This is a question I get a lot, does Nyquil make u sleep?

The short answer is yes, but at what cost?

I’d like to talk about that in hopes of persuading you to try other options to help you get drowsy and fall asleep first.

There’s a problem in our culture, and that is to continue living a lifestyle that’s toxic in order to continue taking a sleep aid (or in this case an over the counter sleep medication) to help us mask the symptoms.

Your problem isn’t that you can’t sleep.

That’s a symptom of a bigger problem, a broken circadian rhythm.

If you fix your circadian rhythm and perhaps mineral imbalances  or heavy metal toxicities, then you’ll be able to sleep again without Ambien, Nyquil, Tylenol PM or even melatonin (even though I take it nightly but not for sleep reasons) or GABA.

You see every sleeping pill is going to cause liver damage and they’ll have a list of side effects that are potentially life threatening. I wrote an article talking about which sleeping pill is dangerous that goes into this in detail.

For the sake of your sleep, your health and for those that you love, avoid sleeping pills and fix the root cause of your insomnia.

If you fix the root cause, you’ll never consider taking Nyquil because you can now sleep 8 hours a night and fall asleep in 10 minutes or less. I’ve been able to make a complete turnaround myself and heal my insomnia by changing my environment, my daily practices and habits.

In short I healed my mitochondria and now I sleep like a log every night. The best part is waking up refreshed and feeling excited to tackle my day.

So going back to the question does NyQuil make u sleep, yes it does but at the expense of your health. It does make you feel drowsy which makes it dangerous to take if you’re driving a car for example and there’s no way to tell how long it’s going to take to kick in or even wear off the next morning.

I’m not a doctor and you should always check with your doctor about taking sleeping medication (even if its over the counter).

Let’s dive in here to some of its ingredients…

Nyquil Ingredients?

According to the Addiction Center…

There are three active ingredients in NyQuil: acetaminophen, dextromethorphan (DXM), and doxylamine. Acetaminophen reduces fever and alleviates minor pain, dextromethorphan suppresses coughing, and doxylamine is an antihistamine (anti-allergy medication) which relieves congestion, sneezing, and sore throat.

Let’s break the 3 active Nyquil ingredients down a little bit. I’m going to gloss over the green dye in it that’s probably toxic and cancer causing for now. 😉

Here’s what our friends over at NIH have to say about Acetaminophen…

Acetaminophen is a widely used nonprescription analgesic and antipyretic medication for mild-to-moderate pain and fever. Harmless at low doses, acetaminophen has direct hepatotoxic potential when taken as an overdose and can cause acute liver injury and death from acute liver failure.

Here’s what Rowan Works has to say about dextromethorphan and your liver….

At very high dosages, DXM can cause agitation, violent behavior, liver damage, addiction, hallucinations, and delusions. Effects can be worsened with co-ingestions of other drugs, especially SSRIs, alcohol or opioids. Monitor for serotonin syndrome. Labs may show transaminitis and acute kidney injury.

And for the third and final ingredient Doxylamine which is an antihistamine. Here’s what our friends down at the National Library of Medicine have to say about Doxylamine …

Doxylamine succinate can cause liver damage in mice, which may be related to its hepatocarcinogenicity. It can also increase the incidence of hepatocellular and thyroid follicular-cell adenomas in mice. Doxylamine succinate can cause liver changes in rats, including fatty change, hypertrophy, inflammation, and degeneration. It can also increase the incidence of hepatocellular adenomas and carcinomas in male rats.

Remember, your liver has over 500 functions. If your liver isn’t working right, you cannot digest food, you can’t detoxify heavy metals, create vitamin D (which is necessary for over 1500 gene activations through VDR and RXR) and more.

Your liver is your life.

If you damage it, all kinds of health problems arise as a result.

I only tackled 3 ingredients in Nyquil. I didn’t tackle all the other ones that are probably toxic as well. I also didn’t do any double blind placebo controlled studies about how each of these ingredients (including the three above) work in synergy with each other and other sleep aids.

In fact I can pretty much guarantee no studies have been done.

Why?

Because it costs too much money.

So let this sink in before wondering does NyQuil make u sleep….Money (to them) is more important than your sleep or your health.

How Does NyQuil Work?

According to Drugs.com…

Doxylamine works by blocking the activity of histamine throughout the body. Histamine is produced by the immune system to help combat infections, and it also helps the body stay awake. By blocking histamine in the body, antihistamines can make a person feel tired. Dextromethorphan is a cough suppressant. It affects the cough reflex in the brain that triggers coughing. Doxylamine is an antihistamine that reduces the effects of the natural chemical histamine in the body. Histamine can produce symptoms of sneezing, itching, watery eyes, and runny nose.

Nyquil isn’t even a sleep aid that’s supposed to help you sleep. It just does this as a “side effect” of its original intention which is to suppress histamine and alter the part of your brain that triggers a cough reflex.

You don’t want to be chemically changing areas of your brain that trigger a cough reflex. You want to figure out why you’re coughing and correct it. Do you have a cold or flu? Boost your immune system, don’t take an over the counter sleep aid (even though it’s FDA approved).

Nyquil Side Effects

Is it possible to die if you overdoes on Nyquil? Of course, people die every year from drinking water. You have to be careful whenever you’re consuming anything. Just remember, everything you put into your mouth is your responsibility. You make that choice and you make the decision to bend your elbow and bring that liquid to your lips.

Nobody else did, you did.

The consequences and side effects are all on you.

Symptoms of Nyquil overdose may include:

• Difficulty breathing
• Dilated pupils or blurred vision
• Dry mouth
• Hallucinations
• Have difficulty passing urine or not passing as much urine as usual for you
• Hyperactivity
• Insomnia
• Excessive tiredness or sleepiness
• Liver problems such as dark urine, feeling tired, poor appetite, abdominal (stomach) pain, light-colored stools, throwing up, or yellow skin or eyes
• Seizures
• Severe dizziness
• Severe anxiety

Does Nyquil make u sleep? Yes and a large Nyquil overdose may be potentially fatal. I’m not a doctor, just a sleep researcher so always check with your doctor about anything you put into your body.

Better Options!

There are much better options in my opinion to help you sleep. To cure your insomnia you’re going to want to do so in 2 layers.

1. Fix the root cause. And while you’re correcting the causes of insomnia…
2. Take natural alternatives to Nyquil

These could be substances like melatonin (read my article titled, “Why doesn’t melatonin work on me?”), GABA, magnesium, kava etc. These are great substances to take if they’re taken correctly. Yes there’s a right and a wrong way to take supplements.

But these natural sleep aids are not the solution to your insomnia, just like Nyquil isn’t. The real cause is your broken circadian rhythm along with your poor redox and mitochondrial health. This is primarily an issue of not enough connection to nature which regulates dark /light cycles through the suprachiasmatic nucleus in your hypothalamus in your brain.

But that’s a topic for a much deeper discussion.

Conclusion

What I want to convey to you is that yes Nyquil can make u sleep but it’s going to cause health issues especially taken over a long period of time. Use natural sleep remedies as an alternative if possible first while correcting the root cause of your insomnia.

If I did it, so can you! I never take Nyquil anymore like I used to (even though I can still smell it, yuck!).

Questions

• Do you take Nyquil?
• Does it work?
• Do you feel groggy and hung over in the morning?
• Have you tried melatonin? How did that work?

Comment below!