Supplements to Sharpen Focus

A prescription wakefulness-promoting drug (Provigil) approved for the excessive daytime sleepiness of narcolepsy, shift-work sleep disorder, and residual sleepiness in treated obstructive sleep apnea. Widely used off-label as a 'smart drug' for cognition, but the cognitive benefit in healthy people is modest and task-dependent — and it carries a rare but serious skin-reaction (SJS/TEN) warning. A prescription drug, not a supplement, and not a longevity drug.

A prescription wakefulness-promoting drug (Nuvigil) — the longer-acting R-enantiomer of modafinil — approved for the excessive sleepiness of narcolepsy, shift-work disorder, and residual sleepiness in treated obstructive sleep apnea. Used off-label as a 'smart drug' for wakefulness and cognition, but the off-label cognitive benefit in healthy people is modest and task-dependent (the same picture as modafinil), and it carries a rare but serious skin-reaction (SJS/TEN) warning. A prescription drug, not a supplement, and not a longevity drug.

A discontinued French wakefulness drug (Olmifon, CRL-40028) the liver converts into modafinil — essentially a less-efficient, slower way to take modafinil. Once prescribed for vigilance and attention in the elderly, it was withdrawn from the market and now circulates grey-market as an unregulated 'nootropic.' Direct human evidence is old and thin, chronic use can raise liver enzymes, and it is NOT a dietary supplement and NOT a longevity drug.

A racetam-class nootropic (NS-105 / NFC-1) whose human evidence is unusually thin. It was originally developed in the 1990s as an oral drug for vascular dementia / cerebrovascular disease — that program was discontinued. It resurfaced for a narrow, mutation-selected indication: one small open-label study (Elia 2018, 30 adolescents) found symptom improvement in teens with ADHD who carry mutations in mGluR-network genes. The mechanism (mGluR modulation, GABA-B receptor upregulation, cholinergic anti-amnesic effects) is grounded in 1990s rat work. It is sold grey-market as a research chemical — not an approved drug, not a dietary supplement, and not a longevity compound.

A racetam-class nootropic and high-affinity choline-uptake (HACU) enhancer studied preclinically for memory and briefly in a Phase-2 depression/anxiety program that produced only modest, largely unpublished results. Almost all of the evidence is rodent and in-vitro; there is no peer-reviewed human efficacy data, and it is sold grey-market — not a dietary supplement.

A grey-market 'research chemical' sold online as a more-potent modafinil — flmodafinil is the bis(4-fluorophenyl) analogue of modafinil (lauflumide / CRL-40,940), marketed as a wakefulness-promoting nootropic. The CRITICAL fact is the ABSENCE of evidence: there are NO published human efficacy or safety trials of flmodafinil itself. The only direct literature is a single mouse study (the analogue lauflumide promoted wakefulness more potently than modafinil) and a 2026 doping-control paper in which six volunteers ingested it to map its metabolism and detection — human pharmacokinetics, but nothing about whether it works or is safe. Everything else marketers cite is the MODAFINIL literature — a RELATED but DIFFERENT drug — which cannot be transferred to an unstudied analogue of unknown purity and dose. Expect modafinil-like effects and harms by extrapolation only: insomnia, headache, anxiety, raised blood pressure and heart rate, the rare-but-serious skin reactions seen with modafinil, and dependence/misuse potential — all UNMONITORED, with grey-market product of unverified identity and dosing. It is NOT an approved medicine, NOT a dietary supplement, and there is no human use this library can recommend. Informational, harm-reduction entry only — the honest takeaway is that flmodafinil’s benefit and safety are unstudied in humans.

A grey-market 'research chemical' sold online as a wakefulness-promoting nootropic — fladrafinil (fluorafinil / CRL-40,941) is a fluorinated analogue of adrafinil/modafinil and, critically, a PRODRUG that converts in the body to flmodafinil (CRL-40,940), which is itself an unstudied modafinil analogue catalogued here. The defining fact is the ABSENCE of evidence: there are essentially NO published human efficacy or safety trials of fladrafinil. The only direct human data is a single 2026 doping-control paper in which six volunteers ingested 20 mg of fladrafinil (or flmodafinil) so its metabolism and detection could be mapped — human pharmacokinetics, but nothing about whether it works or is safe. Everything else marketers cite is the MODAFINIL literature — a related but DIFFERENT drug — which cannot be transferred to an unstudied analogue of unknown purity and dose. By extrapolation from modafinil (and via its active metabolite flmodafinil) expect modafinil-like effects and harms only: insomnia, headache, anxiety, raised blood pressure and heart rate, the rare-but-serious skin reactions seen with modafinil, and dependence/misuse potential — all UNMONITORED, with grey-market product of unverified identity and dosing. It is reputed (anecdotally only) to be more 'anti-aggressive' than adrafinil, but that too is unproven. It is NOT an approved medicine, NOT a dietary supplement, and there is no human use this library can recommend. Informational, harm-reduction entry only — the honest takeaway is that fladrafinil's benefit and safety are unstudied in humans.

A grey-market 'research chemical' sold online as a more-potent modafinil alternative — hydrafinil (9-fluorenol) is marketed by vendors as a eugeroic, wakefulness-promoting nootropic. The CRITICAL fact is the near-total ABSENCE of evidence: there are NO human clinical trials of hydrafinil for any cognitive or wakefulness use, no approval, and effectively no peer-reviewed pharmacology of 9-fluorenol AS A NOOTROPIC. The vendor 'more potent than modafinil' claims trace to unpublished/secondary sources, not to any published human or even solid animal efficacy trial. The only legitimate literature that touches 9-fluorenol is analytical chemistry (a single human pilot study mapped how a 50 mg oral dose is metabolized and eliminated for doping-control detection — three volunteers, pharmacokinetics only) and unrelated synthetic-chemistry / environmental work on fluorene derivatives — NONE of it nootropic efficacy. This is the thinnest 'absence of evidence' entry in the library. Harms are extrapolated from the wakefulness/modafinil class and are UNPROVEN for hydrafinil specifically: insomnia, anxiety, headache, raised blood pressure and heart rate; layered on top of grey-market unknowns — unverified identity, purity and dose, no safety data at all, and no medical supervision. It is NOT an approved medicine, NOT a dietary supplement, and there is no human use this library can recommend. Informational, harm-reduction entry only — the honest takeaway is that hydrafinil's benefit and safety are essentially unstudied in humans.

A grey-market 'research chemical' sold online as a memory-enhancing nootropic — IDRA-21 is a benzothiadiazine AMPAKINE, a positive allosteric modulator of AMPA glutamate receptors that slows their desensitization and so enhances glutamatergic transmission. The CRITICAL fact is the absence of human evidence: there are NO human clinical trials of IDRA-21. Its entire evidence base is rodent and non-human-primate behavioural studies plus in-vitro electrophysiology — work in which it improved learning/memory tasks and was reported several-fold more potent than the prototype ampakine aniracetam. That is genuinely promising preclinical pharmacology, but it has never been tested in people for either benefit or safety, and AMPA potentiation carries a theoretical EXCITOTOXICITY / seizure risk with chronic or high-dose use. Layered on top is grey-market reality: material of unverified identity, purity and dose, taken with no medical supervision. It is NOT an approved medicine, NOT a dietary supplement, and there is no human use this library can recommend. Informational, harm-reduction entry only — the honest takeaway is that IDRA-21 is essentially unstudied in humans.

A grey-market 'research chemical' sold online as a potent nootropic — sunifiram (DM-235) is a piperazine-based experimental cognition enhancer, a structural simplification of the racetam piracetam. The CRITICAL fact is the nature of its evidence: the ENTIRE evidence base is rodent and in-vitro pharmacology, with NO human clinical trials of any kind — no efficacy data, no safety data, and no pharmacovigilance on the material people actually buy. In rodents, sunifiram has anti-amnesic and memory-enhancing effects at very low doses, acting by potentiating AMPA receptors (ampakine-like) and the glycine site of NMDA receptors, enhancing cholinergic signalling, and driving downstream CaMKII / PKCα / BDNF cascades that strengthen hippocampal long-term potentiation. None of that has ever been tested in a person. It is sold as an unregulated 'research chemical' with no approval, no human safety data, unknown long-term effects, and unverified identity, purity and dose, with anecdotal reports of stimulation and overstimulation. The presumed harms are excitatory: anxiety, insomnia, headache, and a theoretical excitotoxicity concern from chronically potentiating AMPA/NMDA signalling — all UNSTUDIED in humans. It is NOT an approved medicine, NOT a dietary supplement, and there is no human use this library can recommend. Informational, harm-reduction entry only — the honest takeaway is that sunifiram's benefit and safety in humans are entirely unstudied.

A grey-market 'research chemical' sold online as a high-potency nootropic — unifiram (DM-232) is an experimental piperazine-class cognition enhancer that came out of academic work (University of Florence, ~2000) simplifying the racetam scaffold, and is the close structural cousin of sunifiram (DM-235). The CRITICAL fact is the depth of the evidence gap: there are NO human clinical trials of unifiram — not one. The ENTIRE evidence base is rodent and in-vitro pharmacology, where DM-232 reversed chemically-induced amnesia in mice at strikingly low doses (active around 0.001 mg/kg) and increased acetylcholine release and AMPA-mediated excitatory transmission in rat brain slices. It is even LESS studied than the already-grey-market sunifiram, with no human efficacy data, no human safety data, and no pharmacovigilance on the powder people actually buy. Its presumed mechanism is excitatory/ampakine-like and cholinergic, so stimulant-type harms — overstimulation, anxiety, insomnia — are plausible but entirely uncharacterised in people. Layer on the grey-market reality (unverified identity, purity and dose, often sold 'not for human consumption'), and the honest takeaway is that unifiram is an essentially unstudied-in-humans laboratory cognition enhancer, NOT an approved medicine, NOT a dietary supplement, and not a use this library can recommend. Informational, harm-reduction entry only.