So it's non addictive?
Does it create stimulant induced hypo mania like Adderall can?
For all intents and purposes it's non-addictive. Yes you can find the one in a million report, but it's extremely rare.
On the addiction scale, If heroin is a 10, and caffeine is a 2, Modafinil is .01
The only addictive element is "this is great, I want to keep using it". At this point we have plenty of examples of people who've used it daily for decades, since childhood, with no notable negative effects. Long term users have a significantly lower rate of obesity and related diseases.
In fact this lack of downsides has sparked lots of moral panic in the scientific community about "unfair" advantages and that's the primary basis for restricting its use. It was originally submitted as a "cognitive enhancer" but the FDA said "hell no", and they re-purposed it as a "wakefulness promoter".
If you're familiar with stimulants like adderall, while it's difficult to describe, Modafinil is pure mental stimulation, without physical stimulation.
The effect is so subtle and natural feeling, you might think nothing is happening until you catch yourself solving problems much more quickly and with minimal effort.
While conventional stimulants "borrow" energy from the future, after which you crash, there is no such effect from Modafinil. It just wears off and you're back to where you would've been otherwise.
Modafinil is comprised of two isomers, S and R. S is short acting and seems to boost emotional intelligence, the ability to "read" other people. R is longer acting and has more of an impact on objective problem solving. Armodafinil is only the R isomer, lasts almost twice as long, and is about 25% more potent than modafinil at the same dose. Standard Moda dose is 200mg/day, Armodafinil 150mg/day. There are no overdose deaths or injuries reported, even at 6000mg/day. Just insomnia for a day or two. No toxic level has ever been established, even with animal experiments giving them the equivalent of tens of thousands of milligrams. It's extremely safe.
The US military replaced amphetamines with Modafinil as a wartime stimulant (for pilots especially). It's stocked on the International Space Station by NASA and used by 22% of the crew, on average.
Mild hypomania is possible, especially when initiating use, but I'd compare it to too much strong coffee.
There are none of the unpleasant stimulant effects like shaking, vasodilation, etc. I keep calling it "designer caffeine" because at low doses it's similar in effect without the negatives of caffeine.
Generally any physical sides disappear after a couple weeks of daily use,