Tylenol PM?

Hi there, it's my first night with my CPAP machine (again). Wondering if taking a Tylenol or Advil PM is a good idea to help relax into sleep without ripping the mask off?

Any ideas?

Thank you from the newbie.

Tylenol PM won't hurt now and then or on a short term basis...........

You can eliminate the tylenol portion of the med by just picking up some diphenhydramine--the active ingredient that makes you sleepy. It's brand name is benedryl. Generically is it the primary ingredient in most generic sleep agents and some allergy meds.

Just look at the active ingredients....25-50 mg of diphenhydramine doesn't affect my ahi numbers either way.

It will help you adjust to sleepy with cpap......

Agreed. Tylenol (acetaminophen) is toxic to the kidneys, so you really don't want to take it for very long, i.e. 24 hours is long enough. But Benadryl is available on most store shelves right next to the Tylenol PM. Usually in 25 mg tablets. I've found that half of one 25 mg tablet is all I need to get to sleep when I'm having trouble. More just makes me groggy next morning and doesn't do much to keep me asleep. As with all medications, less is best.

It may be that diphenhydramine dosage and effect on apnea duration, for example, is highly individual. Either way, please note:

Some medical conditions may interact with Diphenhydramine. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you have any medical conditions, especially if any of the following apply to you:

. . . if you have asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic bronchitis, emphysema, lung disease, shortness of breath, or sleep apnea

http://www.drugs.com/cdi/diphenhydramine.html

Good to know. I mentioned the half a Benadryl tablet to my pulmonologist and he said his standard recommendation is one 25 mg Benadryl/diphenhydramine taken 2 hours before bedtime. That way it's past its maximum blood level when you turn out the lights, and it doesn't affect the events so much. I've not noticed any difference, myself, but then I only take 12.5 mg and I'm, as they say, well growed.

I have taken Benadry (Diphenhydramine) without it seeming to affect the OSA. Once I had a really bad itchy rash I took probably more than I should have and I didn't see anything change on my reports. I was in extreme misery.

Talk to doctor if you feel the need to have sleep aid persists. There may be something else he would prefer you to take or he might give the green light for Benadryl. When in doubt, always good to check with doctor just to make sure when dealing with meds that might might affect the OSA.

It is common to feel the need to have something help us relax a bit and get to sleep when first starting out with all this stuff we get hooked up to. Lots of adjustments to our psyche.

jnk wrote:It may be that diphenhydramine dosage and effect on apnea duration, for example, is highly individual. Either way, please note:

Some medical conditions may interact with Diphenhydramine. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you have any medical conditions, especially if any of the following apply to you:

. . . if you have asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic bronchitis, emphysema, lung disease, shortness of breath, or sleep apnea

http://www.drugs.com/cdi/diphenhydramine.html

This seems excessively risk averse. Like the commercials that seriously intone: "Ask you doctor if you are healthy enough for sexual activity", I wonder if anyone would display that level of pusillanimity in real life.

brain_cloud wrote:

jnk wrote:It may be that diphenhydramine dosage and effect on apnea duration, for example, is highly individual. Either way, please note:

Some medical conditions may interact with Diphenhydramine. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you have any medical conditions, especially if any of the following apply to you:

. . . if you have asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic bronchitis, emphysema, lung disease, shortness of breath, or sleep apnea

http://www.drugs.com/cdi/diphenhydramine.html

This seems excessively risk averse. Like the commercials that seriously intone: "Ask you doctor if you are healthy enough for sexual activity", I wonder if anyone would display that level of pusillanimity in real life.

This coward has come completely off allergy meds. Sleep is too important.

I would assume the biggest danger might be to an untreated morbidly obese severe-OSA patient with an enlarged heart who decides to rinse down his bens with a few brewskies just before hitting the sack. RIP.

Just making the point that it might not be harmless for everyone, depending. Though I guess that could be said of anything.

All drugs affect sleep one way or the other. Some affect sleep more than wake.

The other downside diphenhydramine is that it might make your mouth dryer. And for any men reading this later, if you've got BPH, diphenhydramine will increase urinary retention.

You might try valerian root, hops, and/or or kava kava from the health food store. Do check the web for potential drug interactions and keep in mind that "natural" doesn't necessarily mean "safe". But these herbs are generally pretty harmless at the recommend dosage.

Someone's probably going to flame me for recommending kava kava based on recent concerns about hepatoxicity, but before you do, dig a little deeper. Of those thirty Germans with liver failure, 20 were taking clearly hepatoxic drugs or abused alcohol. It's very unlikely that taking kava alone for a few days is going to do you any harm.

I suppose that any sort of sedative might exacerbate OSA, but if you don't choke to death without CPAP, I doubt that a mild sedative with CPAP is going to do anything worse to you than wreck a night's sleep. It never hurts to ask your doctor, though.

jnk wrote:This coward has come completely off allergy meds. Sleep is too important.

Did you talk this over with your doctor? Second generation antihistamines are not nearly as anticholinergic as the first generation. I haven't started treatment for my OSA, but a tab of Allegra seems to help rather than hinder my breathing at night.

PM me if you want a list of things other than antihistamines you could try for your allergies. You may have already heard of all the things I've found helpful, but then again, maybe I've got something new for you.

snowshue wrote:Hi there, it's my first night with my CPAP machine (again). Wondering if taking a Tylenol or Advil PM is a good idea to help relax into sleep without ripping the mask off?

Any ideas?

Thank you from the newbie.

Tylenol PM is a bad idea. All that stuff is is Tylenol with benadryl in it, I think 50 mg benadryl. If you dont believe me, go to the drug store and get a box of benadryl and read the chemical name for benadryl. Then go get a bottle of Tylenol PM and read the active ingredients. In addition of Tylenol it will list the chemical name of benadryl. Its the benadryl that makes you drowsy and fall asleep fast.

Its a lot cheaper and easier on your liver to just go buy generic benadryl and take 50 mg (two pills normally) at bedtime. I used to do that a lot before CPAP, because my insomnia was so severe all the time before CPAP. Now its not very bad. I put the mask on and the pressure knocks me out cold.

Eric

Try OTC calcium magnesium supplements at bedtiime. 1000 mg magnesium with 1000 mg calcium. It will knock you out good and has a low side effect profile. And its even good for you. The magnesium has a neuromuscular relaxant effect and makes you fall asleep and stay asleep. This is another trick I learned to deal with severe insomnia before CPAP. I think its the best one, least toxic, cheap, actually good for you.

Eric

A cal/mag supplement is definitely worth a try. It won't have a strong effect unless you are deficient in one of these minerals, but overly tired people tend to be, hence it's not a bad bet.

Also a lot of people take Melatonin. I tried it but had extreme vertigo with it. That is one of the known side effects (there are several) but many people do very well with it.

Otter wrote:

jnk wrote:This coward has come completely off allergy meds. Sleep is too important.

Did you talk this over with your doctor? Second generation antihistamines are not nearly as anticholinergic as the first generation. I haven't started treatment for my OSA, but a tab of Allegra seems to help rather than hinder my breathing at night.

PM me if you want a list of things other than antihistamines you could try for your allergies. You may have already heard of all the things I've found helpful, but then again, maybe I've got something new for you.

Thanks, Otter.

A combination of nasal irrigation, avoidance of triggers, and PAP therapy now has the problem mostly under control. PAP therapy has lessened my nonallergic rhinitis to the point that the allergies are now manageable with irrigation and avoidance.

When a nervous system is hyped up with panic juice all night from apneas, everything in life is an irritant and a trigger. Successful PAP makes everything better than it was.

Breathing custom-humidified, filtered air all night doesn't hurt the cause, either.

So my recommendation is get good sleep first (drug-free, if possible), use nasal irrigation (an all-natural swim in the ocean a few times a day over the sink), then see what drugs or herbs you need after that.