Diphenhydramine dosage (tolerance?)

[slush puppie]

My sleeping patterns are all over the place at the moment, so I took 100mg diphenhydramine last night to knock me out but completely failed at getting up - woke at 5pm (it's always been very easy for me to sleep for long periods).

Plan to take the safest largest amount I can tonight about midnight and try to get up about 11am tomorrow. How much of a tolerance do I have after last night? In the past I've tried to trip on diphen, took 300mg with only very mild effects (slight visual disturbances), so perhaps I may be slightly less sensitive to it anyway.

What dosage do y'all recommend, really want to be knocked out safely, not too keen on big time spider hallucinations but will put up with a little weirdness. Unfortunately have no weed to combine with either. 5'5" and 125lb.

Thanks!

 

[Lord]

Try 150mg. If you're all for safety I'd say don't do more than 200mg a night or it will become damaging and ineffective. If 200mg doesn't work well it's definitely time to try a different pill. Diphenhydramine lasts too long IMO.

 

[sekio]

100mg should be more than enough. Tolerance to antihistamine-based sleep aids builds really, really fast. You should probably think about switching meds - taking big doses will just leave you super groggy the next morning.

And for the love of God don't trip on DPH.

 

[socio]

You couldn't get up at 5 after taking 100, so I woulnd't take 150!
Try REDUCING your dose and adding something else, like melatonin if you haven't already. Another is doxylamine (but it has a similar mode of action as diphenhydramine -- as does dimenhydrinate -- so you need to reduce dose accordingly). Nighttime teas (with passionflower and/or chamomile) can sometimes help a little. Suggest searching to find other OTC aids; many threads on that topic. Longer-term, there are a lot of non-drug things that will help (exercise, good "sleep hygiene").

 

[slush puppie]

I don't have any melatonin, but could I mix 100mg diphenhydramine with a herbal sleeping tablet? It contains passion flower, valerian and hops.

 

[CitioKid]

I took diphenhydramine for four years, at varying doses, and found that 100 to 150mg of the stuff always gave me the same effect.

So don't expect tolerance after ONE usage.

 

[socio]

I don't have any melatonin, but could I mix 100mg diphenhydramine with a herbal sleeping tablet? It contains passion flower, valerian and hops.

A lot of people do find valerian helpful, and there's a little bit of research to support that. Passion flower too -- I definitely like to drink the tea at night and have seen some research saying it can help, though I'm not sure it's not placebo. Have heard similar stuff about hops, but it's not mentioned as often. I would definitely give those a try, I think they'll help a little. As far as I've been able to find out, I don't think there are any harmful side-effects to any of those, so I never worry about taking a few.
I always take 50-75 diphenhydramine, usually with 3-5mg of melatonin (1-2 standard doses), and sometimes a cup of herbal tea with passion flower or chamomile. Works for me at least but my insomnia hasn't been too bad the last few years (i'm about 30, it was worse in my 20s).
Oh -- and if you can, pick up some melatonin next time youre at a drugstore. Can get it for $5 or less if you look around. And that is clinically shown to work (not quite as well as diphenhydramine I don't think, but it's a big help to have a backup).

 

[slush puppie]

Thanks for the advice