Nyquil - Holy crap, what's in that stuff?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

I've had a bad cold/bronchitis for weeks. Got a prescription for cough syrup with codeine because I was up all night coughing. It helped, got a nice mellow feeling as I drifted off to sleep without feeling like I was going to hork up a lung. But I ran out, didn't want to go through the hassle of another doc visit, etc., so I got some Nyquil.

OMG. Took the recommended dose and it dropped me like a stone, like I'd been shot with one of those tranquilizer darts. When I woke up this morning (10 hours later) I halfway expected to find myself being weighed in a net by a bunch of biologists, with a red-feathered dart stuck in my haunch.

I can't believe they sell that stuff OTC.

[LiberalEsto]

1. "Nyquil ingredients include sedating antihistamines, hypnotics, and alcohol that cause drowsiness. "

From this web site:
http://nyquilingredients.org/

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. "Sedating"? Is that what they call it?

How about "instant unconsciousness rendering"?

[Art_from_Ark]

42. It doesn't instantly render me unconscious

In fact, there are a few times when I have taken a double dosage to get the desired effect of being able to get to sleep with a bad cough. And even then, I don't think I was able to sleep for more than 4 or 5 hours.

[SCantiGOP]

49. careful with a double dose

I did that once and felt like I was on speed. Did some research and found that overdosing on one of the ingredients, maybe the antihistimine, can cause sleeplessness and rapid heart beat. I think the label even warns about this. I take one instead of two of the gel caps if I have a cold and it helps with sleep.

[Wounded Bear]

3. Use to swear by NyQuil....

Had to give it up due to my 'condition'......too much alcohol in it.

It did tend to give me hangovers, too.

[MicaelS]

4. Had to quit using Nyquil years ago.

That shit makes my higher than a kite.

[RiffRandell]

5. I know a lot of people that it knocks out.

I guess it's good that it makes you sleep. It sucks being kept up by a bad cough.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. I understand it is sometimes used as a recreational drug.

That's great if your idea of fun is being unconscious for 10 hours. It does work as advertised, though.

[RiffRandell]

8. I saw on our local news last week that kids are now drinking

hand sanitizer for the alcohol. I saw an alcoholic on the show Intervention do that when he couldn't get any. Sad.

[Agschmid]

11. Happens with mouthwash too... Saw that on A&E. n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

37. Had an 83 year old female client who was drinking hairspray.

Family brought her in, they could not figure out how she was getting drunk after they had taken all the alcohol out of the house, in their mis-guided attempt to "sober her up"
Damn killed her, from withdrawal, is what they did.

As unusual as that may be, a case did make the medical papers.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16232026

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. When I was teaching on the college level, students used to joke about it

Did any of them really use it as a recreational drug? I don't know, but knowledge of its effects was widespread in the student population.

[Duer 157099]

7. Not sure specifically, but

both dextromethorphan (DXM) and diphenhydramine (benedryl) have the effects you describe, and one or both of those might be in it.

Hey it does the job if you need to sleep while having a cold.

[Orrex]

9. Many years ago...

I was working the 11-7 night shift at a 7-11 and came down with a nasty cold & fever. I left my shift about an hour early, went home and took a dose of Nyquil, and the next thing I remember is my coworker calling me at 11:30PM to ask if I was coming to work.

Miraculous stuff, that Nyquil. It's never hit me quite so hard since then, buy goodness gracious it certainly got the job done that time!

[cliffordu]

10. Alcohol.

[sir pball]

12. Doxylmine succinate is the magic ingredient

It's an antihistamine like diphenhydramine (Benadryl/Tylenol PM) but even more sedative - "It is also the most effective over-the-counter sedative available in the United States and is more sedating than some prescription hypnotics. One study found that doxylamine succinate was more effective than the barbiturate phenobarbital for use as a sedative."

It's very good at drying you out when you're sick, but it's not something you can take and be functional. It's in NyQuil as much to make you sleep as anything else. Unisom tablets are cheaper, though..

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. 15 hours later and I'm still buzzed.

The closest thing I can compare it to is being a bit stoned but without the urge to devour junk food. Seriously, they sell this stuff over the counter?

[Javaman]

14. It's the stuff dreams are made of. ;)

loves me some Nyquil. My GF would never ever take it when she had a cold, she would say, "I'm not drinking that green crap. It can't be good for you liver!"

So I would sleep soundly when I had cold and she would go with all this herbal stuff (don't get me wrong there is some herbal stuff that I will use). Finally, after regaling her with the magical benefits of Nyquil one time while she was sick for two weeks straight and couldn't take it anymore, she relented and gave it a try.

All I have to say now is: she's a convert.

Oh Nyquil is there nothing you can't do?

[pipi_k]

15. I see they haven't

changed anything over the years...

Back in 1967 or so, when I was just a young pup, a friend and I decided to do a little Nyquil in her bedroom. Just for a buzz, you know.

Holy shit!

I think we only did like half the recommended dosage and then we both passed out cold for hours.

One hell of a "buzz"!!!

[Puzzledtraveller]

16. Black Blood of The Earth

[MadrasT]

17. Every time I hear NyQuil I think of the old Denis Leary bit

[MiddleFingerMom]

18. Prior to my last hospital stay, I was loading up on fluids in my lungs, but my cough...

.
.
.
... though contiinuos sometimes for HOURS, was completely nonproductive.
.
Nyquil.
.
Allowed me to stop coughing and made me doze off in front of the TV for an all-night wonderful sleep.
.
.
.
I would never try it if I had plans for anything at all.
.
.
.
And, oh yeah... for an erection lasting more than twelve hours, see your doctor (if you and he/she are FWB --
apparently the "Quil" stands for porcupine quill -- which is described in the dictionary as stiff and erectile).
.
.
.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. So, Nyquil has a Viagra effect -

but it also makes you too dopey to do anything about it?

[MiddleFingerMom]

20. That's pretty much the story of my (sex) life.

[freshwest]

21. My metabolism is off. NyQuil doesn't knock me out, but then I overcame Klonopin and Ambien.

A doctor prescribed a RX for ADD that makes some people climb the walls. All it did was make the world slow down so I could catch a ride. My sister was given the same thing and within hours was hanging off the ceiling.

If I took them 2X day as recommended, I went to sleep. No shit. I don't want to be this way, either, but no longer go to get RX from doctors because of the hassle and never did street drugs.

Sleep to me is a luxury and hard to get. Herbs don't cut it, but being able to focus on something helps. Everyone is different, is all I can say.

I don't get a buzz from medication and pain killers don't work. I use biofeedback techniques for pain, though. And I focus in order to go to sleep.

[nolabear]

22. I won't touch the stuff unless I have the next day off.

But it DOES make Mommy sleep!

[hedgehog]

23. I love these things for a cough -

http://www.medicinenet.com/benzonatate/article.htm


They eliminate that urge to cough. I wouldn't use them if I had a productive cough, only for those dry bronchispasms that can keep you awake for days and make you feel like you've broken a rib!

The label warns if you break the capsule in your mouth, you could choke to death....

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

24. I was taking those, too, during the day,

because the codeine cough syrup made me too sleepy. The cough was awful - for awhile I thought I actually had broken a rib. This stuff works pretty well, but Nyquil is better at preventing you from coughing because it actually renders you unconscious, so you can't cough. Or otherwise function.

[Taverner]

25. I suggest mixing it with some Hydro or Codeine Cough Syrup

Good times, good times....

[Earth_First]

27. The now make a sleep only formula...

It's called Zzzquil.

All the paralyzing effects without the medicinal benefits...

[PasadenaTrudy]

28. All I need is a sip

And I'm good.

[Doc_Technical]

29. Romilar cough syrup was very popular back in the day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dextromethorphan

[olddots]

30. nyquil is the preferred drug at karioke bars

I did a whole set of Steve & Edie songs at the strip mall bar $ grill behind a Nyquil buzz.

Once I sniffed Elmer's glue all when I was 15 =didn't work

[pipi_k]

32. Elmer's glue...

hah!

A couple of friends and I were doing the hard stuff in Kindergarten

Eating library paste...

Yeah, we cool...we cool...

[olddots]

41. labrary paste is even better than cocaine paste...

once I put some on my willy and ............

[femmocrat]

31. It has the opposite effect on me.

Keeps me up all night. I don't take it anymore.

[Honeycombe8]

33. I love it. I keep a supply on hand at all times. It has alcohol...

and a bunch of pharma stuff for different symptoms (some of which might make you drowsy, on top of the alcohol).

One of the purposes of Nyquil IS to let you sleep. Healing occurs best at night while you sleep, I think.

If you got it over the counter, it's missing the really good sinus med - pseudoephedrine. You have to ask the pharmacist for the Nyquil (or a generic) with the pseudoephedrine. They take your name and log it into a computer. It's restricted because it's used to make meth. But it's the best stuff there is for sinus problems.

Nyquil now makes a liquid called Zzzzzzzz. It doesn't have the medication...just something to make you sleep. It works great. A little goes a long way with Zzzzzz.

[RobinA]

45. Seriously...

do they still make the NyQuil with real (not that on-the-shelves crap) decongestant? I'm glad to hear that, because I am a sinus sufferer and when I get a cold it just compounds the problem to the point where I want to drive an ice pick through my face to get the crap out and lessen the pain. NyQuil was great for night, but I've been using less effective methods thinking it was all gone. Incidently, they used to have a DayQuil that would dry your head up like the desert (again, it had pseudoephedrine). Both were only for the worst cold days or nights because they were pretty strong stuff.

[Honeycombe8]

50. Yes! It's behind the counter in the pharmacy. You just have to ask for it...

I ask for the Nyquil (or its generic) with pseudoephedrine. They pull it off the shelf, ring you up, get your license, enter your name in the database, and you're good to go.

The database is for the govt to track who buys it, so they can track meth makers. AND you're only allowed to buy so much of it in a certain period of time. It must be a reasonable period of time, since I haven't had any trouble buying a regular supply for medicinal purposes.

The meth makers would buy bottles of the stuff, or would go in frequently and buy 1 or 2 bottles. The new system prevents them from doing that, supposedly. But I guess they'd just have to have a larger group of people buying teh stuff?

At Walgreen's I can't get the Nyquil brand any more. Walgreen's carries only its own generic behind the pharmacy counter. But it's just as good. It's probably cheaper somewhere else, if they have it. Target doesn't carry it. They carry pills like Sudafed with pseudoephedrine behind the pharma counter, but I want Nyquil.

[pinboy3niner]

34. Al Capp knows the answer...

[Dash87]

35. Don't like it - I never feel right the next day.

Plus the taste is horrible.

[ellaydubya]

36. As the song says....

"Give me a bottle of Nyquil, the restful sleep my body needs"

[Kennah]

40. A whole bottle? Shit! Drink that and you'll be Rip Van Fucking Winkle.

[TexasBushwhacker]

38. It's on the Alcohol Anonymous forbidden list.

It's 25% alcohol which makes it 50 proof. The decongestants and cough suppressors are sedating too. It reacts with other drugs too, so you really have to be careful what you take with it.

Mouthwashes with alcohol are on AA's no-no list too. Recently I was outside a dollar store and the air smelled like Listerine. I looked around and there was a guy drinking it. He didn't even go for the mint flavor. Yikes.

[Bombero1956]

39. reminds me of Lewis Black's bit on the flu

http://www.comedycentral.com/video-clips/fs61w9/comedy-central-presents-flu-shots

[mimi85]

44. I'd never seen that bit before

Thanks! Damn, he is one funny man! I love it when he pops up on Jon Stewart's show.

[Fearless]

43. The stuff really doesn't do much to me

Maybe vaguely sleepy, but I do only take it at night so... meh. Although Claritin D does leave me extremely wired.

[Xyzse]

46. I've never experienced that with Nyquil

Nyquil has never dropped me.

[Myrina]

47. I adore it. Zquil, notsomuch.

Weird since they're the same company but Zquil gives me strange dreams and a headache when I wake up.

I've tried probably dozens of things - OTC, herbal and Rx - over the years to sleep and nothing can hold a candle to Nyquil.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

48. I once had a notable Dayquil experience

I misread the dosing directions and accidentally took twice the recommended dose.

About an hour in, I felt remarkable light footed. Like I was floating on air, almost, and my head was detached from my legs. That and just a general loopiness.

To top it off, however, during all of this, I was studying for a major exam and this "trip" took place during a group study session. I don't think I got much out of the session that afternoon.

This was several years ago, when Dayquil still had pseudophedrine in it. Now they've removed it out of Dayquil--so would I still have those same "loopy" side effects with today's Dayquil formula?