Chemical alternatives to sleep

DARPA partly funded research into ampakines to combat the effects of sleep deprivation.

The drug, currently known as CX717, is designed to act on a type of chemical receptor that is involved in cell-to-cell communication involving the neurotransmitter glutamate...
[The monkeys] were then deprived of sleep for between 30 and 36 hours - which the researchers say is equivalent to humans going for 72 hours without sleep.
The animals were tested again, and fared worse on all the tests.
But after being sleep-deprived once more and re-tested after being given the drug, their performance was restored to normal levels.

That's three days. It's been reported that soldiers used modafinil in recent combat; reports indicate that drug also provides an effective period of three days, perhaps longer.

...sold by Pennsylvania drugmaker Cephalon under the name Provigil, the compound can keep users up for two or three days at a stretch, with negligible side effects and little risk of addiction. ...although the Pentagon won't comment, several news outlets reported that coalition troops were taking it during the drive to Baghdad earlier this year.

I wonder if some regimen combining modafinil and CX717 would have a synergystic effect, breaking well past the barrier of a week without sleep. Civilians as well as the military could benefit from the capability, as well as abuse it.