If your doctor has recommended that you take the prescription drug armodafinil (Nuvigil), you may want to learn more about it. Here are answers to some common questions people have about this medicine.

Armodafinil is a medicine that helps you stay awake. Your doctor may prescribe it if you have a sleep disorder such as narcolepsy that makes you very sleepy during the day. 

Armodafinil is used to treat what’s called “excessive sleepiness,” which is different from the fatigue you might feel after a long day or a single night of poor sleep. 

People with normal fatigue can usually push through feeling tired, and stay awake. When you have excessive sleepiness, it’s hard to keep from drowsing off, even when you try. It may be even harder to stay awake when you’re sitting or driving. 

This kind of sleepiness affects people almost every day for a month or more and is often caused by a sleep disorder. Armodafinil treats excessive daytime sleepiness caused by several conditions:

  • Narcolepsy. With this condition, you feel an almost irresistible urge to fall asleep suddenly during the day. 
  • Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This condition stops your breathing briefly and makes you wake up many times during the night. You might not even be aware this is happening. 
  • Shift work disorder. This happens when your daytime sleepiness is caused by working late nights, early mornings, or shifts that often change from one time of day to another.

Armodafinil doesn't cure any of these sleep disorders. It only relieves the sleepiness they cause.

You can only get armodafinil with a prescription from your doctor.

Doctors don't know exactly how armodafinil works to treat sleep disorders. It helps keep you awake, but it’s not the same as traditional stimulants like amphetamines. 

This medicine increases the amount of a chemical called dopamine in the brain. Higher levels of dopamine may make you feel more alert and awake. 

Armodafinil comes in a tablet. You take it once a day in the morning if you have OSA or narcolepsy. For shift work disorder, you take it about an hour before you start work.

Take the dose your doctor prescribed. High doses of armodafinil can cause side effects like:

  • Anxiety
  • Chest pain
  • Confusion
  • Fast or slow heartbeat
  • Nausea and diarrhea
  • Shortness of breath
  • Trouble sleeping

If you think you may have taken an overdose, call Poison Control and get medical help right away.

Armodafinil can reduce daytime sleepiness in the first 2 hours after you take it.

Armodafinil is considered a stimulant. It speeds up the movement of messages from your brain to your body and back, which is why you feel more alert. 

It’s possible to get addicted to armodafinil. Your body can become “tolerant” to this medicine, which means you have to take bigger doses to get the same effect you used to get with a smaller dose. 

You can also become dependent on armodafinil. If that happens and you try to stop the medicine, you may have withdrawal symptoms like:

  • An abnormal heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation
  • Chills
  • Confusion
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Shaking
  • Sweating

Before you start taking armodafinil, tell your doctor if you’ve ever had a problem with a stimulant drug like cocaine, amphetamines, or methylphenidate. Your doctor might decide to treat your sleep disorder with another medicine, or check on you more often while you take armodafinil.

Armodafinil is a controlled substance. The government tightly controls the use of certain medicines, including some stimulants, because some people may abuse them or become addicted. 

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration divides controlled substances into five “schedules,” or categories, based on how likely people are to abuse them. The lower the schedule number, the greater its potential for abuse. 

Armodafinil is a schedule IV controlled substance. That means it has a lower potential for abuse than drugs in schedules I-III, which include narcotics and amphetamines. Alprazolam (Xanax), clonazepam (Klonopin), and lorazepam (Ativan) are other schedule IV drugs.

Armodafinil could show up on a drug test, but employers usually don't test for it. However, this medicine could be a problem if you take a drug test for college, Olympic, or professional sports. 

Because stimulant medicines like armodafinil boost alertness and speed, some sports organizations consider them performance-enhancing drugs. You could be banned from certain sports if you test positive for armodafinil.

What doctors call the half-life of armodafinil is about 13 hours for most healthy adults. That means it takes around 13 hours for your body to process and eliminate about half of the drug.

The dose of armodafinil is one whole pill. It can be risky to split pills because it's hard to make an even cut. If you cut the pill unevenly, you could take too little or too much of the medicine. Don't try to split your pills unless your doctor or pharmacist says it's safe.

Armodafinil isn’t a narcotic drug like heroin, fentanyl, or codeine. It’s a wakefulness-promoting drug. Like caffeine and some medicines used to treat ADHD, it helps you stay awake and alert.

Weight loss can be a side effect of armodafinil. In one study of overweight people with OSA, those who took armodafinil lost an average of 5 more pounds than those who took a sugar pill (placebo). Nearly half of people who took armodafinil for 6 months lost 5% or more of their body weight. Almost 25% of people lost 10% or more of their weight.

The cost of armodafinil depends on your dosage and whether your doctor prescribes the brand-name drug or a generic. And how much you actually pay out of pocket depends on your insurance coverage.

The retail (before insurance) cost for a 30-day supply of the 50-milligram dose of Nuvigil is about $360. The same supply of a 250-milligram dose is about $1,075.

A generic version of this drug costs about $80 for a month’s worth of 50-milligram tablets and $94 for 250-milligram tablets. 

If you can't afford your medicine, Nuvigil’s manufacturer offers a prescription savings program that can lower the price for a 1-month supply to as little as $10. 

The program is open to people who pay out of pocket for the drug or have commercial insurance. People with Medicare and Medicaid aren’t eligible for this assistance, but most Medicare prescription drug plans will cover part of the cost. 

Show Sources

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Cleveland Clinic: "Is It Safe to Split Pills?" "Narcolepsy," "Shift Work Sleep Disorder."

Clinical Drug Investigation: "Armodafinil and Modafinil Have Substantially Different Pharmacokinetic Profiles Despite Having the Same Terminal Half-Lives: Analysis of Data from Three Randomized, Single-Dose, Pharmacokinetic Studies."

Drug Enforcement Administration: "Controlled Substance Schedules."

FDA: "Prescribing Information: Nuvigil."

Good Rx: "Armodafinil."

IJEST.org: "Modafinil and Drug Tests: Will Modafinil Show Up On a Drug Test?"

Mayo Clinic: "Armodafinil," "Obstructive Sleep Apnea."

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National Cancer Institute: "Controlled Substance."

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Sleep Foundation: “Excessive Sleepiness.”

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