly prevents adenosine from binding to adenosine receptors in the brain. Without any interference, this mechanism would normally cause daytime sleep [2].

Caffeine also binds to adrenaline receptors in your brain, giving you a "buzz" when you consume it. So, in a sense, you're inhibiting your body's natural inclination to sleep later in the day while stimulating your central nervous system.

That's why you start to feel your mind racing and your heart pounding after your first cup of "Joe" in the morning. Your concentration improves, your fingers type a little faster, and you can process more thoughts in a shorter period of time.

Now, at this point, you're probably wondering what happens when you combine two stimulants like Modafinil and caffeine.

But before we do, let me clear this up and tell you that a good cup of coffee (about 100 mg of caffeine) is the BEST source of caffeine you can get.

I would recommend staying away from energy drinks as they contain too much caffeine and you don't need the extra calories that come from sugar.

Gum is a good source of caffeine, but its alertness-promoting effects are not as consistent. Lozenges are your second best option and a good emergency option when you don't have time to make a cup of coffee. It is also a decent alternative for people who are worried about staining their teeth yellow from drinking too much coffee.

However, keep in mind that it affects you much faster and stronger than a cup of coffee. I have seen people start to shake nervously after taking just two 100 mg caffeine pills.

So my recommendation is:

Modafinil and coffee It is by far the best way to combine the two nootropics. Let's dig a little deeper and look at the individual benefits of caffeine and modafinil.

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Modafinil benefits

• Modafinil Could Really Make You “Smarter”

I found an interesting post on Reddit that best describes this phenomenon [3]:

I have been taking Modafinil for the past few days and I feel like my IQ has increased about 30 points.Which tells me that a higher state of intelligence is something my brain is capable of under the right conditions.

While modafinil can technically increase short-term fluid intelligence (i.e., your ability to solve problems in completely new situations), the effect of feeling "smarter" has a much easier explanation.

Because of the euphoric surge of motivation you experience, you become much more focused on the task at hand. You are more efficient in using the information stored in your memory.

You are also much more resilient, as you continue to look for answers in situations where you would normally get tired and give up. So from an outside perspective, you appear more creative and intelligent to other people.

• Modafinil removes mental barriers to decision making

Building on the above benefit, modafinil has this wonderful ability to eliminate self-sabotaging behaviors like procrastination.

Many people have noted that the main benefit of modafinil is focusing on the task at hand instead of looking for endless ways to postpone it until later.

There is students who can actually stay awake and take copious notes during presentations and lectures that would normally leave them asleep.

In short, you can stay awake AND retain full use of your brain, which can't always be said for caffeine. Although caffeine can keep you awake at times, users have noted that it cannot compensate for the decrease in thought processing caused by lack of sleep.

• Modafinil helps you control your emotions

According to a systematic review conducted in 2013, modafinil is beneficial for emotional regulation in both healthy and sleep-deprived people.4].

Many people have noticed that Modafinil can help them feel more confident, demonstrate a better sense of humor, and feel much more motivated.

The most interesting part, however, is how Modafinil helps you recognize other people's emotions:

For simple affective faces, neither lack of sleep nor modafinil made any difference in the accuracy of judgments. In contrast, for complex emotion combinations, modafinil significantly improved the ability to correctly discriminate subtle aspects of the emotion relative to placebo.

So if you're a social animal looking for an edge, give Modafinil a try!

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Benefits of caffeine

• Caffeine improves your running speed

Have you ever noticed how things get “faster” when you have a nice cup of coffee or two in your stomach?

That's caffeine working its magic. Studies have shown that a dose of 160 to 600 mg can help improve the speed at which you process mental thoughts and perform physical tasks.5].

I have personally noticed it myself. With the right amount of caffeine, I can write much faster and produce more content. It's one of the first benefits anyone experiences when they are new to consuming caffeine.

• Caffeine improves your performance in the gym

There is a very good reason why pre-workout formulas increase the caffeine content to the maximum [6]:

The effects on physical performance on a wide range of physical performance metrics, such as time to exhaustion, time trials, muscle strength and endurance, and high-intensity sprints typical of team sports, are evident after doses exceeding approximately 200 mg (∼3 mgkg⁻¹).

I'm not saying you should go to the extreme and consume 5 cups of coffee before training. In most cases, all you really need is an extra cup.

And in most cases, you'll save a lot of your hard-earned money. 😉

• Caffeine can reduce fatigue in low doses

If you feel a little tired and out of control, a small cup of coffee (no more than 100 mg) can help you feel less tired during the day.7].

But be careful: once you start taking higher doses, caffeine can cause fatigue and lead to mental exhaustion!

Caffeine is a great way to get through tough days when used responsibly and in moderation.

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Benefits of caffeine and modafinil...when combined!

So what exactly happens when modafinil and caffeine are combined? Do you get an incredible boost in cognition or is the synergistic effect simply too much for anyone to handle?

There's only one way to know, so let's see what other people have experienced...

• Modafinil and caffeine will keep you awake for a LONG time!

Anyone who has an upcoming late night should pay close attention to this. Since Modafinil improves your wakefulness and caffeine inhibits the body's natural inclination to sleep, you get a double whammy combination that leads to productivity nirvana.

Many Reddit users have found that a standard dose of both nootropics (200 mg modafinil + 200 mg caffeine) produces some of the following effects [8]:

“I ended up accidentally staying up 30 hours and felt as refreshed as if it were the afternoon.”

“You may get quite nervous, but your concentration at work is very high, almost like tunnel vision”

“Although it does not cause discipline, I find that once I start a task I cannot stop until I finish it, for example, I start cleaning my room and when I take out the trash I notice a mess in the kitchen and... then I clean it and soon all my “House is sparkling.”

While I don't recommend pulling an all-nighter because of the cumulative damage they can eventually do to your body and mind, occasionally you just have to get things done in an unreasonable amount of time.

• Modafinil and caffeine increase BDNF expression

What the heck is BDNF, you ask? Big question!

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a neuroprotein that offers a wide variety of mental health benefits:

• Reduces the risk of contracting neurodegenerative diseases
• It encourages the growth of new neurons through neuroplasticity, while helping existing neurons survive longer.
• It significantly contributes to improving memory and faster learning.

In short, the more BDNF your brain produces, the better.

A study conducted on rats deprived of sleep for 48 hours found that the combination of caffeine and modafinil helped increase BDNF production.9].

While it's a long shot to apply this same finding to humans, it's not unreasonable to think the same thing could happen.

• Modafinil and caffeine help you perform complex cognitive tasks

This is a bit of a long shot, so hear me out!

A double-blind, placebo-controlled study examined the behavior of participants playing chess against a highly advanced computer program. Subjects took a placebo, 2 x 20 mg Ritalin, 2 x 200 mg Modafinil, or 2 x 200 mg caffeine [10].

In any case, subjects who took one of the three drugs spent more time on average making a decision within each game.

But when games that were lost due to a time limit were excluded, modafinil significantly improved chess performance compared to placebo, while the effect of caffeine was negligible.

However, caffeine users felt significantly less fatigued compared to placebo, while the effect of modafinil was negligible.

So think about it this way: combine the performance-enhancing abilities of modafinil with the fatigue-reducing effects of caffeine, and you've turned an ordinary person into a superhuman machine!

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Side effects | Modafinil and caffeine

Now, I need to warn you about the side effects that come with taking caffeine and modafinil together.

It can be a double-edged sword if you don't know what you're doing.

So before you start popping Modafinil pills like candy and drinking 5 cups of coffee, read this section carefully!

• Increased anxiety

Everyone knows what happens when you have too much caffeine.

You start to feel nervous. You feel much more anxious. Your heart starts beating much faster. You might even feel nauseous.

Now add another stimulant and you have the recipe for what could be a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.

Even if you are not someone who gets nervous easily, the combined effect of two stimulants may be too much for you.

It takes an experienced person to know how to “handle” the huge energy boost that comes with combining modafinil and caffeine.

Start small, go slow. If it is your first time, do not exceed 100 mg of modafinil and 100 mg of caffeine.

Personally, I will never take more than 200 mg of Modafinil and 2 cups of coffee.

• Stimulant withdrawal

Caffeine withdrawal is a real thing and should be taken very seriously [11].

I have personally noticed things like headaches, lower energy, and emotional instability when I stopped taking high doses of caffeine cold turkey.

But in the case of combining caffeine with Modafinil, things can get much worse.

If you use the combination for too long without any kind of long-term break (1-2 weeks or so), you end up getting hooked on the cognitive effect.

I don't recommend using modafinil and caffeine for more than 7-10 days at a time, and I would even go as far as taking a 7-10 day break to allow your body to recover to normal.

• Disrupt your body's circadian rhythm

When you take caffeine and modafinil together, take a second to think about what you are doing.

Basically, you are shutting down your body's natural sleep-wake cycle in hopes of maintaining high performance.

It is natural for you to feel energetic and tired at certain times of the day. Our bodies are literally designed to alternate periods of rest and recovery.

You will only be able to use this combination for so long before your body “fights back,” so to speak. Don't be surprised if you feel ridiculously lethargic after consuming caffeine and modafinil for too long.

What I do to avoid this is to make sure I use modafinil and coffee very early in the morning, and never drink coffee after 2 p.m. You want to give your body enough time to clear both medications from your system in time for bed.

Your body can only take so much abuse and you only have one, so make sure you treat it with the care it needs!

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Is it worth taking the risk? | Verdict

In conclusion, Modafinil and caffeine It is possibly the best nootropic combination you will ever find.Its stimulating effects work together to keep drowsiness at bay and keep your mind alert.

But it also has the greatest potential for abuse, so be sure to be very diligent in how and when to use it.

Overall, highly recommended!

Do you have any questions? Feel free to comment below and I'll do my best to get back to you!

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