Long story short I used amphetamines to remedy a drowsiness/low motivation (probably caused by depression) for years, and quit 3 months ago because the side effects outweighed the benefits. Now the problems I had before starting the amps are back worse than ever, and I have the additional problem of restlessness (akathisia is the medical term). I've been in a constant search for cures and remedies through trial and error. The other day I tried 50mg of modafinil and to my amazement it got rid of all the drowsiness, lack of motivation and restlessness. It worked even better than dexedrine because it didn't cloud my judgement, make me overly focussed and give me dysphoria like dexedrine does. I took a total of 200mg spaced throughout the day.
That night though, I couldn't sleep at all. I decided. I decided I was only going to take OTC sleep aids (because I used the powerful non OTC ones too much in the past) I first tried taking 10mg of melotonin and drank a pot of chamomile tea. Nothing. I had no passionflower or valerian like I usually use. Then I tried 15mg of doxylamine. Then another 15mg. Then I tried rhodiola rosea. I then tried something that many people at addforums swear by. A combination of taurine, magnesium and inositol. I think I got about 20 minutes in total. It felt just like the dexedrine insomnia, my mind was calm but I had this restlessness in my body than made me need to keep rolling over. I think the problem is lack of dopamine, dopamine deficiency causes akathisia (medical term for this inner restlessness).
I'm thinking there must be healthy ways to counteract modafinil insomnia by understanding modafinils unique pharmacology. I was surprised that doxylamine (thats not a healthy sleep aid, I was just experimenting with it) didn't work, because from what I read modafinil promotes wakefulness by releasing histamine in the CNS. A few things I want to try now are kava (only problem is its really expensive), regular meditation (just need to discipline myself to do it daily) and corydalis (I heard of this one, sounds like it has a novel mechanism of action). I have a lot of experience with sleep aids from my past dexedrine use, but I wanna dedicate this thread to modafinil so I'll make a seperate thread for general sleep aids.
Do any of you know any good, healthy and more importantly, sustainable ways to put yourself to sleep after being on modafinil during the day? Can you share your experience with this, as well as your knowledge on the pharmacology of modafinil and possible ways to use that knowledge to counteract the insomnia problem.