I did a fair amount of research into various techniques for reducing sleep need.
There are certain drugs which increase deep sleep at the expense of other stages (preferably at the expense of light sleep). It is plausible these drugs could reduce sleep need. However, I should note that there are no studies into whether these actually reduce sleep need. This is purely speculation. Some candidates include ritanserin (available only for research purposes), trazodone (a common anti-depressant, used more commonly for insomnia), mirtazapine, pregabalin, gabapentin, and GHB. GHB is extremely highly regulated and is only available by prescription for narcolepsy. Moreover, it appears to be highly dangerous and I absolutely recommend against it. I should note that some of these drugs may have unacceptable side effects, or even unknown effects in the case of ritanserin. Ritanserin, however, is the strongest deep sleep booster I have seen.
With that being said, it’s not clear that the lighter stages of sleep are unnecessary, and there could be serious adverse affects from taking these drugs regularly for these purposes. I do not recommend taking these drugs for these purposes.
My impression from the research was that no stimulant actually reduces sleep requirements. And I would count the -afinils as stimulants; the promotional literature wants to believe otherwise, but I see no reason to justify that. Future narcolepsy treatments may perform much better than stimulants do in terms of feeling, by physically turning off sleep signals in the brain. However, I suspect this would be ill advised for long term use absent narcolepsy.
As for behavioral interventions, as I recall, there is reasonable evidence that exercise increases deep sleep.
If you are interested, I could dig up the studies on these topics again and give you some things to read.
Edit: I also want to add that the drugs I listed above are not anticholinergic, or are only mildly so (e.g., trazodone). Anticholinergic drugs could contribute to mental decline when taken for long periods of time. From what I understand many antihistamines which cause drowsiness also would increase deep sleep, but I would not recommend taking them for long periods of time due to the anticholinergic effects these drugs have. So taking benadryl daily to improve your sleep quality is probably a bad idea.
I did a fair amount of research into various techniques for reducing sleep need.
There are certain drugs which increase deep sleep at the expense of other stages (preferably at the expense of light sleep). It is plausible these drugs could reduce sleep need. However, I should note that there are no studies into whether these actually reduce sleep need. This is purely speculation. Some candidates include ritanserin (available only for research purposes), trazodone (a common anti-depressant, used more commonly for insomnia), mirtazapine, pregabalin, gabapentin, and GHB. GHB is extremely highly regulated and is only available by prescription for narcolepsy. Moreover, it appears to be highly dangerous and I absolutely recommend against it. I should note that some of these drugs may have unacceptable side effects, or even unknown effects in the case of ritanserin. Ritanserin, however, is the strongest deep sleep booster I have seen.
With that being said, it’s not clear that the lighter stages of sleep are unnecessary, and there could be serious adverse affects from taking these drugs regularly for these purposes. I do not recommend taking these drugs for these purposes.
My impression from the research was that no stimulant actually reduces sleep requirements. And I would count the -afinils as stimulants; the promotional literature wants to believe otherwise, but I see no reason to justify that. Future narcolepsy treatments may perform much better than stimulants do in terms of feeling, by physically turning off sleep signals in the brain. However, I suspect this would be ill advised for long term use absent narcolepsy.
As for behavioral interventions, as I recall, there is reasonable evidence that exercise increases deep sleep.
If you are interested, I could dig up the studies on these topics again and give you some things to read.
Edit: I also want to add that the drugs I listed above are not anticholinergic, or are only mildly so (e.g., trazodone). Anticholinergic drugs could contribute to mental decline when taken for long periods of time. From what I understand many antihistamines which cause drowsiness also would increase deep sleep, but I would not recommend taking them for long periods of time due to the anticholinergic effects these drugs have. So taking benadryl daily to improve your sleep quality is probably a bad idea.