eli5: Why do drugs that make you drowsy make you drowsy
In: Chemistry
I’m going to assume you’re asking about over the counter sleep aids. Most of these are antihistamines like Benadryl. Histamines have a variety of effects the body, but the relevant part is the regulation of the sleep wake cycle. Benadryl and similar medications block histamines completely which makes your body think they’re in “off” mode or sleep mode making you tired. This drowsiness is a side effect as these medications are effective at reducing inflammation caused by allergic reactions which is what they’re for.
There are other prescription sleep aids that work on different systems in the body, but to put it simply, they cause an increase in chemicals in the body that make you tired when there’s more of them.
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