Sleep no more arthur
And unlike amphetamines, cocaine and most other pick-me-ups, it doesn't appear to fire up the neurotransmitters that cause dopamine to flood the brain, which then sets the heart racing, makes you feel high and causes twitchiness. It seems to target regions of the brain believed to regulate normal wakefulness and cognitive functions, perhaps by slowing the release of GABA (a sleep promoter in the brain) or acting on the histamine pathways (connected to sleep regulation). The way modafinil works is not clearly understood. Federal Drug Administration in 1998 to treat narcolepsy, a chronic neurological disorder that causes excessive daytime sleepiness, loss of voluntary muscle tone, vivid hallucinations and brief episodes of total paralysis. Modafinil, a stimulant trademarked as Provigil in the United States and Alertec in Canada, was approved by the U.S. "Further down the line are even more radical interventions - wakefulness promoters that can safely abolish sleep for several days at a stretch, and sleeping pills that deliver what feels like eight hours of sleep in half the time." "New classes of sleeping pills are on the horizon that promise to deliver sleep that is deeper and more refreshing than the real thing," he continues.
"Modafinil has made it possible to have 48 hours of continuous wakefulness with few, if any, ill effects," Graham Lawton writes, almost giddily, about the brave new world of 24-hour living. Meet modafinil, "the first wave of new lifestyle drugs that promise to do for sleep what the contraceptive pill did for sex - unshackle it from nature," New Scientist magazine trumpets in a recent cover story. What if you were offered a magic pill that made you feel alert throughout the entire day, without the jitter, buzz, euphoria, crash, addictive qualities or potential for paranoid delusion that come with amphetamines and caffeine? Would you be interested in a pill that lets you bounce back from a late night, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, after just four hours of sleep? In last year's Sleep in America poll conducted by the NSF, nearly one-quarter of partnered adults said they have lost interest in sex, or have it less often because they are just too darn tired. Not surprisingly, it also diminishes our sex drive.
Studies have shown that a lack of sleep affects memory loss and dexterity and has contributed to rising rates of obesity. This cranky, edgy, worn-out state of being leaves us vulnerable to anxiety, depression and weakened immunity. Last year, 42 million sleeping-pill prescriptions were filled in the United States, up 60 per cent since 2000, according to a study by Forbes magazine. We pummel ourselves through a vicious cycle, jolting up on caffeine during the day and knocking ourselves out with hypnotics at night. The 24/7, BlackBerry-buzzing, on-demand lifestyle is taking its toll. "There isn't enough time in our waking periods to accomplish all of the expectations industrialized society requires of us." "We live in a time famine," says Harvey Moldofsky, director of the Centre for Sleep and Chronobiology at the University of Toronto.
Things are now so bad that the Monday after the annual switch to daylight time has been declared National Napping Day, and this year the goal is to have us catch 40 winks while on the job. According to the latest numbers from Statistics Canada, one in seven Canadians - 3.3 million people - have trouble going to sleep and staying asleep. By last year, 71 per cent of people were getting by with less than the eight hours of sleep the body needs (up from 63 per cent in 1998). The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) estimates that the average sleep time in the United States has dropped by more than 20 per cent in the past century. This weekend, as we spring forward to daylight time, and lose yet another precious hour of shut-eye, it's the same old story: We're getting less and less sleep.