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Piracetam and sleep

Although it has been mentioned many times that Piracetam affects sleep this can be rather misleading. In most cases taking Piracetam in the afternoon hours will expand considerably your awake time. Piracetam and most other nootropics actually work with your thought process and not your physical/metabolic systems. What does this mean in practice? It means that it is not coffee. By taking it if you actually need to be awake longer you will find it easier and will be much better focused during this time than without Piracetam. If you don’t actually need to stay awake you might be able to go to sleep. I’m saying might. Because, if you are already properly rested and took Piracetam in the last couple of hours it doesn’t matter if it’s night if you go to bed you will spend your time lying with your mind racing 100mph. If on the other hand you are tired, have no urgent reason to stay awake and go and lay down you could easily fall asleep. Xgeek team has tested this multiple times. Sleeping under effects of Piracetam is also a new cognitive experience. There is drastic increase in both recollection of dreams and lucid dreaming. Also since your brain is more active there is a big chance you will wake up as soon as you finish a needed number of sleep cycles. So the fact is don’t take Piracetam late if you don’t need it. Get your good night’s sleep and pick your battles.

Additional substance list

When taking any nootropic , as I said before, you should have a healthy extensive diet providing you with all the stuff your brain needs. With Piracetam a good idea is addition of B Vitamin complex and Choline. We will be talking much more about stacking but I will just mention that Piracetam is one of the most classical stack ingredients. I will not provide you with quick information about another nootropic for a synergy effect because each one has its own side-effects.

this article is part II of this one

Although my first encounters with nootropics come from a long time ago, my first contact with Piracetam is kind of fresh. While I have read absolutely everything there is about it, it took me a while to find it branded here at home. When I finally brought it in 400mg pills to the rest of the crew we were just off to the movies. Not a bad place to test a new drug, ey? A standard minimum dose (so we read) is 800mg, so we each took 2 pills and went on. By the time the movie was beginning so were the effects. Although an average, Hollywood, movie, the experience of it was completely new. The ability to follow the movie and laugh with it and at the same time fully and utterly absorb the multimillion budget breaking sound and video effects was astonishing. I remember every single moment of the movie even now (story-wise) but at the same time I can recall all the awesome scenes full of effects and sound.

The regular trip

If you heard of nootropics than you’ve heard of Piracetam. As a matter of fact, Piracetam is the original nootropic.  The first brand of Piracetam was/is named Nootropil and from there the whole category of “smart drugs” got its modern name. The name actually tells us a lot. It comes from Greek “noos” which means “mind” and “tropic” meaning “affecting”. It truly is mind-affecting when you take Piracetam. There are noticeable effects. While you will find all over the Internet comments like “.. is said to .. “, “..might be helping with..” and similar, I suspect the main reason for this is the fact that we don’t truly know how Piracetam works in full detail. One thing is for sure. Empirically tested, Piracetam does improve our cognitive abilities. This is not something way too drastic but it is more than enough to be measurable.  You will discover on regular basis after taking Piracetam that you will have increased focus and ability to analyze. There is also a barely noticeable, but consistent, increase in short term memory. All these effects are increasing during a two week, classic, regime.

Xgeek has found on multiple occasions that Piracetam affects levels of creativity. While not an easily quantifiable effect we all agree that the drug has proven its self for brainstorming, music learning and appreciation and other creative work.

Mechanism of action

On an enormous amount of websites older than a year you will find suggestions that Piracetam mostly affects cognition due to its ability to increase oxygen and blood supply to the brain. It is now more than obvious that the blood flow is mostly a side-effect of increased brain activity. It is shown in newer studies that Piracetam affects general excitability of neurons without effects on synaptic action and with low toxicity. You will find many explanations for this. Action on ion channels, electron transport, effects on membrane permeability. All of these come from different studies, so there is no general conclusion. One fact, though, is same. All double-blinded, placebo-controlled, studies have shown positive effects of Piracetam. It is now being sold all over the world and more and more students are using it for studying. For all this, Piracetam has been called “a drug in need of a diseases”. This demonstrates directly how wrong our accepting of nootropics is. We are still under the impression we should only help our self be as smart as the general, minimum, requirement. It is ok to prescribe a person with brain function problems a nootropic, but healthy people should not even know anything about it and should not take it. Aaah.. why??

Actual dangers

Sure, Piracetam is not toxic. I have even seen people taking 3g on the internet without problems. But, this doesn’t mean you can just shove it into yourself. While Piracetam, chemically, is not so dangerous for you, there is still a need for CAUTION. Taking any nootropic, like Piracetam and living an unhealthy life will drive your motor (brain) into excessive over burn. If you do not provide your brain all time with enough fuel and service, as well as upgrades, to be able to perform at this new level, you will wear it down. You can expect aggravation, irritation, lowered comprehension, loss of will to work.. simply all the mechanisms you use should be used properly or they will stop working. Proper regulation of food, sleep and mental rest should be carried with much greater, increased, care than normally when using nootropics.

continue reading Piracetam, part 2.

A collection of Russian and Serbian brand Piracetam and a stimulant/Nootropic, Phenotropil (Phenylpiracetam)

It is for sure the age of drugs. We are a pill pumping society that abuses there bowel movement to change into something they are not. But is this really wrong? Can it really be wrong for us to take a pill and do better on an exam? I don’t think so. We were smart enough to make the pill. Or at least to earn the money for it and buy it. But is there such a pill? Well. Yes and no. There are pills and they are much stronger than an uninformed person would think. They are not magic pills. But they sure do provide an edge.  Grouped up into one big mess are dozens of completely different categories of drugs. We call them Nootropics, cognitive enhancer or simply smart drugs. What is common for all of them is that they provide a certain improvement in an area of intelligence. Unfortunately around 20% of substances named into this category don’t actually belong there, so you should always be careful with a new “nootropic”.  This in itself is an unexplored and a taboo topic so borders are not clearly defined.

When we talk about the features of a nootropic we usually talk about:

1.      Anti-depression, stress management and mood stabilization.

2.      Improved brain “functions” aka data analysis, reflex.

3.      Mental agility aka ability to change topics fast.

4.      Concentration, focus, ability to stay on one problem for long periods of time.

5.      Short and long term memory improvement – faster learning, longer and easier retention.

6.      General stimulation, increased will to work.

Many of the nootropics actually classify into more than one of these categories. Sometimes people create stacks that are made up of multiple nootropics each efficient in its own category. This should be done with caution because adding too much to the formula can be counter-productive. This said stacks are still an excellent way of getting even more power from the pill because many nootropics have a synergetic effect on each other. There is no need to talk now about all the nootropics. We will go through them one by one. You can go through an approximately correct list on Wikipedia just for curiosity purpose. Never depend on information from wiki websites when it comes to drugs - you can get hurt. Many substances you are already abusing on a daily level (like caffeine). These are nootropics of first generation. Usually herbs that have been with us for quite some time. In the next chapter we will be using the first nootropic of second generation to introduce you in more detail to the world of nootropics, Piracetam.