This morning TechCrunch released an article about Provigil (modafinil). I remember talking to Jason Tucker about this a few years ago when they were doing the first trials of the drug. Basically it allows the person taking it to stay awake and alert for up to 88 hours. They had tested this on pilots who had to operate helicopters and F117 aircraft over long distances for bombing missions. There was no discernible “sleep debt” and after 8 hours of sleep the pilots were up again and running on their own steam.

When Jason and I talked about it, we wondered what kind of personal lives we could have if we could knock out an 8 hour day and then have the next 16 to ourselves.  We figured we could be awake for 48 hours, sleep 8 hours during the usual time of night and then run for another 48 hours. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I think if you stayed on that stuff for too long you’d start seeing dead people (thanks James). The movie Flatliners comes to mind.