11

How do caffeine and Modafinil interact?

If you’re a car lover like me, you would know that there are 2 methods of getting more horses out of your engine.

One is turbocharging the other is supercharging. Both tweaks make the car go faster.

But what we are here to find out is if they can be combined and still not wreck your engine or your drive.

I’m drawing an analogy to caffeine and Modafinil. Of course, they’re not quite the same as super / turbochargers but let’s go along with it for now.

If we combine both, we first need to know what they are capable of as stand-alone brain boosters.

Let’s start with caffeine…

Caffeine

In 17th century England the popularity of the drink gave rise to a number of coffee houses which were dubbed ‘penny universities’, because with one penny a person could buy a cup of coffee and have intellectually stimulating conversations with other people.

So its nootropic effects were confirmed in the civilized society pretty long ago.

It is probably the most-prevalent and popular nootropic in the world.

Drinking coffee goes back more than centuries ago if evidence is to be believed. Wars were actually won because of this amazing drink.

There was a soldier who wrote in his diary ‘you can’t soldier without coffee’.

Pros

• Acts as an antioxidant, repairing damage to neurons due to oxidation
• Prevents Parkinson’s disease in some cases
• Lowers the risk of liver cancer
• Generally considered good for the heart

Cons

• Diuretic, so loss of fluids and dehydration may occur when consumed in higher amounts
• Increases anxiety in larger quantities
• Known to increase acidity, causing acid reflux
• Mood swings and jitteriness
• Coffee breath

Modafinil

One of the first to earn the moniker “smart drug,” Modafinil has been a strong force in the world of nootropics.

Although its nootropic properties are off-label, you can easily buy it online from a handful of websites. As such, there is enough anecdotal evidence to convince people about its benefits for the brain.

Pros

• All benefits of coffee but much stronger
• Studies have found it increases cognitive functions in the brain
• Within accepted dosage levels, side-effects are minimal
• More pronounced effect-for-money-spent than coffee

Cons

• Not many people prefer a drug’s off-label use
• Needs prescription or brought in from outside the country
• Need to be careful not to overdo it

So you see they each have their positives and negatives. My job is to find out if they offer a synergistic experience when they are combined. Spoiler alert: they do!

But, do they mix?

Following are the excerpts from my own experience when it comes to mixing the two.

I like my coffee in the morning; every day of the week and a bit late on weekends.

But I have never overdone it. Meaning I don’t guzzle 10 cups of it every day like a lot of people do.

But all said, my cup o’ joe is critical for me to function normally right after I’m up.

I usually pop my Moda right after I wake up.

This gives me ample time to work up a good ‘zone‘ before I head out to work. The coffee goes down the hatch at about 11’o clock.

Let me tell you, if you are used to plain black coffee, you should try coffee on Modafinil. You can literally hear your internal turbo spooling up (coffe cubes is another option you could try – read my review here)

The key to the intake of stacked nootropics is to make sure that you have the exact measure and timing right when you take them.

Timing is everything

I would recommend that you take your dose of Modafinil as you usually do in the morning. Then down the coffee late-morning or post lunch, whenever you are feeling a bit drained.

Since you already have Modafinil in your system, your shot of coffee should now have extra strength and perk you right up!

This recommendation comes after I tried taking both at the same time.

The results were far from beneficial. I was on-edge throughout the day and hardly got any meaningful work done.

The right boost pressure

It’s easy to overboost your turbo/supercharger.

The feeling of power is addictive not to mention all the exciting sounds that go with it! But you should be aware that running it at a high boost can be very harmful to your engine. Similarly with stacking nootropics.

I have come across in a lot of cases is that most people tend to not notice the fact that they are downing huge quantities of coffee even when they are on Modafinil. This might either be due to force of habit or just because it feels good.

But you should avoid doing this as too much coffee when on a course of nootropics can cause loss of focus, jitteriness and anxiety.

But by all accounts, you should give it a try if you do not down coffee by the gallon. Modafinil and caffeine are synergistic and you should have beneficial effects when consumed. They interact and combine with each other well.

Other Modafinil users recognize the synergy between caffeine and Moda. Ronald Ng, a frequent user, had this to say about combining the two:

There is a synergistic effect between modafinil and caffeine.

If you are a regular drinker of caffeine, be especially careful when you begin taking modafinil. Err on the side of caution and assume that your regular morning coffee is going to be two or three times more potent. While this might sound like a good thing, this synergy is also present in the negative effects of any form of over-stimulation.

Yes, you will be more awake but if you have too many coffees, you may find yourself experiencing greater anxiety than usual. It takes time to find the right balance but once you do I think you’ll find that they work well together.

Other Quora users ditch caffeine altogether:

Read Tim Robinson answer to How do caffeine and modafinil interact? on Quora.

I follow a morning routine similar to Ronald’s. A just a little bit of Armodafinil (37.5 mg or ~1/4 pill) with a cup of green tea or decaf coffee. Together, I feel the benefits of caffeine and modafinil, without the downsides of either (jitters, anxiety, dehydration, anti-social vibe).

Final Word

So to answer the question we started off with, yes, there are cars that have turbochargers and superchargers combined.

They are called twinchargers and they eliminate the flat-spots normally associated with both the parent technologies.

But you need to be careful as with twincharged engines. Because too much boost pressure can ruin it and send you back to the repair shop with a huge tab.

So go ahead and twin-charge your day with caffeine+Modafinil and tell us how it went in the comments section below.

---

More on taking Modafinil

Where to buy Modafinil

Modafinil alternatives

Modafinil vs other products