The Student Room Group

Your experiences with diphenhydramine (nytol etc)

Hey dudes. My insomnia (of the sleep-maintainence type, not sleep-onset) has been particularly bad recently. My exams currently are going terribly as a result. My last exam is tomorrow.

I am considering tonight using some diphenhydramine, which is the drug in Nytol and other such OTC sleep-aids. I am reluctant to do so, and not happy with its mechanism etc (it isn't the same as normal sleep) but I fear for my health if I go another night without proper sleep.

I'd like your experiences with diphenhydramine. Your dosage, when taken, what for, its effects, and importantly any next-day hangover from it. I need to be alert 12 hours after taking it, for my exam.

If I don't sleep tonight, tomorrow I may as well not go to the exam. I can't revise today anyway, and don't yet know any of the material. Its like a thick fog over my mind, nothing goes in or out.

Your experiences with diphenhydramine, please.

Thanks, dudes

--Joe
Reply 1
Ive tried Nytol and it didnt work for me at all, I still couldnt sleep. I guess it could be different for everyone though, would you be willing to risk taking it since you have an exam tomorrow?

Could you maybe just try and do some revision, then have a nap if you feel the need to?
Reply 2
I've taken it a few times, at the recommended dose and twice that (can't remember what the recommended dose was, 25 or 50mg I imagine). Although I slept those nights, I didnt really find they made me sleepy at all, it was still the same rigmarole of lying in bed for hours trying to drift off.

I always feel very tired when i wake up but I didn't really notice the diphenhydramine making it any worse.

I took it regularly for a few days and didn't notice any massive improvement in getting to sleep, so i stopped taking it as apparently your tolerance builds up fast. I think its more widely used for its antihistamine effects rather than as a sleep aid (its in the US version of benadryl).

If you're gonna use it, definitely don't try taking several times the recommended dose, as far as i've heard even doses of 100-200mg can bring out the hallucinogenic effects that diphenhydramine can bring on, it's a really potent deliriant (I think some people take it recreationally, but i've heard its really not a pleasant experience)
Reply 3
Migraine
I've taken it a few times, at the recommended dose and twice that (can't remember what the recommended dose was, 25 or 50mg I imagine). Although I slept those nights, I didnt really find they made me sleepy at all, it was still the same rigmarole of lying in bed for hours trying to drift off.

I always feel very tired when i wake up but I didn't really notice the diphenhydramine making it any worse.

I took it regularly for a few days and didn't notice any massive improvement in getting to sleep, so i stopped taking it as apparently your tolerance builds up fast. I think its more widely used for its antihistamine effects rather than as a sleep aid (its in the US version of benadryl).

If you're gonna use it, definitely don't try taking several times the recommended dose, as far as i've heard even doses of 100-200mg can bring out the hallucinogenic effects that diphenhydramine can bring on, it's a really potent deliriant (I think some people take it recreationally, but i've heard its really not a pleasant experience)


werd, thanks. I was intending to take 1/2 the recommended dose, which I think is 50mg--->25mg. Either way, I'll try 25mg probably.

It is indeed an antihistamine. Histamine does infact have a diurnal variation like a lot of hormones and neurotransmitters, so using one isn't neccessarily a crude approach. I intend to use it for no more than 3 nights in a row.
Reply 4
I've had some nytol in my room for a few weeks now and Sunday was the first time i'd taken it. I took two tablets and indeed had a good sleep and although i felt a little tired when i woke up i seemed to be fine after a shower. Last night i had one tablet and although i felt sleepy i still had problems drifting off but once i was asleep managed to get 8 hours, again felt a little tired but had a shower and managed to feel more awake.

If i have to be up for a required time I've found it hard getting up at the set time, it feels more like i need to let the effects wear off before i can get out of bed, so this has meant staying in bed for longer and at times switching the alarm off and going back to sleep.
I tried it once recently, I vaguely remember waking up very thirsty in the middle of the night and not being able to coordinate my limbs in order to get up and get a drink. Apparently this is due to the extrapyramidal effects. When I woke up about 7h30m after taking the tablet, when the alarm went off, I still felt incredibly tired, and my head felt heavy, and I had the same sensation of not being able to move properly. I just fell back to sleep again (with the alarm still going), and didn't wake up properly for another 4 hours, at which point I felt too groggy to drive even though I was awake, so I couldn't even go in for the afternoon at school.
Reply 6
Revd. Mike
I tried it once recently, I vaguely remember waking up very thirsty in the middle of the night and not being able to coordinate my limbs in order to get up and get a drink. Apparently this is due to the extrapyramidal effects. When I woke up about 7h30m after taking the tablet, when the alarm went off, I still felt incredibly tired, and my head felt heavy, and I had the same sensation of not being able to move properly. I just fell back to sleep again (with the alarm still going), and didn't wake up properly for another 4 hours, at which point I felt too groggy to drive even though I was awake, so I couldn't even go in for the afternoon at school.


what dose did you take?
One of the one-a-night tablets, which iirc is 50mg.