Keep Awake With Provigal
Provigal is a common mispelling of the drug Provigil. The actual medicine is modafinil made by Cephalon.
Provigal has been used most commonly to fight situations of excessive sleepiness, to keep people awake if they have problems such as narcolepsy (a situation where a person tends to fall asleep anywhere spontaneously, also called narcalepsy), shift work sleep disorder, and sleep apnea (commonly misspelt as sleep apnia or sleep apena). Nobody knows exactly why or how it works, but it works. Addictive potential apparently is minimal, as is the incidence of side effects. The problem of excessive sleepiness does not belong to the above group of sufferers alone, but also to students fighting to stay awake for exams, soldiers needing to keep awake on long missions, and the like. Because of this effect of helping keep one awake and concentrate better, there are many off-label uses for Provigal. That is, Provigal may be often used in conditions which may not be officially approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Thus there have been many situations where in the US military soldiers, helicopter and fighter pilots have been sent on gruelling missions and been supplied liberally with Provigal just to keep awake.
Provigal is highly popular among students needing to do last minute cramming up for examinations. It helps them keep awake and fight off the feeling of sleepiness that comes on from long hours of late night studying. Reports indicate that there is a subtle improvement in memory, which is seen to be more marked in people deprived of sleep or those with poor memories.
Even Silicon Valley executives have been known to stock up or take this drug daily to stay awake and better improve their performance (see Michael Arrington’s post in TechCrunch).
Celebrities have been caught taking Provigal to keep up their lifestyle needs with late night partying. Even a well-known celebrity like Britney Spears has been photographed with Provigal in her handbag.
Sales of Provigal have been estimated to reach a billion dollars annually.