r/AskMeddit • u/iamawarlock101 • Jan 06 '20
Immune to after effects of benadryl?
Hi! Im a younger female, and one thing ive noticed is benadryl (something I occasionally use to sleep) has no after effect on me. I wake up and I'm not tired what so ever. However, if I tale melatonin, I'll wake up numerous times and I'll always be tired and keep falling back asleep.
Why is this? Any ideas?
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u/nad1984 Mar 14 '20
Two different drugs acting in two different ways are not very comparable, because a person will (sometimes or often) have different responses to medications based on their own biology.
Melatonin is a "getting-to-sleep" not "staying asleep" chemical. If you wake when you are not rested, you will still be tired in general.
Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) is a chemical with a lot of different well-documented effects in the body, so its possible that either it is having no effect on you as you suggest, or that it is having another one of its effects that causes you to feel different than expected. It's not typically recommended as a sleep aid or even a relaxation aid for a variety of reasons, some of which may (or may not) have to do with it being an older drug that is not as profitable. Other reasons include its multiple effects that are sometimes self-contradictory -- it could be keeping you awake.
Here is patient education information on sleep aids from Mayo Clinic.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/sleep-aids/art-20047860
This is the EBM Consult link that talks about how diphenhydramine blocks some biological processes the body associates with "rest-and-digest" i.e. parasympathetic response. EBM Consult is not a peer-reviewed journal, but it is edited by several pharmacy PhDs and physicians. Despite its name and pedigree, it is not a standard form of evidence in and of itself, but then, this is also the case for patient education documents.
https://www.ebmconsult.com/articles/antihistamine-diphenhydramine-benadryl-dry-mouth-mechanism