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.