Provigil anyone?

[slacker361]

Anyone have any experience with provagil I talked to my Doc today, although my AHI are under control , around 3 to 4 o'clock in the afternoon I crash hard. And it is not a sugar or caffeine crash. So he prescribed Provigil and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with it.

[LoQ]

Anyone have any experience with provagil I talked to my Doc today, although my AHI are under control , around 3 to 4 o'clock in the afternoon I crash hard. And it is not a sugar or caffeine crash. So he prescribed Provigil and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with it.

My doctor is thinking of prescribing it to me, but he did admit that it's the sort of thing doctors resort to when they can't figure out the actual reason. I'm glad they have a back up, but I wish the medical community would put more effort into figuring out what is really wrong.

You may have to become a sleuth yourself to find the answer if you don't wish to go the provigil route.

[socknitster]

I've taken Nuvigil. It was helpful but it increased my anxiety and gave me diarrhea. So I quit it and tried something else. It is kind of a band aid. Better to find the cause than to mask it.

[sleepydawn]

I tried Nuvigil for narcolepsy. I only took it once and it was about 1/4 of the dose prescribed. It was awful, it made my mind race yet I still felt as if I might just nod off. Now I take Ritalin and it works pretty well for me.

I know someone who took Nuvigil and he had a crazy histamine reaction to it. He used it successfully for a couple of months and then developed a small rash one morning. By afternoon, he had hives 6 inches wide that protruded 2 inches from his face. He went to the emergency room where he was given an antihistamine IV to remedy the problem but he was lucky he didn't have breathing problems.

[larry63]

Hi Slacker,

I have taken this before, prior to my OSA dx, in an effort to improve my concentration (IOW to treat adult ADD symptoms). It wasn't only sleepiness (I was never falling asleep at my desk, for example), but an attempt to stave off fatigue (different from sleepiness) and to hopefully help with the concentration/focus issues.

I would say it made things maybe 20% to 30% better (which is really a great improvement), but the problem is that after a few days in a row of dosing, I felt that it was sort of running down my body and if I tried to take it for more than a few days, I would just crash big time and pay the price over the next day or so.

But I have no idea why I'm tired or why I can't focus, so really, IIWU I wouldn't read too much into my own experiences with this drug.
I can say however, that it was a life saver for me for the occasional day when I was tired and totally needed to function. Supposedly this med is actually smoother and not any more dangerous than caffeine.

[TmjTerri]

I take Nuvigil 250mg's. It really has no effect on me so I took Ritalin and it worked ok. I am back on Nuvigil 250mg and I can sleep while taking it. To this day I have no idea what to take to help me. When I go back to my sleep doctor I am going to talk to him about it. We shall see what happens!

[SleepingUgly]

I have taken Provigil for a total of many years of my life. I tried Nuvigil but liked Provigil better, but I wouldn't let my experience stop you from trying Nuvigil. Nuvigil is supposed to be longer acting than Provigil. While some people get enough mileage from Provigil, I metabolize it quickly, so a longer acting formulation would be better for me. Provigil is not supposed to negatively affect your sleep architecture, although of course you may not be able to take it late in the day or it could cause insomnia.

Of course you should try to get to the bottom of why you are sleepy, if you can, and tweak what you can. If you still have residual EDS, then certainly consider augmenting whatever else you're doing with a wake-promoting agent like Provigil.

[slacker361]

Thanks for everyones input on this. I took it for the first time yesterdAy. Wow like I felt before having sleep apnea. I lime the way my doctor explained it. He said the are so many factors going on in sleep apnea. That they don't fully understand it. I am. a 46 year old college student going for my second degree I don't have the luxury of being sleepy in the daytime. I have to give provigil a two thumbs up.

[LoQ]

Thanks for everyones input on this. I took it for the first time yesterdAy. Wow like I felt before having sleep apnea. I lime the way my doctor explained it. He said the are so many factors going on in sleep apnea. That they don't fully understand it. I am. a 46 year old college student going for my second degree I don't have the luxury of being sleepy in the daytime. I have to give provigil a two thumbs up.

I slept through analytical chemistry (quant) in college. It was embarrassing, because the professor kept telling people to wake me up. "Someone wake up LoQ!" He said that at least once per class. I enjoyed the labs for quantative analysis, but the lectures were boring, boards and boards of long derivations of equations, and given my sleep-deprived state, it's no wonder I fell asleep in there so much.

[lvwildcat]

I personally know a number of people who have been on Provigil and say it doesn't do anything to/for them.
I was on Provigil for about 6 weeks. I described it as LEGAL SPEED!!!!!! And...my coworkers threatened the MD who wrote my script(yes...I'm an RN) with BODILY harm if he ever prescribed more for me.

[larry63]

I personally know a number of people who have been on Provigil and say it doesn't do anything to/for them.
I was on Provigil for about 6 weeks. I described it as LEGAL SPEED!!!!!! And...my coworkers threatened the MD who wrote my script(yes...I'm an RN) with BODILY harm if he ever prescribed more for me.

Well, supposedly it's not euphoric and has no dependency issues, but it's good to hear the scoop from an RN. I mean don't the pushers (sorry, drug companies) say this about every thing they put out?

Even the benzo's like librium and valium were initially supposed to be not habit forming when they were first introduced, right?

On the good side (for me), Provigil had never been habit forming for me, nor has anything that tickles dopamine, except for caffeine. For example, provigil is supposed to be very "clean", but it does give me the jitters and wears out my body if I take it to much. I don't have an rx anymore and really don't miss it ... I had some benefits but the crash sort of neutralized it, so that the end result was ambiguous.

I guess in one sense, it is legal "speed" But so is coffee. The ironic part is that although it definitely helped me concentrate, the physical side effects in my case sort of canceled out the benefits. So weird because this is supposed to be a "clean" drug, not at all like speed. My mileage varied...

For me, if I would take it again, but reserve it for occasional special situations where I had to be alert. I have to say at least, that it is smoother than drinking a gallon of coffee.

So I guess in a sense, for me, it is better and less habit forming then caffeine. Maybe I should get an rx again, but take smaller doses. The problem is it has a long half-life, though, so it can only be taken early in the day, and not as a come-home-from-work-and-get-things-done fix.

Well, really for me I think I need to get more aerobic exercise - that's way better than any drug...



(And I don't understand why we're even discussing this - I guess xPAP isn't working for you either?)

[slacker361]

Actually CPAP has been working great for me. As I said in my earlier post, that they just dont understand, why some people that have good AHI numbers suddenly start to drag butt in the middle of the day. This is what I have been experiencing lately.

My thyroid and all other labs come back fine.But recently just dragging.so my doc said give this a try.

As far as exercise, untill two weeks ago when my heal spur starting acting up, I was jogging a 5K every other day.so that shouldnt be the problem

I just hope the Provigil continues to work as it has

[Junebug999]

good thread topic. my regular doc says he's going to put me on provigil when i get set up for cpap. he says it will help with cpap and my energy level. sleep doc said his jury is out on that idea...so we'll see. i made a note from one of the posters above though to be sure to take it REAL early in day to make sure my brain doesn't get wired 220 when i want to sleep. i had another doc between when my previous doc retired and my current doc who said i was just old and hormonal and put me on ritalin and then adderall.....WOW....then i felt WIRED AND TIRED. The ritalin wasn't so bad...it wore off fast but that adderall made me think my head was going to explode : (

[TheDreamer]

If only the stuff wasn't so expensive....

Personally, I was on it for a month....I was on 200mg, twice a day. I didn't feel like the earth had moved any different or what....though I did notice that in the afternoon I wasn't fighting off the sleepies....unless I forgot my dose. Also the first week, I accidentally worked to 9pm a few times. Always have been a little ADD....but these days that's supposed to be a good thing....I hope.

Though at time I was taking it, I was also on Remeron....so maybe the reason I didn't feel anything in the morning, was because it was pushing up against the downer that was trying to make my sleep less fragmented. The Remeron caused all sorts of other side effects, was making me depressed and stuff....so they took me off of both.

Later we talked about maybe keeping the Provigil for as needed. Though I'm not sure if I'm wanting to refill my prescription anytime soon (if I refill it every month...I'll just reach the co-insurance maximum for the year....so no reward to keep forking out money I don't have...and the script is only good for 6 months, so can't postpone to next year and start blowing threw my FSA fast again.

First year of CPAP...I blew my FSA in a week (of course, I allocated the amount before I had the PSG, etc.) Second year of CPAP...put 4x in....gone in less than 6 months. Thinking of going for it, with 2.5x for next year. Wonder if I'll get the debit card this year.

Guess we'll see how often working late comes up between now and the end of the year.

Not sure if I want to ask about something else....think i need my sleep to be more solid.

Don't see Sleep Doc until January.... meanwhile, primary is working on treating my fatigue...with hormone shots....next 3 months of with a bigger dose. Which is annoying, because that's what he said 3 months ago when the first 3 months of shots made no improvement....only he apparently never updated the order for me to get bigger shots then (and now has no memory of doing it....) During the first 3 months, when for my annual....he had didn't remember that he already started me on the shots (and he couldn't find his way around the computer system to check....he still couldn't when I saw him 2 weeks ago). But, he said maybe after this try he'll look at why I've been complaining about not being able to stay asleep for over a year now.

The Dreamer.

[montana user]

I loved it! It helped me stay awake without any side effects. But now that I have CPAP, I no longer need it. Although Id love to use it during my night shifts..