I am a 32 year old female who has suffered from Insomnia most of my life (on and off). I’ve had doctors prescribe Ambien as well as other RX sleep meds over the years. They worked, but I hated the groggy feeling in the morning and didn’t want to get addicted. About 6 months ago I took Nyquil Cough for a cold, and realized that I slept better than I had in years - even better than I did when I was on Ambien. So, I started taking 2 Tablespoons of Nyquil Cough every night - I’ve been doing this for about 6 months, and sleeping great. Is this bad for me? I figured an over the counter cold med had to be better (and less addictive) than RX sleeping pills?? But I want to make sure I am not doing any long term damage to my liver or anything else??
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The Active Ingredients in each 15 mL TBSP are below:?
Dextromethorphan HBr 15 mg?
Doxylamine Succinate 6.25mg?
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Front of bottle says “10% Alcohol”. Again, I take 2 TBSP nightly. There is no Acetaminophen in the kind I take - just the ingredients listed above. ?

Dr. Joshua’s Answer

Doxylamine is probably the ingredient that helps you sleep. Dextrometorphan is an opioid, and a cough suppressant, and I doubt that it will do much to help you sleep, although it is somewhat sedative so it might.

What you could do is try an over-the-counter drug called Unisom, which has doxylamine alone. It is available in 25mg tablets, which means that you should take a half a tablet in order to get the same dose you’ve been getting from Nyquil. This way you’ll avoid using dextrometorphan.

Please remember that any sleeping pill is meant to be used only on as a temporary help for insomnia. Please talk to your doctor and try to find a drug-free long-term solution.