Why not just make them all non-drowsy…
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The “allergy medicine” you’re referring to is antihistamines, specifically drugs that block the H1 receptor.
The first H1 blockers developed (first-generation, like Benadryl) can cause drowsiness because they cross the blood-brain barrier. This was obviously a problem which is why newer drugs have been developed to avoid this side effect.
The newer drugs (second-generation, like Zyrtec and Claritin) do not cross the blood-brain barrier and thus do not cause drowsiness.
There are other histamine receptors too, not all of which are implicated in allergies. For example H2 receptors play a role in stomach acid production, thus the drugs that block H2 receptors (like Pepcid) are used to treat reflux / heartburn. So not all antihistamines are used for allergies.
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