Coffee is the most popular beverage in the world. Some consume it for its unique bittersweet taste, while others for its mood-lifting and wakefulness-promoting properties, which come with its active ingredient, caffeine. Similar to Coffee, Modafinil 200mg is the most used drug for productivity and wakefulness. While both fall under the stimulants category, it is usually preferred by users to eliminate daytime sleepiness and boost productivity in their job.
Since both Modafinil and caffeine have similar effects, which one should be chosen, or can you have both? The biggest question consumers ask before taking it is whether they have to discontinue their daily Coffee because it’s hard to kick out Coffee from your life once you get the hang of it. Will coffee interact with Modafinil? Is it dangerous to health to mix caffeine and Modafinil?
You can have caffeine and Modafinil together, provided you take your Coffee moderately and within a specific timeframe.
To understand it more clearly, you need to know the basics of Modafinil and Coffee. You need to understand the pros and cons of mixing Coffee and see how each smart drug works in your body.
Modafinil and Coffee caffeine offer similar nootropic effects, but their working mechanisms differ.
How Caffeine Works?
Caffeine is the active compound in Coffee known for its wakefulness-promoting properties. It helps you get alert and awake by eliminating the grogginess and tiredness after you wake up.
Caffeine blocks the brain’s GABA receptors and adenosine A1 and A2A receptors. Adenosine is a neurotransmitter that induces sleep. People who feel sleepy all the time has more of these neurotransmitters in their body. Caffeine blocks these neurotransmitters and promotes wakefulness, and boosts productivity.
Caffeine increases your acetylcholine, glutamate, and dopamine production, which keeps you alert, which you dearly need to do your job correctly.
If your caffeine comes from Coffee, you will also get other benefits. This is because Coffee contains antioxidants like polyphenols and hydrocinnamic acids that neutralize oxidative stress and disarms free radicals, protecting you against aging and preventing several health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.
You will get around 100mg of caffeine from 250ml of Coffee. However, it also depends on the type and roasted method of the Coffee. Robusta mild to medium roasted Coffee has more caffeine and antioxidants than dark roasted coffee beans.
How Modafinil Works?
The exact mechanism of Modafinil is still unknown to scientists. However, it can certainly improve cognitive abilities, wakefulness, and alertness in users.
What we know to date is that it can suppress GABA receptors, a neurotransmitter is known for increasing sleepiness.
So, if both caffeine and it suppress GABA receptors, then what makes Modafinil different? This is because it helps your brain in a number of ways. It is known to slightly increase your dopamine levels, aka the brain’s reward circuit, and is secondary to other alertness-promoting mechanisms. The boost in dopamine helps you feel joy, which empowers you to perform well in your daily job.
It increases your glutamate levels in the thalamus region of the brain, as well as hypocretin and histamine that regulates your wakefulness and cognition.
While Modafinil is a CNS stimulant, it is not categorized as an amphetamine. This is because it acts on a specific pathway of the brain to regulate sleep and wakefulness. In contrast, amphetamine affects significant areas of cerebral structures, which also governs the user’s behavior.
To simplify, it can give you the elevated joy associated with amphetamine without the associated side effects.
Can you drink Coffee while in Modafinil?
You can drink Coffee while taking it and start your morning with a bang. However, extra precaution and control over your dosage will help as both are potent nootropics, and mixing too much of both does not always provide favorable returns. In short, don’t try to fire your neurons to their extreme, as everything has a limit.
You can safely experience the full cognitive benefits of both caffeine and Modafinil by limiting your daily dosage of Modafinil to 200mg and 200mg caffeine (equivalent to 2 cups of Coffee). However, it would help if you took them together only two times a week.
Note: this is only for people who already are consuming Coffee and do not want to cut back on their caffeine.
However, if you are a beginner to drugs, including caffeine, your body might be pretty sensitive to stimulants. In such a case, it’s not advisable to combine them both.
Studies suggest that you can take any nootropics, which will be equally effective for healthy adults deprived of sleep for more than 48 hours.
Modafinil dose of 200mg and 400mg offers the same cognitive and health benefits as 600mg caffeine by managing wakefulness and alertness during the morning hours in people going through circadian cycle disruption, lack of opportunity to sleep, and issues staying alert for a long time.
Another study reveals that taking 200mg of Modafinil and 200mg of caffeine offers the same level of alertness.
If you want to have your Coffee and take it, mix them with the following at the initial stage and gradually increase the dose depending on your body’s response.
Make sure to drink your Coffee within the limit to avoid overstimulating your system. Caffeine overdose symptoms include increased heartbeat, shakiness, pain attack, and feeling sick or vomiting.
How do Modafinil and Coffee Interact?
Since no detailed research or clinical studies are present about the molecular interaction of Modafinil and caffeine, we need to carry with educated guesses based on the working mechanism of both drugs.
Caffeine can intensify the wakeful promoting properties of Modafinil
As discussed earlier, both Modafinil and caffeine increase wakefulness by suppressing GABA receptors. Taking them together may increase the effectiveness and prolong the mechanism. Therefore, the safe way is to take Coffee after 1 hour before or after taking Modafinil. The more time distance between the two, the lesser the chances of any interaction. This is because caffeine has a half-life of between 4-6 hours, and it is between 11-12 hours.
Again, just because caffeine and modafinil interact, that interaction doesn’t necessarily put your body at risk. The safe way is to consume them in controlled dosage. For instance, if you consume 200mg of Modafinil every day at night and decide to take Coffee, you can lower your Modafinil dose to 100mg, just to be safe. Then gradually increase the doses (if needed) based on your body’s response.
Coffee and Modafinil increase norepinephrine production
Norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter linked with arousal and wakefulness. People with lower norepinephrine tend to suffer from sleep disorders like narcolepsy, fall asleep quite faster and struggle to wake up. Similarly, people with more neurotransmitters in the brain fail to fall asleep. Taking Coffee and Modafinil together may disrupt the production of norepinephrine.
It can increase the risks of side-effects
Caffeine and Modafinil, when taken individually, rarely cause any side effects. The most you can get is a headache or dry mouth. However, consuming them together may intensify their impact and cause new side effects you may never experience.
Note: This is totally an assumed observation, as there are no studies available that claim Modafinil and caffeine together are a bad idea.
Read more:- Purchase Modafinil Online Safely Over-the-Counter in the UK
Final words
Modafinil and Coffee complete each other as nootropics by amplifying your cognitive abilities and keeping you awake and focused for several hours without risking any debilitating side effects from other stimulants like amphetamines. As long as you take these two drugs at the proper doses and at the right time, you can experience the benefits without triggering any bad reactions.
Reference Links:-
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11862356/
modafinil or PROVIGIL Food, Alcohol, Supplements and Drug Interactions (wellrx.com)
Beginners Guide to Mixing Modafinil and Caffeine – Modafinil.org
