antihistamines do not cause drowsiness

by Jason
(Fort Worth, TX)

Every few years I get allergies bad enough to forget my last horrible experience with antihistamines and favor 'trying it again.' I think I've finally learned my lesson. All antihistamines cause me to become wired and bird-brained. I can't think straight and I can't sleep.


If I take an antihistamine hours beforehand, I won't sleep a wink that night. The real world application of this is that I need to take Dayquil at night and Nyquil during the day. I know it sounds strange. The same thing happens with pain medications. "May cause drowsiness" means that I could be up all night without any sleep.

Alcohol tends not to have a depressant effect on me either. If I get a drink in me, I have to identify what's happening and convince myself when it is time to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Otherwise I might stay up until 2 a.m. watching horrible television with a beer in hand.

I seriously wonder how many hard-core alcoholics suffer from this same 'paradoxical reaction' with alcohol. I'd imagine it is very conducive to the behavior. I hope someone performs a study on that soon. It might be one of the great keys to identifying alcoholic tendencies!

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Same thing for me
by: Sharon

I totally relate. I quit taking
Nyquil years ago for the same reason. I once took Dayquil at work and had to go home cause I couldn't keep my eyes open. I also had the same problem with alcohol. I was always the driver when we would go out since I was the one wired and the rest were passing out. I would be home by two but would be awake all night and still make it to work by 7am and work all day. I have given up drinking years ago and avoided meds a often as possible for this reason. I have recently been going thru medical problems and the paradoxical effect with the meds the hospital game me was awful. A few seem to treat me as a druggy since I reacted as if I had a high tolerance to these meds. They couldn't believe I would not knock out.

It's very scary and if you have any procedure needing anesthesia you have to let the anesthesiologist know about this or you'll be waking up on the table if not given the right meds. Good luck!

benadryl reverse effect
by: Anonymous

I would take z quill Benadryl hoping to get good sleep all they did was the opposite and make me wired,maybe I need day quil for night time

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