When people take antihistamines to nurse their fever, allergies, and other illnesses, they often feel tired as an expected side effect of the drugs. The common medicines are Benadryl and Nyquil. Due to their sedating effects, antihistamines are considered active ingredients in many sleeping pills.
The reason why antihistamines make people sleepy begins with the chemical compounds your body releases called histamines. While they have many roles, they mainly affect your body’s local immune responses.
Every time you injure yourself or your immune system notices something that could be dangerous happening to your body, some of your tissue cells and white blood cells produce histamines. The chemical looks for other cells with a histamine receptor. If you want to understand antihistamines like Benadryl better, keep reading below.
How Do Antihistamines Work?
Your body’s immune system naturally produces histamines to combat germs and bacteria from making you sick. The chemical becomes more active when you’re at risk of getting allergies or an infection, like when you’re coming down with a cold.
As the histamines protect your body from allergens and germs, they can release symptoms, including coughing, sneezing, a runny nose, and itchy eyes. That’s when you think about using antihistamine medicine to eliminate the symptoms and the effects of histamine.
In addition, your brain can also generate histamines to keep you wide awake. However, when you take antihistamines to cure your respiratory conditions, the effects of the medicine can go to your brain, too, causing you to feel sleepy.
Typical Side Effects of Taking Benadryl
Diphenhydramine or more commonly known as Benadryl, is an antihistamine that could come with side effects ranging from mild to severe. If you’re worried about your experience while taking the drug, it’s best to consult with your doctor or pharmacist to help you manage unwanted side effects.
The common side effects include feeling sleepy, weak, dizzy, having a dry mouth, and headache. Some of the side effects tend to disappear after a couple of days or weeks. But if they remain and are more severe than usual, you should speak to your healthcare provider.
Major and Long-Term Side Effects
As soon as you realize the side effects you’re experiencing from Benadryl or other antihistamines have become serious, you should contact your doctor immediately. If you think your situation is a medical emergency, it’s much better to call 911.
Your life could be on the line if the side effects involve reduced memory, weakened thinking, confusion, rapid heartbeat, seizures, and dementia. Take note that acquiring Benadryl from a drugstore is given to patients seeking temporary relief and short-term use.
People should never take Benadryl for long-term purposes. While there is not enough research on the long-term effects of the antihistamine, a person taking Benadryl for a long period could experience mental health issues like anxiety.
You could also face blurred vision, constipation, drug addiction, and memory problems. Depending on your situation and how much you come across your allergies, if your symptoms persist, your doctor could prescribe an alternative medication that’s safer and more effective than Benadryl.
A Closer Look at the Long-Term Side Effects
Dementia
When you go overboard with taking antihistamines like Benadryl, it could reduce your memory and lead to confusion, giving you a hard time thinking straight. Unfortunately, the side effects often happen to seniors.
Moreover, consuming Benadryl past your prescription date could heighten your risk for dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. If you wish to avoid losing your memory yet continue taking Benadryl to control your allergies, you should stick to taking the drug in its lowest effective dose and only for a short time.
Hallucinations
Hallucinating is an uncommon side effect of taking Benadryl. However, if you consume high doses of the antihistamine for a long period that it leads to dependence and eventually addiction, you can expect to experience hallucinations.
The moment you hallucinate when taking Benadryl, you should stop your medication to avoid making your situation worse. If you require medical assistance, you should reach out to your doctor or call 911 for immediate help.
Restless Legs Syndrome
If you have a condition that leads you to have the unstoppable desire to move your legs because you feel uncomfortable, you have restless legs syndrome. Benadryl and other antihistamines will not make your condition better and can only make it worse.
Restless legs syndrome often happens at night, when you’re sitting on a chair or lying in bed. Instead of considering antihistamines, you could consult with your doctor about alternative drugs to soothe the symptoms and control your urge to move your legs.
Depression
Feeling depressed isn’t a common side effect that people face when they take Benadryl. But when you believe your mental health has gotten worse after consuming antihistamines for a long period, you should quit the drugs and talk to your doctor.
They will assess your condition to figure out the cause of your depression. From there, they could also prescribe you different medication choices to avoid affecting your mental health and stick to curing your allergies instead.
Weight Gain
Many medicines prescribed for people for a reasonable amount of time could lead them to gain some weight. Similarly, antihistamines like diphenhydramine can cause weight gain. If you notice you’re starting to pack on more pounds while taking Benadryl, it’s likely a long-term side effect.
If you wish to control your weight and avoid gaining more, you should ask your doctor or pharmacist if they can provide alternative medication to treat your allergies. That way, you can still prevent allergy symptoms and weight gain from happening.
Constipation
Taking Benadryl regularly and for an extended period can lead to constipation, which can be hard to deal with, especially if you’re not home and you’re out in public. Your bowel movement becomes difficult, and your visits to the bathroom become less frequent.
If you realize you’re feeling constipated due to the antihistamines you’re taking, you could stop the medication and ask for alternative drugs from your doctor or pharmacist. That way, you won’t have a problem with your digestion, and your allergy symptoms remain under control.
Driving Impairment
Although you know how to drive just fine, since Benadryl and other antihistamines can cause you to feel drowsy, you may not be in the proper position to go behind the wheel. Your driving capabilities are affected, which could put you at risk if you drive while taking your medication.
The moment you feel sleepy after consuming Benadryl, you shouldn’t be the one driving because it can be dangerous to you and any passengers riding with you. In addition, you should never operate dangerous tools after taking Benadryl and feeling drowsy.
Side Effects of Benadryl on Children
Children can experience allergies, too, so they will require taking antihistamines like Benadryl to relieve the symptoms. Unfortunately, they can experience side effects, giving them a hard time managing their illness.
After taking Benadryl, they could feel restless, irritable, and agitated. Children may also have difficulty falling asleep, experience muscle spasms and possibly seizures. Stop the medication and call your doctor immediately before your child’s situation worsens.
If newborns require antihistamines, taking them could give your child a hard time breathing properly, potentially causing seizures and even sudden death. Due to the dangerous side effects of Benadryl on children, pharmacists providing over-the-counter oral Benadryl medication can only approve it for children who are six years old and above.
Conclusion
With every medication prescribed to you by your healthcare provider, you should take extra precautions and be familiar with the common possible side effects. When you experience unwanted outcomes from taking Benadryl, you should always turn to your doctor or pharmacist for help. You must always consume antihistamines for a short period only. If you require medication for managing your allergies and other illnesses that occur over a long time, you should ask your doctor if they can prescribe you an alternative medication instead.
