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empath75

This should worry all the people taking adderall and modafinil to be more productive.

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There's a massive difference between using stimulants to be more productive and using stimulants to skip sleep.

Is there?

Obviously. By sleeping enough you get the sleep you need, by not sleeping you obviously don't.

Additionally-when ingesting any number of substances that changes cognition my personal antecedent to add is that 'I just don't feel right' unless I nap.

This is true for all things one would imbibe to 'escape reality'.

I take modafinil on a daily basis each morning, and have a regular sleep pattern of 7-8 hours a night.

It even helps with going to sleep earlier, because I feel depleted by 10 PM, so there's less incentive for me to stay up and waste time that I could use resting for the next day.

No more so than caffeine consumers.

Instead of scare tactics you could look at actual costs: https://www.gwern.net/Modafinil#costs

Why?

because you're taking on significant health risks ("toxin" buildup as mentioned here among other things) by not sleeping, health risks that normally wouldn't be there because of the natural fatigue and lethargy that would force an unmedicated person (however dedicated) to drift off

Sure, but not everyone is taking them to avoid sleep. Regular users primarily use them to boost productivity during the day, followed by normal sleep.

True, that could be one way of framing the whole "using adderall/modafinil for productivity" issue. What is a "regular user" though? Someone with ADHD taking adderall in the morning to boost the "executive function" of his/her brain during the day? (as someone with ADHD, adderall sedates my hyperactive brain as opposed to its intended effect, look up the stimulant paradox for more on this) Someone who takes adderall the night before a big test to pull an all-nighter of productive studying? I've personally never heard of anyone (without ADHD) who regularly takes amphetamines to boost waking-hour productivity. Modafinil has related but different effects, regular modafinil users take it to offset the reduced mental performance brought about by sleep deprivation. There might be some nootropic effects of modafinil unrelated to its wakefulness promoting effect (cognition-wise), but like all nootropics, whether there's any actual increase in waking-hour cognitive ability is debatable.

Someone who uses a few days a week (not necessarily daily) as opposed to, say, occasional all-nighters before an exam. For example, mrleinad's comment:

> I take modafinil on a daily basis each morning, and have a regular sleep pattern of 7-8 hours a night. It even helps with going to sleep earlier, because I feel depleted by 10 PM, so there's less incentive for me to stay up and waste time that I could use resting for the next day.

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