this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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Which drug did you get prescribed, if you don't mind me asking?
As someone with years and years of, err, experience with sleep issues, I've learned a thing or two about sleep aid medication. Most of the ones that fool with your GABA receptors tend to be pretty terrible for sleep quality and cause dependence and all sorts of other issues. Pretty much one of the only sleep aid medications that won't fuck you up with longer term use is mirtazapine, which is an antidepressant but also inhibits your histamine H~1~ receptors (like older-type antihistamine drugs) so it'll make you very sleepy. Used in super low doses (something like 3.5mg, where the lowest used for depression is usually 15mg) its SSRI effects don't really kick in and it can actually increase sleep quality, and for most people at these low doses its only downside is that if you take it too late in the evening you'll have a hell of a time wrenching yourself out of bed. It can lead to the H~1~ receptors getting desensitized in longer term use, meaning you can build up tolerance to the sleep aid effects, but that's solved by taking a few weeks off of it if you do notice it getting less effective.
Ohhh right, you meant medication for the drowsiness and not to help you sleep. Huh, surprising that he started with modafinil instead of a sleep aid, but yeah it'll definitely get rid of your drowsiness. It's a weird "wakefulness promoting" drug and not a regular stimulant, and it doesn't have many of the downsides of something like amphetamines, but I'd still assume it'd be better for you to try and fix your sleep quality first before going for the stimulants. But then again, I'm absolutely not a doctor of any kind ๐