Tylenol PM is an over the counter combination medication, used to help treat headaches, minor aches and pains, and the sleeplessness that may accompany any of those ailments. Tylenol PM claims to be able to relieve your pain fast so that you can sleep and feel refreshed after a good night’s rest.
How Does Tylenol PM Work?
Tylenol PM uses a combination of acetaminophen and diphenhydramine to relieve pain and help you sleep. Acetaminophen is a pain reliever and diphenhydramine is an anti-histamine, used here in this formula as a nighttime sleep aid. Diphenhydramine is the active ingredient in many over the counter allergy medications, including Benadryl.
Is Tylenol PM an Effective Sleep Aid?
Anyone who has taken Tylenol PM can attest that it does indeed make you sleepy, but is it a good medication to try if sleep is the one and only goal? While Tylenol PM helps many people initially fall asleep, some find that they feel so groggy in the morning that it is hard to get out of bed. They feel lethargic and have little energy or motivation to start their day.
Side Effects of Tylenol PM
- Tylenol PM will cause drowsiness, so do not drive or operate machinery after you take it.
- Tylenol PM can also be habit forming, if it is not taken as directed. Tylenol recommends that you do not take this medication for more then 10 days for the treat of your insomnia symptoms to help prevent that risk.
- Some who have used Tylenol PM on a regular basis to help them sleep, now find that they can no longer fall asleep, or they have difficulty falling asleep, unless they take it.
- Continuous and consistent use of products that contain acetaminophen, like Tylenol PM, can cause severe liver damage.
- You may experience daytime grogginess after taking Tylenol PM.
Final Word on Tylenol PM
Tylenol PM can help you fall asleep, but is it the quality, restful sleep that you need? Many times the answer is no. If you wake up feeling tired and groggy, are you any better off then if you had not slept at all?
Taking Tylenol PM just for sleep may be overkill since it contains acetaminophen, which is medication to relieve aches and pains. If you don’t have a headache or any other symptoms like that, you don’t really need a pain reliever mixed in with your sleep aid. Also is diphenhydramine, an anti-histamine, the best thing to take for sleep? It does make you drowsy, but the main purpose of that medication is to help fight allergy symptoms; relieving stuffy noses, sore throats, etc. So it is probably not the most effective sleep aid available.
All in all Tylenol PM is very inexpensive. It is also really easy to get, since it is available at nearly every gas station and grocery store across the country. But you may not get the sleep that you are looking for with this medication at the wheel.
