ZzzQuil...Not worth the money...

For some time now I’ve had trouble staying asleep.  I’ve had no issues with falling asleep…in the middle of the night/early morning I’ll wake up a few times and it takes me up to 3-4hrs. to get back to sleep.  So for all you math geniuses out there I’ve broken it down.

If I fall asleep at 11PM and wake up at 2AM I’ve slept for 3hrs.

Let’s say that I stay awake from that 2AM wake up until 5AM. 

I have to be at work at 9:30AM and it takes me at least an hour to get ready…most of that hour is procrastination. 

So I’ve had 3hrs of sleep and can now get another 3.5hrs…6.5hrs of sleep which is okay. 

But I wake up at 6AM and can’t get back to sleep until about 8AM…30mins before my alarm clock goes off. 

Okay so that’s 3hrs plus 1hr plus 30 minutes.  Yeah that’s less than 5hrs.  Not good.

So I decided to try that ZzzQuil stuff.  At first I thought it was some type of gag put out by a humor company or something from an SNL skit that someone put on the market as a joke to see how many people would buy it…still waiting for RedBull PM to hit the market by the way.  It took me a while to try this stuff though…I’m not really into drugging myself to sleep and I didn’t want to feel out of it or drowsy the next day. 

The normal side-affects I have to medications which induce sleeping are: drowsy, foggy, out of it feeling with a minor headache and minor dry mouth the next day.  So I normally don’t take medications such as NyQuil, Benadryl, AlkaSeltzer or anything else which may induce sleep, unless I’m sick or have an allergic reaction to something. 

I’m not a fan of liquid medications.  Yes, the liquid is cheaper…but I’m a gel cap person.  I prefer not to taste the medication and then run around looking for something to kill the after taste!  No, Marry Poppins a spoonful of sugar does NOT help the medicine go down!  I got the pack of 24 gel caps.  The main ingredient in the gel caps is Diphenhydramine, which you can find in NyQuil or Benadryl…or any other sleep inducing medication.  There’s nothing that special about ZzzQuil. 

I tried the medicine on Wednesday night, expecting the usual occurance; I’d take half the dose…one gel cap and fall asleep within 30mins and be knocked out until morning.  Nope.  I took half the dosage and it took me about 2hrs. to fall asleep.  So around 1AM I got tired of waiting for the medication to kick in and just closed my eyes.  That did the trick.  Once asleep I stayed asleep but the next day I felt drowsy and out of it.  I figured that maybe I just didn’t get enough hours of sleep and the medication hadn’t worn off.  So last night I did pretty much the same thing.  I took one gel cap, had my tea and then closed my eyes and slept.  The medication doesn’t seem to knock me out automatically the way NyQuil or Benadryl does which is good to a certain extent.  Granted I only took half the dose…so maybe if I were to take the full dose it would knock me out.  But I RARELY take the full dose of any sleep inducing medication because I will be out for a week.  But ZzzQuil keeps me asleep, which is what I wanted it to do and what it was advertised as being able to do.  So on that note I am happy with the product. 

I decided to take the other half of the dose last night and I closed my eyes within 30mins of taking the medication.  I woke up once during the night only because Sadie, my mini-doxie decided to jump down and get a drink of water and then whine to be put back on the bed.  But other than that I stayed asleep.  Then this morning my alarm went off and I reluctantly got out of bed.  My mouth and throat felt sore and dry, my head ached, my eyes felt sore, my forehead felt clammy and I had a case of the chills. 

Now my mouth usually feels dry when I first wake up, but it’s nothing a few sips of water won’t cure.  I drank an entire bottle of water and my mouth still felt dry and sore.  I decided to go about my morning in a semi-normal fashion and figured that if I got sick or still felt like crap I could either go into work and come home early or just stay home and rest.  I cranked up the heat and put my robe on, before making my coffee and breakfast.  After I had my breakfast I felt a little better…no more chills, head ache was gone and my mouth and throat weren’t dry.  I still felt out of it, in a fog and drowsy and my forehead still feels clammy.  It’s been about 3hrs since I woke up.  I don’t feel sick to my stomach and I don’t have a lack of strength.  I’m not sick.  These are just side-affects of the ZzzQuil. 

I personally do not recommend this product due to the side-affects and due to the fact that store brand Benadryl is cheaper.  If you do have difficulty staying asleep I’d say that ZzzQuil and other OTC sleep aids are worth a try.  But after taking ZzzQuil I feel as though I am sleepwalking.  For me the side-affects outweigh the positives.

Positives:

Restful sleep

Staying asleep

Negatives:

Cost

Side-affects

The bottom line:

Don’t waste your money.  Though it is worth a try, other sleep aids on the market make similar claims as the makers of this product but for less money.  The active and main ingredient is the same stuff that’s in NyQuil and other antihistamines.  Alcoholic beverages will probably do the same for less…seriously a couple beers would make me drowsy and cause me to sleep all night and without a hangover the next day.  ZzzQuil claims to be non-habit forming and I can see why…I don’t want to feel this way when I wake up, so I don’t intend to continue taking it.