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"May Cause Drowsiness"
May. 6th, 2025 09:02 pmWhen we got back from our hike to Zim Zim Falls on Sunday night I knew I was achy. I dosed acetaminophen (Tylenol) and ibuprofen on the way home, then took a prescription muscle relaxant, flexeril, before bed. I slept soundly. Not wanting to sit at my desk with aches all day Monday I took another pill with breakfast. That was a big mistake.
You know how it seems like pretty much every prescription drug, and even many over-the-counter medications, warns "MAY CAUSE DROWSINESS"? Yeah, it's so ubiquitous it becomes background noise and you ignore it. Well, flexeril is one drug that really does cause drowsiness.
By 9:30am Tuesday I was fighting to stay awake. Like, taking a lot of conscious willpower for my head not to hit the desk level fighting to stay awake. At 10:30am I was still struggling and decided I needed to call an audible. I texted my boss "I'm not feeling well, I think I need to lie down for a few hours" and went to bed. I napped until after 1pm, at which point I decided I needed to get back to work more than I needed to keep snoozing.
I continued to be drowsy the rest of the day Monday. At least I wasn't feeling like my head might crash into the keyboard at any moment, but I was still tired. The tiredness lasted through dinner. I felt ready to go to bed for the night by 7:30pm! I did make myself stay up until 10, though, not wanting to get my sleep schedule off.
I gave brief thought to taking a pill before bed. "I need to sleep anyway," I reasoned. But I decided not to because I didn't want to fight against having to get up with my 6:45am alarm. Instead I took a few OTC meds before bed. I was fine.
Today I didn't touch the prescription pills. I didn't want to have another lost day like Monday. Yeah, I was achy a bit. And yeah, I had some swelling by dinnertime. But at least I was mostly alert all day. This is one case where the putative cure was worse than the disease.
You know how it seems like pretty much every prescription drug, and even many over-the-counter medications, warns "MAY CAUSE DROWSINESS"? Yeah, it's so ubiquitous it becomes background noise and you ignore it. Well, flexeril is one drug that really does cause drowsiness.
By 9:30am Tuesday I was fighting to stay awake. Like, taking a lot of conscious willpower for my head not to hit the desk level fighting to stay awake. At 10:30am I was still struggling and decided I needed to call an audible. I texted my boss "I'm not feeling well, I think I need to lie down for a few hours" and went to bed. I napped until after 1pm, at which point I decided I needed to get back to work more than I needed to keep snoozing.
I continued to be drowsy the rest of the day Monday. At least I wasn't feeling like my head might crash into the keyboard at any moment, but I was still tired. The tiredness lasted through dinner. I felt ready to go to bed for the night by 7:30pm! I did make myself stay up until 10, though, not wanting to get my sleep schedule off.
I gave brief thought to taking a pill before bed. "I need to sleep anyway," I reasoned. But I decided not to because I didn't want to fight against having to get up with my 6:45am alarm. Instead I took a few OTC meds before bed. I was fine.
Today I didn't touch the prescription pills. I didn't want to have another lost day like Monday. Yeah, I was achy a bit. And yeah, I had some swelling by dinnertime. But at least I was mostly alert all day. This is one case where the putative cure was worse than the disease.
