My mom regulary takes one Tylonol PM at about 10:30, every night. She says that it helps her to get to sleep, and to keep her from waking up every time that the dogs decideds to change positions (Dog sleeps on bed). I was wondering if there were any negative effets of doing this. Just making sure, because I love my MOM!
If anything, I would switch her to nytol or something with just the Diphenhydramine HCl. There’s not really any reason to be taking the Tylonol part of it, especially if she’s had anything to drink.
Your mum takes straight OTC Tylenol? As opposed to some combination of paracetamol (yeah, I know you call it something different in the US) and codeine or some other drug which is known to induce sleep?
If what she is taking is paracetamol and paracetamol only, then she’d be FAR better off getting a prescription for one of the fairly short-term and innocuous sleeping medications. Sustained paracetamol use carries with it a very real risk of liver and/or kidney damage.
If she’s using some kind of compound drug to get the side effect of sleeping, then it would probably be in her best interests to get a prescription for that drug alone.
Apparently you Americans call it Acetominophen or Tylenol.
Whatever you call it, it ain’t great for your major organs in sustained doses and I’m guessing that possibly the OTC compound option might be the cheapest one available in the US…
Just for reference purposes, you can buy 500mg per tablets/capsules/spandules/caplets/whatever of paracetamol here in supermarkets or OTC in chemists. Anything stronger than that, you need a prescription.
tell your mom, as Joey P pointed out, that if she has no pain, she really doesn’t need to be taking any extra acetominophen. so Tylenol PM is out of the question.
oddly enough, Tylenol PM, Nytol, Sominex, and most over-the-counter sleep aids use diphenhydramine HCl. which is given in the same form as dosage. which dosage and chemical is also nothing but good ol’ Benedryl.
yup. yo mama is better off poppin a benedryl than a tylenol pm. plus, generic benedryl tends to be a shitters more cheap than Tylenol PM (even Nytol)!
jb
first off your mom is paying twice as much for tylenol pm vs. benadryl which has the same sleep ingredient (diphenhydramine). And four times that of a generic benadryl. Side effects would be dry skin and morning grogginess. I would highly suggest something like Ambien 10mg, instead of otc stuff. It has a shorter half-life and will therefore get out of her system in time for her to be fully awake the next day.
Mom might be getting additional benefits from the benedryl than just sleep. If she’s got any allergies, the swollen nasal membranes can REALLY keep you from getting those 40 winks. If your nose doesn’t work, then any little noise or aggravation is going to pull you right out of sleep. The antihistamine “hangover” in the morning can be eased by cutting back the bedtime dose of benedryl.
Most big chain stores carry generic benedryl. The bigger the bottle, the greater the savings. Have her try one 25-mg tablet at bedtime. If that works, great. If not, up it to two tablets. That is about what she is getting with the standard Tylenol PM dose.
If that isn’t satisfactory, then she can try a prescription. But I’d give the OTC stuff a full test drive. A prescription means a doctor visit, the office co-pay, getting the prescription filled, the pharmacy co-pay, AND a warning that any prescription sleep preparation is for short-term use only.
~VOW