Modafinil

Cut and dry version:  
Do you experience excessive fatigue in schizophrenia, schizoaffective, or bipolar disorder because of your sedative antipsychotic medication?  I've been in the same boat for 3 years and through an internet acquaintance have discovered a marvelous drug called MODAFINIL (Provigil in the US, Alertec in Canada) that has eliminated my prior sleep time of 12-14hours per night to a modest 7-9 hours per night.  I take 100mg of modafinil once I wake up.

After taking modafinil, my concentration, memory, and confidence have increased remarkably.  I was able to do some tough physics questions that I was unable to do prior.  Also, when I'm in class (I'm a science student at university) I am able to take notes without forgetting what the professor said and am able to take notes and both listen at the same time to the professor and write down the new information if needed.  Previously, I had serious problems with remembering sentences of normal length.

More information:  
I'll give some more information here for those of you who are interested.  I am schizoaffective.  I was first diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and then it changed to schizoaffective disorder.  I currently take 10mg of Zyprexa Zydis 2-3 hours before going to bed.  I've been on Zyprexa, Seroquel, Seroquel XR, Abilify, and Zeldox.  I haven't used Risperidone because it increases prolaction moreso than other antipsychotics and I'm afraid of developing gynaecomastia.  An antispychotic that I haven't tried is Invega.

I do find a difference in brand name versus generic antipsychotics.  For example, if I take generic olanzapine, I can not fall asleep properly at night and have sleep issues, however, with the brand name Zyprexa Zydis I fall asleep like a baby.

When I started modafinil on September 18th 2011 I took 200mg in the morning.  The next day I took 200mg again.  However, it was too stimulating for me so I cut it down to 100mg once a day taken in the morning and it has been great since.

Keywords:
Decrease sleep time in schizophrenia
Decrease sleep time in schizoaffective disorder

Edit:  In September 2011 I got the results from a sleep study that I did in October 2011.  It stated that I am missing slow wave sleep and that I have decreased sleep efficiency.  On the positive note, I did have REM sleep.