Noopept: My First Nootropic Review

By Miranda Alexander

I first came across Noopept and the whole nootropics movement some two months ago when I was asked to write articles about smart drugs and brain supplements. Prior to this writing assignment, I must admit that I have always believed that there wasn't a drug or a substance that can make humans smarter than they are genetically predisposed to be. My initial research on Noopept and nootropics intrigued me and made me consider the use of smart drugs and brain supplements to see how it works for me.

In my continuing research about cognitive enhancing agents (as what some refer to these substances), I came a across a slew of studies, information and data about the benefits of its supplementation. While the rest of the world seems to be surprisingly oblivious to the existence of nootropics, the online community of its users is quite active and animated. I knew I had to try at least one to make my articles on the subject more credible.

Noopept was easily my first choice not only because it is one of the most popular and most potent nootropics around, I also don't have to wait for days for its cognitive enhancing effects to take effect. Based on my own research, other smart drugs and brain supplements require days, or even weeklong loading phases. On the other hand, the effects of Noopept are supposedly noticeable after a few minutes of ingesting it. Long time users advise noobs to settle for less potent nootropics like piracetam or the naturally derived ones, but it's not happening. It's either Noopept for me or bust.

Here is a quick review on what Noopept has supposedly done for a lot of users and I'll share some of mine in a bit.

The General Benefits of Noopept Supplementation 


  1. It is much stronger than racetams.
  2. It requires only small dosages to be effective. 
  3. Its effects can be felt right after administration.
  4. It can improve memory, learning abilities, concentration, and focus.
  5. It can protect your brain.
  6. You don't develop a tolerance for it.
  7. It is widely available. 
  8. It is relatively cheaper by the dose compared to other nootropics.

This nootropic also apparently comes with side effects that I am bracing myself for. It supposedly gives you consistent headaches, edgy stimulating effects, brain fog, and it can also be demotivational.

Noopept was developed in Russia in 1995. It has since been prescribed in Europe as a smart drug and as a brain supplement to combat cognitive decline due to old age. It has a similar structure to racetams because it is a peptide derivative of this family of nootropics. It is supposedly poorly absorbed when taken orally due to its peptide structure so I planned on taking mine sublingually.

I searched for established online sellers of Noopept and decided to go with Peak Nootropics owing to their good standing with the nootropic community and for their competitive prices. My order arrived in a few weeks, packed in an outer envelope lined with bubble wrap. The Noopept itself was packed very well in a high quality thermal re-sealable foil (at least that was how it looked like to me). The package came with a 10 milligram red scoop, a 1/8 teaspoon clear scoop and an instruction on how to take Noopept and the other smart drugs and brain supplements that Peak Nootropics is offering.

As I am writing this, I am on my third week of taking Noopept but my detailed review will start on the first day that I took Noopept.

DAY 1

I planned on taking Noopept sublingually since peptides are poorly absorbed when taken orally. It must be mentioned though, that there are users who have been taking it via the oral route without experiencing any issues in enjoying its benefits. I did exercise some caution and just settled with 10 milligrams for my first try. Using the red scoop, I tapped the Noopept that I scooped up into my palm and carefully packed it tightly with my fingers. I dropped the packed Noopept under my tongue and licked my fingers. That turned out to be a bad idea as the Noopept had an unpleasant taste.

Anyone planning on taking Noopept should expect its rather caustic taste. While I was able to gut it out, it might be too unpleasant for others. The Noopept under my tongue sent my salivary glands into overdrive. After about three to five minutes, a good amount of saliva was already building up inside my mouth that tasted strongly of Noopept. Although it still felt gritty under my tongue, I decided to just swallow. I washed it down with coffee to help wash away the taste inside my mouth. Making a conscious effort to ignore any placebo effect that it might have, I waited for its effects.

The very first effect that was very noticeable after a few minutes was its effect on my visual perception. The transformation on my visual perception can be likened to watching from a regular tv set and then suddenly shifting to HD. This might be the same effect that users attribute to another nootropic, Coluracetam. I did feel a slight stimulating effect. One other noticeable effect was with my focus, which became so acute. It seemed so easy to block out any outside stimuli and concentrate just on the task at hand. Shifting my concentration from one task to another totally unrelated task became easy as well.

Just to make sure the effects weren't placebo, I had my husband take it too without telling him how it was for me. He experienced the same effects, plus I also observed that he became more motivated (tinkered more in the garage) and became more cheerful than usual.

Day 1 effects:

  1. Enhanced visuals.
  2. Highly improved focus and concentration. 
  3. Ability to easily move from one mental task to another.
  4. Slight stimulating effect.
  5. Improved motivation. 
  6. Anxiolytic effects.


DAYS 2 TO 4

The effects remained consistent for the next few days even though I did not increase the dosage.

DAY 5

While the effects remained consistent, I began to feel a few subtle changes when it comes to some mental tasks. I'm not even sure that it was on the 5th day that some of the new effects came on but they just crept on me. It is however on my 5th day of taking Noopept when I felt less motivated to do any tasks. The weird thing was that even though I felt that way, I was accomplishing more tasks than normal.

For example, as a writer, I am able to manage to complete 3 to 4 articles on a daily basis. While on Noopept, I was able to do 6 to 8 articles and all the while feeling less motivated about it. Apparently writing became so easy that I was able to accomplish more, even though I did not feel like doing anything. My writing vocabulary also seemed to improve as I began using words in my articles that I don't normally use.

Day 5 Effects

  1. Increased work production despite feeling less motivated.
  2. Improved vocabulary.

WEEK 1

After a week, the effects remained including the increased workflow. The demotivational effect of Noopept thankfully, wasn't that consistent on me even though it did show up occasionally for the first week. One thing that I was thankful for was that during my first week of taking Noopept, I did not feel any of its notorious side effects like the prolonged bouts of headaches and brain fog. I experienced the demotivational effect of Noopept, but I did not think it was that disruptive to my day to day activities.

On week 1 of taking Noopept, I noticed that apart from the effects already mentioned, my verbal fluency crossed over from written words to spoken. I often stammer when I speak, but while on Noopept, I became more articulate in my first week alone on it. What was even weirder was that words came out of my mouth as quickly as I was forming the sentences in my head.

Week 1 effects

  1. Positive effects from day 1 are retained.
  2. Improved verbal fluency. 
  3. Improved work production.
  4. Occasional attacks of demotivation.

WEEK 3

I'm jumping to week 3 because I'm not sure when exactly the other effects came. Somewhere between weeks 1 to 3, I began to notice that I can do several tasks mentally at the same time. For example, I can compose an article, plan the day ahead, and arrange my errands for the day all at the same time in my head. I often find myself continuing typing an article while talking to someone simultaneously without a problem.

Occasional problems did show up though. I did experience a brief bout of headache somewhere in the second week and I also found that Noopept made me sleepier than usual. Another effect that I have noticed is that I have become more irritable and impatient than I used to be.

In the three weeks that I have been taking Noopept, I have experienced these effects so far:

POSITIVES:
  1. Improved visual perception.
  2. Enhanced focus and concentration. 
  3. Ability to shift from one mental task to another easily.
  4. Better verbal fluency. 
  5. Increased work production.
  6. Ability to mentally multi-task.
  7. A general feeling of motivation to finish up tasks. 
  8. Mental tasks appear to be easier and less daunting.
  9. No downregulation (tolerance buildup) just yet.
  10. It also appears to have good anxiolytic and antidepressant effects.

NEGATIVES

  1. It occasionally makes me feel less motivated.
  2. It makes me sleepy. 
  3. It made me irritable and impatient. 
  4. I did experience the headache that goes with it one time. 
  5. It makes me skip and even forget what I perceive was menial work.

There were a couple of days when I intentionally did not take any Noopept to see what effect it will have on me. I found that the effects still lasted for me, even on days when I did not take Noopept, save for the sudden shift to visual HD, which is the usual initial hit of this smart drug on me. I may have also have taken more than 10 milligrams on a few occasions as I no longer pack the powder in the scoop because it is harder to get it out. I just use whatever is scooped up, which for sure is a bit more than 10 milligrams.

For now, I am seeing more positive results than negatives from the three weeks that I have been taking Noopept. I cannot definitively say for now if it has also improved my long term or short term memory or if it has improved my logical reasoning skills. While I think that these cognitive functions are already positively affected, I am still not entirely sure. I will be reserving my judgment for it in a later review.

One of the main reasons that motivated me to try Noopept and perhaps other nootropics in the future is that countless studies show supplementation with certain smart drugs and brain supplements is beneficial for brain health. Instead of turning my brain into slush, Noopept will actually protect it from damage due to ageing and other causes.

If you wish to try out your own Noopept experiment, I strongly suggest that you purchase only from Nootropics or from other reputable sources.

That is it for now, but I sure will write more reviews about Noopept and hopefully other nootropics, smart drugs, and brain supplements soon.

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