6 ms·

Surely there’s a better drug than coffee for staying awake for a long time.

hawkice 8y ago
More effective, maybe. But caffeine is so widely used and understood that it is by far the safest and least risky. That's super valuable.
- usrusr 8y ago
  "Could we get simular results without the nasty stuff if we just get the whole base on decaf during regular operations" seems to be a plausible motivation.
tzahola 8y ago
Amphetamine?
- mrep 8y ago
  Yep, the classic one being adderall but you need a prescription for that unfortunately.
tempay 8y ago
There is though maybe not legally, for example the wide range of amphetamines. There has been a lot of research into this for fighter pilots[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-go_pill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-go_pill
L_226 8y ago
Modafinil - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modafinil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modafinil
- gadders 8y ago
  I took some of that once for an overnight deployment at work. It's good stuff. No headaches like I would have got if I'd been drinking coffee all night.
  - andai 8y ago
    I tried Modafinil for a few weeks with some friends. The alertness is quite incredible, although for me made me unable to fall asleep until dawn (even on half the lowest dose). The others have no trouble sleeping even with large doses, but experienced some bad headaches, or personality changes ("I just want to work all day now" -- this may not be bad depending on context). I quit the trial when I developed large purple circles on my skin. Turns out skin problems, including some medically serious ones, are a relatively common side effect. Proceed with caution!
    - koboll 8y ago
      I used to use modafinil daily and though I never got skin side effects, it ended up causing the same sort of quality-of-life-depressing dependence and tolerance issues as caffeine.
    - dsego 8y ago
      I also started getting red patches on my skin after weeks of use. There were some headaches, dry mouth, jaw clenching etc. It did improve bowel movements.
    - synthmeat 8y ago
      In my case, hydrating excessively (>3 liters per day) mitigated most of the negative side-effects. Jaw clenching still persists. Effect attenuates with regular daily use for me, despite most research to the contrary, which leads me to believe it's caused just by plain old lack of sleep during consumption days. Care to elaborate on the skin issues? Were they planar circles (I know, oxymoron)? And what's "large"? I could maybe correlate some skin issues of mine (up to 1cm, but majority smaller than .5 tumor-like skin bumps, mostly colorless, but some red with darker aureola) to this.
      - andai 8y ago
        It was a while ago. About 1cm diameter, reddish-purplish. Looked very concerning, intuitively, and reminded me of the horror stories I had read about modafinil occasionally causing life-threatening skin reactions.
- derekdahmer 8y ago
  I keep Modafinil around for emergencies. For example, after getting caught in traffic driving back from a weekend vacation and now its midnight with two hours left to go and you can feel yourself fighting to keep your eyelids open, it'll get you home safely. However while Modafinil will keep you awake, it doesn't mitigate the downsides of being sleep deprived. At 4am you'll still be irritable, burnt out and not make good decisions. Regular sleep is really the only medicine.
- orasis 8y ago
  Modafinil scares me. I completely lose time and have little memory of the day - like that movie where the guy fast-forwards his life.
  - eezurr 8y ago
    Nothing to be scared about. It will keep you awake but does not negate the affects from lack of sleep (which is what you're probably describing).
- chillwaves 8y ago
  This is the answer. Works great with caffeine as well.
_ak 8y ago
The Germans used metamphetamine during World War 2. They gave it nicknames Panzerschokolade ("tank chocolate"), Stuka-Tabletten ("Stuka tablets"), Herman-Göring-Pillen, or Flieger-Marzipan ("pilot's marzipan"). It was freely available under the brand name "Pervitin" until 1941. From then on, you needed a prescription in order to purchase it.
- Zezima 8y ago
  Did you read Blitzed by Norman Ohler?
  - _ak 8y ago
    No, why?
    - oxide 8y ago
      It's a pretty good read, mostly about the prevalence of Pervitin usage. I found it extremely worthwhile but drug discourse is my cup of tea- I tend to get a bit geeky about it.
- ekianjo 8y ago
  The Japanese also had similar drugs in free circulation during ww2 if I remember correctly.
  - nervousvarun 8y ago
    Not only that, the Japanese actually invented (synthesized) Meth in 1919. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine It's still one of the most popular (if not the most popular) illegal drugs in Japan. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_methamphetamine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_methamphetamin...
  - Fnoord 8y ago
    From what I understood it was used by kamikaze pilots (mainly the infamous Mitsubishi A6M Zero).
krylon 8y ago
I once spent a boring Sunday afternoon researching the alternatives on Wikipedia. As far as I could find out, they are illegal (Amphetamine), prescription-only (Modafinil) and/or very bad for your health (Methamphetamine). Amphetamine and Methamphetamine are also rather addictive and apparently quitting once you formed a habit is no fun. Ephedrine might be an alternative, but in Germany, it's prescription-only, and I did not care enough to research the possible health issues it might cause. I vaguely remember there were a few substances that sounded promising, but they were fairly new, and I could not find out anything about their possible health effects, addictive-ness, etc... So it's either caffeine or plenty of sleep, at least for me.
- mkirklions 8y ago
  Uh... I hope I dont ruin anyones life talking about the legal solution... So I found that psudoephedrine (cold medicine) is pretty darn close to amphetamines. Find the 12 hour, 120mg capsules. I think you get 20 pills for like 6 dollars. Basically I'd take 2 saturday morning. Wait a half hour and drink caffeine as needed through the day. Wow. I'm talking from 5AM until 2AM I am able to work. Not just stuff I enjoy, but even the worst of work. Gl, dont get screwed by CVS's placebo and crappy brand name psudoephedrine. Be responsible.
  - vidarh 8y ago
    Pseudoephedrine is a scheduled drug, prescription only or available over the counter with various restrictions (such as e.g. showing ID) most places because it's sought after as a precursor to methamphetamine. Particularly be careful if you intend to take it over a border.
    - mkirklions 8y ago
      Yeah just show them your license. I dont get it more than 1 time a month, but I have noticed that stores dont use the same database. You can go from CVS to walmart to the local pharmacy if you needed to. But if you need more than 10 days a month of psudoephedrine, I wish I never recommended it to you.
dwater 8y ago
There was an article I remember from 2600 about all the various stimulants readily available at the time (1996-97), I found a text version of it: http://67.225.133.110/~gbpprorg/2600/HackHead.html http://67.225.133.110/~gbpprorg/2600/HackHead.html I believe the original title was "Hack Your Head". Ephedrine was an excellent stimulant, but a few people died because they didn't understand what it would do. You wouldn't feel thirsty, and it was sold as a workout supplement, so people would take it and then exercise outside in the summer and suffer severe dehydration. After that it was made illegal in the US, which is too bad because for me it was much more effective than caffeine and sold over the counter.
- Bizarro 8y ago
  It's not illegal. You just need to show your ID at the pharmacy and sign the "I'm not going to make meth notice" on the screen. Bronkaid works great as an appetite suppressant, a little energy boost without much of the caffeine jitters, and as its prescribed effect of opening up the lungs.
aviv 8y ago
An organic wild blueberry + strawberry smoothie (no other ingredients). But that's not the point - you shouldn't stay awake for too long of a time in the first place.

More effective, maybe. But caffeine is so widely used and understood that it is by far the safest and least risky. That's super valuable.

usrusr 8y ago
"Could we get simular results without the nasty stuff if we just get the whole base on decaf during regular operations" seems to be a plausible motivation.

tzahola 8y ago

Amphetamine?

mrep 8y ago
Yep, the classic one being adderall but you need a prescription for that unfortunately.

tempay 8y ago

There is though maybe not legally, for example the wide range of amphetamines. There has been a lot of research into this for fighter pilots[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-go_pill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-go_pill

L_226 8y ago

Modafinil - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modafinil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modafinil

gadders 8y ago
I took some of that once for an overnight deployment at work. It's good stuff. No headaches like I would have got if I'd been drinking coffee all night.
- andai 8y ago
  I tried Modafinil for a few weeks with some friends. The alertness is quite incredible, although for me made me unable to fall asleep until dawn (even on half the lowest dose). The others have no trouble sleeping even with large doses, but experienced some bad headaches, or personality changes ("I just want to work all day now" -- this may not be bad depending on context). I quit the trial when I developed large purple circles on my skin. Turns out skin problems, including some medically serious ones, are a relatively common side effect. Proceed with caution!
  - koboll 8y ago
    I used to use modafinil daily and though I never got skin side effects, it ended up causing the same sort of quality-of-life-depressing dependence and tolerance issues as caffeine.
  - dsego 8y ago
    I also started getting red patches on my skin after weeks of use. There were some headaches, dry mouth, jaw clenching etc. It did improve bowel movements.
  - synthmeat 8y ago
    In my case, hydrating excessively (>3 liters per day) mitigated most of the negative side-effects. Jaw clenching still persists. Effect attenuates with regular daily use for me, despite most research to the contrary, which leads me to believe it's caused just by plain old lack of sleep during consumption days. Care to elaborate on the skin issues? Were they planar circles (I know, oxymoron)? And what's "large"? I could maybe correlate some skin issues of mine (up to 1cm, but majority smaller than .5 tumor-like skin bumps, mostly colorless, but some red with darker aureola) to this.
    - andai 8y ago
      It was a while ago. About 1cm diameter, reddish-purplish. Looked very concerning, intuitively, and reminded me of the horror stories I had read about modafinil occasionally causing life-threatening skin reactions.
derekdahmer 8y ago
I keep Modafinil around for emergencies. For example, after getting caught in traffic driving back from a weekend vacation and now its midnight with two hours left to go and you can feel yourself fighting to keep your eyelids open, it'll get you home safely. However while Modafinil will keep you awake, it doesn't mitigate the downsides of being sleep deprived. At 4am you'll still be irritable, burnt out and not make good decisions. Regular sleep is really the only medicine.
orasis 8y ago
Modafinil scares me. I completely lose time and have little memory of the day - like that movie where the guy fast-forwards his life.
- eezurr 8y ago
  Nothing to be scared about. It will keep you awake but does not negate the affects from lack of sleep (which is what you're probably describing).
chillwaves 8y ago
This is the answer. Works great with caffeine as well.

_ak 8y ago

The Germans used metamphetamine during World War 2. They gave it nicknames Panzerschokolade ("tank chocolate"), Stuka-Tabletten ("Stuka tablets"), Herman-Göring-Pillen, or Flieger-Marzipan ("pilot's marzipan"). It was freely available under the brand name "Pervitin" until 1941. From then on, you needed a prescription in order to purchase it.

Zezima 8y ago
Did you read Blitzed by Norman Ohler?
- _ak 8y ago
  No, why?
  - oxide 8y ago
    It's a pretty good read, mostly about the prevalence of Pervitin usage. I found it extremely worthwhile but drug discourse is my cup of tea- I tend to get a bit geeky about it.
ekianjo 8y ago
The Japanese also had similar drugs in free circulation during ww2 if I remember correctly.
- nervousvarun 8y ago
  Not only that, the Japanese actually invented (synthesized) Meth in 1919. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine It's still one of the most popular (if not the most popular) illegal drugs in Japan. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_methamphetamine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_methamphetamin...
- Fnoord 8y ago
  From what I understood it was used by kamikaze pilots (mainly the infamous Mitsubishi A6M Zero).

krylon 8y ago

I once spent a boring Sunday afternoon researching the alternatives on Wikipedia. As far as I could find out, they are illegal (Amphetamine), prescription-only (Modafinil) and/or very bad for your health (Methamphetamine). Amphetamine and Methamphetamine are also rather addictive and apparently quitting once you formed a habit is no fun. Ephedrine might be an alternative, but in Germany, it's prescription-only, and I did not care enough to research the possible health issues it might cause. I vaguely remember there were a few substances that sounded promising, but they were fairly new, and I could not find out anything about their possible health effects, addictive-ness, etc... So it's either caffeine or plenty of sleep, at least for me.

mkirklions 8y ago
Uh... I hope I dont ruin anyones life talking about the legal solution... So I found that psudoephedrine (cold medicine) is pretty darn close to amphetamines. Find the 12 hour, 120mg capsules. I think you get 20 pills for like 6 dollars. Basically I'd take 2 saturday morning. Wait a half hour and drink caffeine as needed through the day. Wow. I'm talking from 5AM until 2AM I am able to work. Not just stuff I enjoy, but even the worst of work. Gl, dont get screwed by CVS's placebo and crappy brand name psudoephedrine. Be responsible.
- vidarh 8y ago
  Pseudoephedrine is a scheduled drug, prescription only or available over the counter with various restrictions (such as e.g. showing ID) most places because it's sought after as a precursor to methamphetamine. Particularly be careful if you intend to take it over a border.
  - mkirklions 8y ago
    Yeah just show them your license. I dont get it more than 1 time a month, but I have noticed that stores dont use the same database. You can go from CVS to walmart to the local pharmacy if you needed to. But if you need more than 10 days a month of psudoephedrine, I wish I never recommended it to you.

dwater 8y ago

There was an article I remember from 2600 about all the various stimulants readily available at the time (1996-97), I found a text version of it: http://67.225.133.110/~gbpprorg/2600/HackHead.html http://67.225.133.110/~gbpprorg/2600/HackHead.html I believe the original title was "Hack Your Head". Ephedrine was an excellent stimulant, but a few people died because they didn't understand what it would do. You wouldn't feel thirsty, and it was sold as a workout supplement, so people would take it and then exercise outside in the summer and suffer severe dehydration. After that it was made illegal in the US, which is too bad because for me it was much more effective than caffeine and sold over the counter.

Bizarro 8y ago
It's not illegal. You just need to show your ID at the pharmacy and sign the "I'm not going to make meth notice" on the screen. Bronkaid works great as an appetite suppressant, a little energy boost without much of the caffeine jitters, and as its prescribed effect of opening up the lungs.

aviv 8y ago

An organic wild blueberry + strawberry smoothie (no other ingredients). But that's not the point - you shouldn't stay awake for too long of a time in the first place.