Does benadryl have a known side effect of giving people bizarre dreams? My allergies have been so bad the past few days that I am taking my pharmacist’s advice and taking a benadryl at night and a Claritin in the morning, but the last two nights I have had really bizarre yet really vivid dreams. The night before last I dreamt that I was a basketball, and everything I experienced was through the up and down motion of being dribbled. That left me a little confused when I woke up.
Last night, I was a detective who was tracking a mass murderer whose method of killing was to strangle his victims, freeze their bodies, and then use an industrial meat slicer while they were frozen, cut them into little pieces, and then dispose of the carcasses one small package at a time by walking around the neighborhood and feeding the neighborhood dogs. The only reason I, the detective, found out, was because all the dogs in town suddenly started biting their owners as they had developed a taste for human flesh, and I found what looked like an uneaten thick ham steak in one back yard but turned out to be a cross section of a human thigh.
Yeah. I should probably write that second one into a horror story.
Cat Lady
It’s that Meet your Meat ad.
WereBear
Benadryl has the known side effect of making your dreams into B-Horror thrillers.
Just yankin’ yer chain.
It actually does cause nightmares for many people. It is, after all, forcing you into a sleep state.
But I do like your imagination!
Jackie
Yup, benadryl effects your brain. That is why it makes you sleepy.
Napoleon
I use to take benadryl quite often when my allergies were much worse then today and I never noticed that. I think it does have the same ingredient that they use in Unisom or some of those over the counter sleep aids, so it will leave you feeling drowsy when you wake up.
DougJ
Or a CSI episode.
metricpeny
I know nothing of the side effects of benadryl.
However, after reading your account of that second dream, I know I’m scared of you!
aimai
I had to take massive doses of benadryl and things like that for six months and discovered that it played hell with my temper. I became a complete rageaholic and only when joking with my doctor about my mysteriously short fuse did she say “oh, its the Benadryl!” and then she took me off it. I avoid that stuff like the plague now. I don’t give it to my children, either, because it made them massively depressed. its very strong stuff.
aimai
C Nelson Reilly
Shake hands with beef
Vicki Meagher
John: I’m a fellow allergy sufferer. I also have some food allergies.
I find that if I keep the food allergies tamped down, the pollen allergies are also kept at bay.
Common food allergies in America are wheat and dairy (the protein in dairy products, not the lactose). All Americans should go off wheat and dairy for two weeks to see if their health dramatically improves. Some would be greatly surprised to find out they’re allergic to wheat and/or dairy.
It’s worth a try. Works for me.
Also (ahem), you might try outsourcing the animals for a period of time.
Dave Ruddell
Therapy is your friend.
HeartlandLiberal
Please post a picture of Tunch immediately to prove he is still with us and OK.
Dennis-SGMM
Didn’t they publish a study that showed that diphenhydramine hydrochloride (The key ingredient in Benadryl) produced vivid dreams in people already inclined to mental instability?
Or maybe it was something else.
Bwahahaha!
bago
It’s the sleep state. Check out ana marie cox’s weird ass twittering on benadryl.
Patriot
Benadryl + Claritin = bad trip.
Did you hear anyone call the suspect by the name of “Dick” or “Vick”?
Maybe the “industrial meat slicer” refers to Goldman, Bear Stearns, Lehman and rating agencies slicing up the bad mortgage remains into “tranches”, giving them AAA ratings and selling that dog food as filet mignon to investors.
Did the human thigh have a nice maple and sugar glaze and an expensive price tag on it?
El Tiburon
Giver Zertec a shot. I think that’s how it is spelled. I think it works better than Claritin. It’s OTC as well.
Also, I’m on way to buy some benadryl as fast as I can.
Laura W
Definitely Dexter.
Such yummy, vivid and revealing images. Oh to be your dreamwork therapist.
Brian J
I’m thinking of asking the same thing about kung pao sauce. That’s what I had with my pasta yesterday, and interestingly enough, I had the weirdest dreams I can remember in some time. I don’t remember the exact details, but it was some combination of my house and specifically my bedroom being stocked with birds and mice and then my teeth shattering when I tried to bite something.
Maybe it was the sauce, maybe it was the fact that I took a long nap after work, or maybe it was another sign I’m on the verge of some nervous breakdown, but it wasn’t a nice series of images to wake up to.
Rook
Actually, a man was charged with killing, freezing, and then using a wood chipper to dispose of the body into a lake. I can’t remember if he was actually convicted.
Jason
Yes – last night I had a dream last night about owning a blue cockatiel, it would fly around in my bedroom, I’d say “uh oh, looks like someone wants his dinnn-errrr” and all it would say was “nigga, please”
Kinda normal, I think (the effect, not the dream itself, but that bird was an asshole, lmty). The shit that happened to me when I had to take Vicodin, for instance, after a hospital stay, was so intense that I chose the pain over another night alone with my head. My dad gets this way, too, all people from high school stomping around in his bedroom until he wakes up in a cold sweat
The Other Steve
I had a bizarre dream last week. I was with a crew of other people filming a documentary on Himmler’s castle. The castle was actually a complex that looked like a university with lot’s of buildings but they were all crumbling with complete walls missing and everything.
There was a family living there taking care of the castle. They were kind of Adam’s family weird.
And then there were ghosts… The floors were covered with water, and I saw ghosts screaming in the reflection.
Very bizarre.
comrade thalarctos
Already been done, more or less. B-horror movie called “The Corpse Grinders”. Bankrupt cat food company raids graveyards for “raw” material; cats develop taste for human flesh.
However, it’s sufficiently obscure that most folks won’t have heard of it…
cleek
i dreamed i was in a Hollywood movie, and that i was the star of the movie. this really blew my mind, the fact that me, an overfed, long-haired leaping gnome should be the star of a Hollywood movie. but there I was…
too much wine, not enough girl.
R-Jud
Tree mating season is fucking my life up too, John Cole. I don’t take benadryl for my allergies, but diphenhydramine is what I use to sedate myself on long-haul flights, and I have always had weird dreams when I use it. I always put that down to being on the plane, though.
I still remember one dream that looked sort of like a medieval tapestry as imagined by Terry Gilliam, and it was the story of these monks without shoes. They had some misadventures and then prayed for guidance, and discovered an egg growing on a tree. Inside the egg was a pair of boots for each monk. I can still picture the little scrolls coming out of their mouths saying “hosanna” on them as they reacted to the miracle.
After my c-section in March I was given morphine and hallucinated vividly: at one point there were dozens of squirrels all over my bed.
djork
I dreamt about Star Trek last night.
I am well on my way to complete nerdom.
Gerlach
It’s good to know that I’m not the only one who has experienced this side effect of Benadryl. The active ingredient in Benadryl, diphenhydramine, is also the sleep agent in Tylenol PM, so whenever I have trouble sleeping, I usually pop a Benadryl or two. Whenever I do this, I’m always greeted by, as John describes, very odd and vivid dreams, although the effect decreases if I take it on multiple consecutive nights. It’s good times, though. I generally enjoy the hell out of my Benadryl dreams.
Notorious P.A.T.
Reminds me of Kramer and his meat slicer.
cleek
@El Tiburon: Zyrtek
yeah, it works much better that Claratin, for me anyway. Claratin has essentially zero effect.
Zyrtek was great for a couple of years. but now i’ve either developed a tolerance (something my doctor assures me is impossible), or my allergies have worsened so much that Zyrtek is overpowered.
nonetheless, i take one every AM.
Reminds me of Kramer and his meat slicer.
reminds me of Motel Hell.
harlana pepper
@Rook: Yep, it was his wife. Don’t remember the guy’s name. I’m a true crime nut. None of this CSI shit. You don’t need to make stuff up. Real life is much scarier. Watch “snapped” sometime and you’ll find out that some *women* also have no qualms about killing and chopping up their hubbies/bfs, etc.
harlana pepper
Am I the only boring old fart that always wanted to leave the original Star Trek alone? I just couldn’t give a rat’s ass about all this new, shiny stuff. Give me lame-ass special effects, a young Bill Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, and life lessons any day (emphasis on young Shatner & Nimoy, had a crush on Nimoy, top that for nerdom)
Jackie
@cleek: antihistamines are well known for sudden loss of effectiveness, switch to another one for a while and the old one may start to work again.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
I had spinal surgery when I was 15. On the fourth day after surgery, they switched my painkiller from morphine shots to 292s, with loads of codeine.
I had the most incredibly vivid dreams that night. I started off wandering through the hospital, seeing children on other floors who had immense pumpkin-sized heads. Then I started flying down the hallways as if I were swimming, swooping up and around huge towers of toilet paper. I wound up in the kitchen with my father, who was roasting something bacony and meaty in the oven. He offered me a spoonful of the drippings from the pan and it turned out to be rancid grease. I had that taste in my mouth for the entire next day.
Tony J
Night before last, I woke up after dreaming what felt like an entire feature film staring Matthew Broderick as a time-travelling whippersnapper called Marley. He went through a series of adventures and pranks in the past and future (including carving German-language wordsearches onto Myceneaean Greek monoliths, and helping people get off the Titanic) until his naive and innocent brother, played by Eric Stoltz, ended up getting locked up in the 20th century (for lack of genuine ID) and buggered senseless by a shadowy bald figure because of something ‘Marley’ had done.
The last bit I remember before waking up was a weathered and angry looking Stoltz turning to camera and asking his brother “Is this far enough from the human condition?”
Also, no Benadryl. Just extra-strength Ibuprofen.
djork
I’m only a fan of the original Star Trek. I never got into the Next Generation and all of the others. So, I understand the desire to leave it alone. However, the new movie really does the original series justice, in my opinion. The actors do a pretty good job of channeling the original when it is appropriate. The script is campy at times (much like the original series was) and there are enough subtle Star Trek inside jokes to keep us old schoolers happy.
If you liked the original, you really should see this. They did a good job with it.
The Moar You Know
Been taking Benadryl for years to go to sleep – never any dreams, at all.
But wow, you’ve got some whoppers. Damn.
Rommie
Projecting a deep-seated fear of Tunch developing a taste for human flesh, perhaps?
BruceFromOhio
Good combo. Takes the edge off, doesn’t stop the itchy-watery-sneezing entirely, but allows something like normal functionality. If your eyes really bother you, try Opcon-A, also helps take the edge off.
DO NOT mix benadryl with any kind of booze, or at least quaff the last one an hour or two before popping the benny. I use half-dose, otherwise the zombies take over.
Zyrtec never did anything for me, but do rotate the products if one stops working.
Frakked-up dreams are SOP, or so the people in my head tell me.
bago
scav
oh dear, I’m off fringing again – I’m more fascinated by the basketball one. Reminds me of the few work-inspired nights I had when I was in full-on html coding and I had to bloody click in my dream to get to the next part. All. Night.
bago
Does wrapping blockquotes in a tags not work? The preview code is totally F’d, for sure.
harlana pepper
Another sinus/allergy thread.
Furminating my cats gives them spine mohawks.
Michael
Your dream last night was an actual Dexter storyline from the first season.
The perp was Dexter’s brother.
Rottenchester
Here’s an interesting discussion of insomnia that points out that Benadryl affects a hell of a lot more than just your histamine receptors:
http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2009/01/treating_insomnia_with_less.html#more
Short answer: take less of it to keep the antihistamine effect while losing the other side-effects.
Tim in SF
Buy Loratadine (generic for Clairatin). It’s a nickel a pill, versus the dollar-a-pill for clairatin and it’s the same crap.
Zertec works pretty good but doesn’t make you sleepy, if that’s what you’re looking for. (And I take Wal-Zyr from wallgreens, which is half the price and still too damn expensive)
I’m sure someone has mentioned the “miracle of local honey for seasonal allergies.” Hasn’t been a miracle for me but certainly helps the problem a bit – a teaspoon every morning is like a constant .5 zertec.
Tim in SF
Also, shave Tunch down to 1/8″ every five to six weeks.
geg6
Yes, John, I have the same problem with Benadryl (besides the fact that I have no tolerance for sleep inducing meds of any kind, Rx or OTC). And, like you, I’ve been taking a lot of them the last couple of days. I used to use Claritin during the day but have switched to Zyrtec recently on my ENT doctor’s advice to rotate them for effectiveness. But I still take the Benadryl at night and it always puts me into a bizarro dream world that I can never quite remember as vividly as you do. Probably because of the tolerance problem, which makes me really stupid and slow. Or at least, more stupid and slow than usual. :)
EL
Yes, Benadryl is known to cause nightmares in a percentage of those taking it, especially in children and the elderly. I haven’t heard of this happening with the later generation antihistamines such as Allegra, Claritin and Zyrtec, but I know any of the first generation antihistamines can cause this.
It can also cause some children to go really nuts temporarily (highly scientific description!). You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen a previously calm child who is now running around screaming and sobbing uncontrollably for an hour or so because of a drug. The parents just love you for it.
ctlr
I had to come out of lurk mode for a moment and offer my sympathies. I’m taking Zyrtec, NasacortAQ, and way too many eye drops and I’m still just barely functioning. Allergies are killing me this year.
wasabi gasp
Mmmm, now I want a Reuben, or a Dagwood, or something open face and saucy.
YellowJournalism
I don’t know anything about medication, but I find that I have the most vivid dreams when I’m pregnant. This can be great for your sex life, but it’s not so fun when you dream about something you used to eat as a kid and then wake up craving something they don’t make anymore.
Gus
Jesus, talk about vivid dreams! I’ll have to try some of that.
BruceFromOhio
Reminds me of a former girlfriend …
Max B.
The Ice Truck Killer didn’t feed his victims to dogs, but otherwise that’s his MO. The latter part kinda reminds me of “Watchmen,” specifically the guy that drives Rorschach over the edge.
Jackie
@Tim in SF: Zyrtec is less sedating than benadryl but still is sedating to about 5 percent of the population. It’s reommnded to take it at night because that helps, but there is data of impaired cognition. It didn’t made me feel foggy but I would fall asleep at about 8 pm. Suddenly. Almost drowned myself in the bathtub.
Michael
After the conclusion to that season, I thought that it might go a little flat, but seasons 2 and 3 were just as fun as season 1.
I’ve been eager for the new season to start. With all this financial stuff, I’d love to think they’ve worked some CEO-types into the storyline.
As for me, I’d simply love to see shrinkwrap in the future of a Rick Scott or Dick Lund…..
lou
I have to admit to taking a benedryl sometimes just to get a good night’s sleep. it’s also really effective on allergies.
My doctor prescribed Zyrtec and it just wiped me out for most of the day so gave it up. Right now I’m on Veramyst and it actually has kept my seasonal allergies pretty much at bay.
MH
Last night I dreamed that while I was sleeping, a badger and a skunk came over and starting sniffing at either side of my face, and I had to find a way to get them to leave me alone without (1) them attacking me, (2) the skunk getting startled, or (3) them deciding to fight it out, with “my face and upper torso” being used as the battle arena.
JWC
Benadryl is known for strange side effects, especially in older folks. My elderly mother had some hallucinations… that we think were brought on by over using Benedrly to sleep. Just Google – benadryl, psychosis or benadryl, nightmares. lots of hits.
That said, I occasionaly use Tyelenol PM that has benadryl in it to help sleep. You might try a smaller dose.
daryljfontaine
@Michael: I haven’t read the third Dexter book, just the first two, but I honestly think the showcrafters for Showtime came up with a better and more interesting direction for the character in their 2nd and 3rd seasons than the author did in the second book.
Heh, someone mentioned The Corpse Grinders — our college did a 24-hour B-movie festival with the worst of the worst science fiction, horror, and “other” movies, and that was one of the ones they showed in the wee hours of the morning. To this day I remain convinced my cats would eat strips of my flesh if I had a stroke or something that left me paralyzed.
Also: not an allergy sufferer (knock on wood), but I have vivid dreams on Nyquil and even Extra-Strength Tylenol, when I actually get real sleep. Last one I remember was a complete movie, a southern gothic drama/mystery taking place on a sprawling plantation in a wetlands area. Something about a tragedy involving a family that had lived there 30-40 years before the “modern day” narration. Wish I remembered more of it, it felt like a cool story in my head.
D
tripletee (formerly tBone)
Never been able to take Benadryl – the few times I’ve taken it, I’ve been out cold within minutes. And it doesn’t come on gradually – I could start a sentence and not reach the end once it kicks in.
Been taking Zyrtec for several years, though, and it’s the most effective allergy medication I’ve ever had (and I’ve tried a bunch over the years). No cottonmouth, no sleepiness, no other side effects at all.
chiggins
This used to happen to me every single night when I tried using the patch to quit smoking. I kind of enjoyed it, especially the couple nights I realized I was in a dream and stayed in it long enough to walk around and check things out.
Nicotine’s a helluva drug.
Karen
My doctor told me to take Claretin because it won’t mess with my blood pressure. I tried it, it caused bad dreams, when I did sleep, which was less than 4 hours a night. Broken 4 hours.
I talked to the pharmacist at the store I go to, who swore by the King Soopers (Kroger) brand of Zyrtec, which works alot better & no dreams. It’s also a quarter of the Zyrtec price. She also ‘suggested’ that the sleep issues were because the Claretin was too strong for me to take.
I’m over 50 & have never had allergy trouble, until this year. Which is lovely since I have 2 German shepherds & 1 cat, all of which sleep on my bed.
ironranger
Two friends just told me that suddenly, almost overnight they are miserable with allergy type symptoms & they have never had any allergy problems before. I’ve been hearing this a lot lately. I wonder if all the chemicals, toxins we are exposed to in everything we eat, drink, breathe, put on our bodies are factors.
JohnR
Allergy season’s been getting worse for years; the oaks and grasses are flowering earlier than when I was in college (30 years ago) by somewhere about 2 weeks or more, and they seem to be coinciding more. It used to be Maples in late April, Oaks in the middle of May and grasses at the end of May, very predictable. Now the Maples fire up in early April and the Oaks were in full flower at the end of April, with grasses all pumping out the pollen a week later. Allergy sensitization seems to hit suddenly; I figure you go along fine for a long time, and then one day the old immune system goes over the edge and hauls out the metaphorical machete and goes on a rampage. I use Loratidine (generic Claritin) which cuts down on the awfulness, combined with lots of hot tea/honey, flushing the face with water several times a day and liberal internal applications of beer or Scotch to taste. My wife swears by a regimin of Zyrtec and nasal steroid sprays, but I notice that she changes medications every year. I’ll also add to the people who react badly to Diphenhydramine – the last time I used a medication with that, I got terrible, scary hallucinations. Very nasty; very vivd.
And that movie sounds like a inner – I see Jim Carrey as the lead..
Brachiator
Dammit, John. I’m a poster, not a pharmacist!
PhysicsFun
Ummm, I have a meeting. [Backs slowly away.]
wasabi gasp
[Why’d ya do it, Bruce? Why? Why’d ya go and do that?]
But, you cleaned her up before deflation, amirite.
Joel
Benadryl is a muscarinic antagonist (anticholinergic) on top of being an antihistamine. Like atropine, from deadly nightshade.
If you take a lot of it, you can get weird effects like delirium and hallucinations. That said, it’s fairly safe, even at those doses. However, you should probably stick with the recommended doses, and no more.
KRK
@cleek: Bravo, sir.
As for me, last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again.
Screamin' Demon
Did you wake up with a headache?
Benadryl never did anything to me aside from a slight drowsiness. For truly vivid dreams, I recommend Trazodone with a gabapentin chaser. Groovy stuff. As for allergies, I take fexofenadine (generic Allegra). Works great.
In conjunction, of course, with weekly allergy injections ;)
I live in the west, and I’m allergic to most weeds, including Russian thistle. Particularly funny considering the fact that I grew up working on a dryland wheat ranch in eastern Washington, an area carpeted with Russian thistle, a.k.a. the tumbleweed.
Robert Waldmann
Sue whatever company made the benedryle and count your blessings. I do not have hay feaver and don’t take benedryl so I don’t fear having your dream tonight.
However, I fear that if I did, John Yoo would write an op-ed in the Philadelfia Enquirer in which he said I should be fired for dereliction of duty, since I failed to torture the dogs to cause “learned helplessness” which would cause them to bark over actionable intelligence on the murderer.
In my nightmare, an apparently sane person named Daniel Drezner thinks it is possible that social scientists will learn that torture works without noting that experiments which wouldn’t result in prison can only be conducted on animals. Then a US employed psychologist decided that the lessons learned torturing dogs gave him the secrets to the human mind making him the only person who knew how to get actionable intelligence out of Abu Zubaida.
Look if you really sue the makers of benedryl, you are going to have to come up with a nightmare worse than reality.
wilfred
Did you shoot?
The Raven
Yes. The Raven’s girlfriend says that you might also be experiencing blood-pressure fluctuations and that might explain the “bouncing” dream–if you can get by your doctor’s office, you might have yourself checked.
Roq
Antihistamines are stimulants, so yes… they will give you vivid dreams. Nicotine patches do the same thing. :)
It’s pretty cool! I like vivid dreams. I guess if one is prone to nightmares, that wouldn’t be so cool, tho.
wilfred
Dribbling, ball, bouncing up and down, hoops, confused. Yeah, blood pressure.
Take a look at the ad on the top left. Or take it to the rack.
Bill
Benadryl definitely makes my dreams very vivid. Usually, they aren’t too nightmarish – sometimes I experience serious regret when I realize I’m waking up, because what I’ve been dreaming is so interesting. Other times, yes, it’s nightmarish.
But it’s an unmistakable difference in the clarity, consistency, and creative nature of the dreams.
…FWIW, it affects my girlfriend the same way. She once had a benadryl dream in which she was co-producing a CD with David Hasselhof. I’d chalk that up as a nightmare.
Curt
After they switched the active ingredient in just about all OTC cold and allergy medication (because of some stupid “war on drugs” panic), I started noticing that whenever I took it, my dreams would be affected in the way you describe.
Tax Analyst
Sounds like you’d almost be better off getting slam-drunk(ed) instead of taking those pills.
Since you’re sort of an insider now, any tips on tonights Lakers-Rockets game?
the datura cometh
Diphenhydramine is an anticholinergeric, ie in the same class of drugs as the actives in belladonna, datura and other fun plants, so it is no surprise that it causes some of the same psychotropic effects – though at a lower level – as you might get from say, smoking jimson weed.
I’ve heard of it being abused as an intoxicant/deleriant as well, which I am sure does wonders for the brain and kidneys.
Tax Analyst
I once had a dream where my cat strolled into my bedroom and started talking to me. When I reacted with surprise and started to ask her a question she turned around with her tail in the air and said, “Sorry, that’s all I can teach you today”, in this funny kind of high-pitched voice, and then strolled out.
I remember going “WHAT?”…and then I woke up.
I was really pissed off when she would not discuss it with me later. I told her that she wasn’t being fair…that if I happened to end up in one of HER dreams I would certainly be willing to help her understand it later on.
She looked at me like I was nuts or something.
Jeez…Cats…
alamacTHC
There is an old, cheap, very safe (and thus totally unadvertised) drug called chlorpheniramine maleate (old brand name: “Clor-Trimeton”). Great antihistamine, available everywhere as a cheap generic. I’ve used it for decades; it’s safe and definitely works.
Might give it a try–it and diphenhydramine are used in place of each other when one has unacceptable side effects (like your weird dreaming–which is caused by a rebound effect which results in poor deep-cycle sleeping)…
Bill
“Yeah. I should probably write that second one into a horror story.”
John,
Don’t forget to develop a character for the devilishly handsome, and svelte Tunch to play in a possible movie version!
BruceFromOhio
@wasabi gasp:
ROFL
Brachiator
@alamacTHC:
There ain’t no such thing as a “safe” drug. Any medicine that is effective is going to side effects, which hopefully will be mild, and not impact many users.
The idea that there is some magical medicine that is powerfully effective and simultaneously absolutely neutral is as wrongheaded as a belief in creationism.
And recommendations about what medicine should be taken when you don’t know a person’s medical history, you are not a doctor or pharmacist, etc.? Don’t get me started.
LD50
Dunno about that, but I hear Welsh rarebit will fuck you up good.
anon
[nah, thought better of it.]
gorp
Check out a book titled ‘Out’ by Natsuo Kirino. You can find it on Amazon.
moe99
If your allergies are that bad, I suggest that you switch to a nasal spray: Fluticasone Propionate.
I have had allergy shots for the past 16 years without complete relief in the spring. My doc prescribes this spray and it is the difference between day and night. I can garden. No more sneezing runny nose, itchy eyes. Two sprays in each nostril once a day for the rest of my life. I can do this.
Bubblegum Tate
@Rook:
That was Richard Crafts, who murdered his wife, Helle. He was convicted–the first time in CT history a murder conviction had been obtained without a corpse being presented as evidence.
I went to school with Richard and Helle’s son, Andrew. He was a nice kid, but as one might imagine, he was quite affected by the whole thing. I felt terrible for him–poor kid’s life was completely fucked by something he had absolutely nothing to do with.
R. Porrofatto
I’m close to someone who has to have a walloping big dose of intravenous Benadryl prior to an infusion of other stuff. It puts her into a state of total confusion, where the most bizarre thoughts seem real, and her conversation is such a melange of non sequiturs and chimera it’s like listening to a Sarah Palin interview on acid, both you and her.
asiangrrlMN
@gorp: I wasn’t crazy about this book.
That said, I think I might try this benadryl stuff. I already have really vivid, really crazy nightmares (visiting a boarding school that turns out to be a slaughter-house of young girls, Kachina dolls dressed kabuki-style robbing a department store, dead ghost girl heads affixed to balloons (that’s TattooSydney’s fault), the murder of my best friend’s boyfriend, etc.) on a regular basis, so I wonder what benadryl would do to my dreams.
sus
Weird dreams is a common side effect of nicotine patches, as well as that new chantrix pill. It’s written in the informational papers in the packaging. I suppose it’s a common side effect.
Joel
@asiangrrlMN: I spent some time in Cambodia during malaria season. The default travel clinic anti-malarial these days seems to be mefloquine. I had some extremely bizarre dreams (common side effect) the first few weeks of taking it, but they subsided. I don’t think anyone understands why this is so.
Ian
On the bright side, at least you didn’t have a dream where you were Detective Basketball, following the sliced meat killer’s trail of human remains across the hardwood. It would have been so hard to keep a grip on your magnifying glass as you bounced up and down…
Mike
Hey John,
Strictly anecdotal, and no, I am not a health food store type trying to promote vitamins.
For years I suffered from allergies of all sorts, seasonal, dust, I couldn’t be in the same room with a cat, went to specialists for testing, tried
Claritin, Benadryl, some other stronger prescription stuff, nothing
worked and I felt lousy from all the meds.
Then my wife fell ill (she’s OK now) and her doctors prescribed certain supplements and vitamins in addition to medications. Since I was
dispensing them for her, I started taking large doses of vitamin C
(2000 mg per day) and a few months later, no allergies and that was
13 years ago. (We now have 3 cats by the way, one of them sleeps with me).
Yeah, I know, “they” now say that your body can’t absorb that much vitamin C and you’re wasting money taking large doses. I’m just passing on a remedy that worked miracles for me and for a couple of my friends who had the same problem. It might not work for you but would be worth a try, no?
Good Luck…
oh really
If you check out askapatient dot com, you will find a several reports (6 out of 290) of vivid and strange dreams as side effects of taking Benadryl.
If you’re looking for extremely bizarre (and violent) dreams, try zolpidem tartrate (Ambien). Chantix, the smoking cessation aid, is also reputed to cause vivid dreaming.
Persia
I never had particularly weird dreams on Benadryl and still take it sometimes (I take Claritin at night normally and Benadryl when I really need to sleep). But any time I adjusted my meds significantly I got weird dreams. Most of mine are family dramas gone wrong though, not murder stuff.
Mike in NC
For some reason, a couple shots of Irish whiskey will always give me crazy dreams.
Brandon T.
Chlorpheniramine is a “first generation” H1 drug like diphenhydramine (benadryl). It has pretty similar properties (although a few more side effects).
Both produce sleepiness because they affect H1 receptors in the brain, which are involved in promotion of wakefulness. Tolerance to this effect happens pretty quickly though (within 3 days of normal dosing), since there are compensatory systems in the brain (e.g. more histamine) to regulate wakefulness and/or compete out the effects of the drug.
Both of these should work pretty well for occasional insomnia, but obviously are a bad choice to take every night because of tolerance.
It’s also important to know that first-generation antagonists like benadryl aren’t that selective, and they tend to also block serotonin reuptake at high enough doses–so if these drugs make you hyper, that’s why.
buggy ding dong
Don’t know if there is a scientific study on it, but I took Benadryl severe allergy/severe sinus the other night and then my dreams were about my wife and I, in scuba outfits, robbing a bank and running from the cops on a segue.
Without the drugs, we’re usually naked.
Wolfdaughter
I sometimes have dreams set in what I call the “beautiful country”. This place has steeper mountains that what I’m accustomed to (I live in Tucson and have visited Colorado and the Sierras in California) so the mountains in my dreams are VERY impressive. The colors are more intense. Gravity seems to be lower, and in some dreams people can fly. There is always some element of danger in these dreams, but a sense of hope of overcoming that danger.
I never thought to associate these dreams with Benadryl which I take from time to time for allergies. I’ll have to pay more attention to see if there is a correlation for me.
John, your dream about the guy distributing the meat packages reminds me that Alfred Hitchcock Presents had an episode about a guy in England who killed his wife, chopped her up and put her in a freezer, and began disposing of the remains by eating them himself. To make his wife more palatable (please, no rude replies), he favored a particular type of spicy mustard that had to be imported. So he patronized a local grocery store which imported this particular brand of mustard for him. That’s how Scotland Yard caught him; disappeared wife, beaucoup spicy mustard.
In the early 70s NBC gave Tom Snyder his own late nite show, “The Tomorrow Show”. In the mountain time zone, this came on at midnight, following Carson at 10:30. Tom had Alfred Hitchcock as a guest one night. Hitchcock proceeded to recount the above story. Tom Snyder is a very straight arrow and was appalled at the story, but was trying to hide how he felt, since hosts aren’t supposed to act negatively to guests on these talk shows. Hitchcock was well aware of Snyder’s feelings, and told the story with a wicked twinkle. He then went on to top himself with some of his other more gross episodes. The audience found the byplay fascinating. I thought it was a hoot back then, but today would probably feel more sympathy for Snyder (or, Dio Mio, empathy!)
Mouse Tolliver
Frozen murder victims? Sounds like the first season of Dexter.
MD Smith
I’ve had horrid allergies since at least college, and sleep problems since middle school. I’ve taken the shots over the years, but last time I tried, I could make no progress in dosage, so gave them up. I’ve tried many meds over the years. Now I take chlorpheniramine maleate during the day, and Benadryl and Trazodone at night. If I’m having a particularly bad day, I also take pseudoephedrine hydrochloride. Yes, you can still get it OTC, but you have to ask for it. It’s no longer on the shelf with the other OTC drugs. I also irrigate my sinuses when they get really bad.
This regimen helps me, but it doesn’t get rid of the allergies…
MD Smith
Oh, forgot to add that I do have weird dreams regularly, but then, I always have…
Steeplejack
@cleek:
Eric Burdon win!
Steeplejack
@gorp:
Good book! I’ve read it. I’m looking to pick up her (relatively) new one soon.
tom c
You should write a story about a basketball that solves crimes.
Steeplejack
@tom c:
“Portly sleuth Spaulding Wilson faces his toughest case yet in John Cole’s smash bestseller Death in the Paint. Get it today!”
Anne Laurie
One caveat about high-dose Vitamin C: Since you literally piss away what your body can’t use, people with a family tendency towards kidney stones should be VERY careful about how much C they ingest. It’s also a diuretic, so if you ramp up too quickly, be sure you always know where the nearest restrooms are…
bishophicks
I take benadryl occasionally to help me sleep. I’ve never noticed any bizarre dreams, but I learned that if I take it more than two nights in a row I wake up feeling like I’ve been beaten.
My 5 year old is currently dealing with what appears to be allergies and we’ve given him a number of medications over the past week to see what helps (kid’s formula cough medicine, allergy medicine, his inhaler – no benadryl) and he’s been having interesting dreams. They all involve ducks or chickens in his bed. The best one was the ducks in his bed that were baking cookies with birdseed.
Sully
I have only taken benadryl a few times, and let me tell you, it’s not worth it. Every time I’ve taken it, I literally turned into a common marmoset (Callithrix Jacchus) for over 6 hours. Furry white ear tufts, bushy tail, the whole nine yards. It wouldn’t have been too bad, except it’s not exactly socially acceptable to eat roaches in public. BEWARE!
Always follow consumption of internet comments with a large grain of salt.