Congrats and fuck cancer.

This either prompted a Baader–Meinhof phenomenon for me, or I heard you on the radio this morning. I practically never listen on the radio, don’t really remember hearing the term “ring the bell” before reading your post here. Would be fun if the world was that small.

My flavor of sleep disorder, I fall asleep when I’m bored. On modafinil I get through the boring activities like driving without falling asleep. Without the drug I’ve no issues staying awake for hours after regular sleep if I’m really hooked on something, like a good show, game, or project. At the end of the day once the drug starts wearing off, I’ll fall asleep watching shows if they aren’t engaging enough.

They say it promotes wakefulness, but I don’t buy it. I think they’ve misidentified some key mechanism, at least in neurodivergent brains.

When I fall asleep, I hit REM within 15 minutes, compared to the 2 hours it takes NT brains. This was per an EEG taken during my sleep study, overnight and through forced naps the next day. I swear I’ll be in REM while awake sometimes, if I’m fighting sleep, like I perceive the movement.

I’ve narcolepsy, modafinil (200mg daily) eliminates undesirable dozing for me. It doesn’t prevent sleep altogether, just the kind of falling asleep while driving I was dealing with before.

It’s weird to classify it as a stimulant, you can see them pussyfoot around it on Wikipedia. No one gets amphetamine like energy from this drug. Neurologists don’t understand the mechanisms at play, only that it’s effective at treating symptoms of narcolepsy. They’ve given it to pilots to have them fly for 48+ hours without sleep fatigue, but that’s not the same as being wired. College kids abuse it to trade sleep for study time. Plenty of countries don’t prescribe it for ADHD.

Why are you going to sleep at 10am? Why are you taking a drug that primarily treats narcolepsy, and then going to sleep? Outside of being sick, the only way I can pull that off is if I’m suffering deep depression, and use sleep as an escape from it all. I hope you’re ok, that you have a fulfilling purpose.