When I was in my teen years and early twenties I had a really low tolerance for any type of meds. When I would take an Actifed you could time me, I’d be out in 20 minutes. I was working night shift most of the time during those years. I had been having trouble sleeping during the day and we had some function to attend that evening so I took a single Tylenol PM at 6:30 a.m. Twelve hours later my husband had to carry me into the shower to wake me up.

When I had my twins, I had a C-section. I have very limited memories from the whole experience. They were born around noon. At 8pm the nurses insisted that I get up and walk around. I had no problem with that, but they insisted that I get a shot of Demerol first. I took two steps and passed out. The next morning they wanted me to walk again and I had to throw a fit so that I would get the meds after the walk rather than before.

Since I’ve worked shift work the majority of my life, I asked my pharmacist what the best OTC sleep medicine was, he said that Benadryl was the best medication to use to help fall asleep and stay asleep without addiction.