TheAgitator.com
Provigil
Tuesday, June 29th, 2004That’s it, I’m getting some of this stuff. David Plotz played guinea pig for Slate last year on the stuff.
Not having to worry about sleep for a few days at a time would do wonders for my productivity.
Any of you in the pharmacology field want to bend your ethics a bit and play “Radley’s favorite reader” for a day?
ahhhhh
better living through pharmaceuticals.
It’s expensive, but I’m sure the cost would be more than offset by the opportunity to capitalize wasted sleep hours.
Of course, I don’t consider sleep time a waste. In fact, the feeling of waking up and realizing that the alarm won’t go off for another hour-and-a-half is among the purest forms of happiness.
Pharmacologists generally don’t have that kind of access. And what we do have access to is so tightly controlled that any attempt to do that would be a career killer. Right up there with falsifying data (and from the Feds’ perspective, much worse).
MDs, on the other hand…
Actually, I’d really like to try it, too, as I’m writing my dissertation right now…
Radley -
I can see that you’ve never read Nancy Kress’s brilliant sci-fi story “Beggars in Spain.” Give it a whirl — it puts an interesting “spin” on the whole ‘world without sleep’ idea.
Have you considered polyphasic sleep?
Radley, I’ve used it. I recommend it. No buzz, no zing, just not tired. That said. It doesn’t keep you from needing sleep. It keeps you feeling sleepy. If you take it too much, and sleep too little over days, you’ll feel your body aching vaguely in the background, and you’ll just sort of collapse from the fatigue. Your immune system will also be unhappy. But it’s not addictive and perfect for an isolated all-nighter.
Sign me up!!!
What are the symptoms that I need to whine about to my doctor to get some of this heaven in a pill?
I’m with Keifer. I enjoy sleeping too much. The only thing better than waking up and realizing the alarm won’t go off for another hour and half is waking up and realizing the alarm is not going to go off at all.
I value my sleep too much to try this, even though (like Brian) I’m writing my thesis and could certainly benefit from more alertness/less yawnitude.
Maybe I could use it once or twice, but I really love the feeling of waking up in the morning, my face squooshed into my pillow, knowing that I have another hour to go. Then I resent having to get up at all.
I guess I’m just old-fashioned. My allnighters were fueled by chips and Mountain Dew.
Now about this “Radley’s favorite reader” thing. Is this a purely honorary title? Or does it include a cash award? And maybe a tiara?
So I drove around to every gas station in Tampa desperately stocking up on (newly banned) ephedra for nothing?
Just as long as you don’t find yourself cleaning your driveway with a toothbrush in the middle of the night. Sounds good to me. I’m guessing it’s A lot safer than Meth, and not manufactured at the local trailer court.
Hey now, Tod. Piney Woods Estates is a damn fine little mobile home community. And our meth industry makes us virtually self-sufficient!