Diphenhydramine

The magic ingredient in most "help you sleep" non-prescription pills is, you guessed it, diphenhydramine, AKA Benadryl.

It makes most people sleepy. Not me. Used to keep me awake all night. Now it just clears up runny nose, itchy eyes, sneezing.

You know – allergies. What Benadryl was invented for.

— Rex

I never use multi-symptom medicines because they are simply a much more expensive approach to providing medications that are already available separately and often bundle medications you want/need with some you don't. I've known for a long time that the active "sleep" ingredient in most OTC sleep aids is benadryl. If I want to sleep I can just take benadryl and not need to take extra tylenol with it. Just like if I have a runny nose I don't need cough medicine bundled with it. Buy cheap generics separately and treat only what needs to be treated.

Diphenhydramine is an interesting multi-use drug. It serves as sleep aid and antihistamine (sneezing, rash) as mentioned. But also works for motion sickness and anxiety.

And in some folks, it increases sleeplessness and anxiety! And slows down the urine stream.

I was at Walmart the other day, and bought some allergy med. This medicine packaged as an allergy med is .88 for a package, but twice the price for the same qty if it's labeled as a sleep med. Funny.
Kelly

Was the dosage the same? Sleep meds I got this time were 50mg, whereas Benadryl is 25mg.

For those allergic to Nsaids like advil/ibuprophen, it can also be used as a mild pain killer.

Glenn, Yes the same dosage. I did check for that.
Kelly

Excellent Kelly!
I end up tossing my Benadryls in the trash when they expire since I never use them. I guess I'll buy generic allergy's to use as sleep aids then.

I'm highly allergic to mulberry and always bring these (in addition to an inhaler). You never know when those sneaky pollen particles will hitch a ride on an air current up a valley.

My wife is a R.N. and commented that one of the possible side effects of diphenhydramine is that it causes you to skip reaching R.E.M. state while sleeping.

It may knock you out, but the quality of your sleep might not be so great.

Just something to research to confirm or to consider before taking.

Tony

I never could take any of those "sleep aids", always made me stay up restless all night. I do however sometimes take a few melatonin pills with me as they help you fall asleep faster, I still wake up a bit, but not for as long as usual. The biggest thing for me is that my back starts to hurt when I'm not up and moving around. I find that a few ibuprofen usually along with the melatonin does the trick for those nights when I'm really having trouble getting to sleep.

Generally I try to avoid any drugs otherwise, as they seem to mess with my body. Random drowsiness, loss of energy, weird racing thoughts, anxiety, etc. Some people are more sensitive to that stuff than others I suppose.

Good call on the melatonin. I use that when my work schedule fluctuates and I need to quickly and safely change my sleeping patterns.

What I use for sleep now is zinc and magnesium. Google the combination for the details but it is supposed to help with sleep and muscle repair. I always wake up with morning woodro and a nice AM deuce. Enjoy that thought!

Instead of zinc and magnesium, for lightweight purposes maybe we should be considering aluminum and titanium.

–B.G.–

>> I always wake up with morning woodro and a nice AM deuce. Enjoy that thought!

I like the UL approach, that way you can leave the trowel at home…

Hahahaha Bob!

I do agree though that Magnesium and Zinc are great additions and could be considered 'multi use gear' by their ability to relax you AND repair/recover muscles.

"What I use for sleep now is zinc and magnesium."

I am definitely going to give that a try. Thanks for the suggestion!

"I like the UL approach, that way you can leave the trowel at home…"

Bad (although amusing) mental image…… OUCH! haha!