19 October 2022

Knitting and Tylenol

OK, I have to ask? Do you ever have bizarre dreams after taking medication? Not necessarily prescription-level medication, but plain old cough medicine, Tylenol, etc.? 

A couple of years ago, I had a pretty serious case of the flu, and a friend recommended Ny-Quil for sleeping through the night. I think I had taken Ny-Quil maybe once before, but a long time ago, and it left me with no memories of anything one way or the other. But this time around? YIKES. I had one of those dreams where it's completely terrifying, and you are conscious of being in a dream, but you can't wake yourself up, so it becomes even more terrifying. Never again. I poured that right down the sink drain the next morning.

But lately, I've had reason to take a couple of Tylenol on occasion, sometimes right before bedtime, and though 99% of the time, there's nothing I remember about sleeping afterwards, last night was ... just weird.

Last night, I took a couple of tablets right before I went to bed, because I had the tail end of a bad headache, and I was hoping to kick it out completely. I'm glad to say that this morning, the headache is a thing of the past. But I had a weird dream.


Who knows why, but for some reason in my dream, I was teaching Paul Rudd how to knit! I have to say, he was really nice about it, and eager to learn. And frankly, I don't remember if I was successful or not, but I do remember that even in the dream, I kept thinking to myself, "Why am I teaching Paul Rudd how to knit?"

As weird dreams go, this one was benign - he was pleasant, and seemed to sincerely want to learn to knit. But where did any of this come from? It's not like I'd recently seen something he was in, or read about him. I like him well enough but don't go out of my way to think about him at all - you know, like a celebrity crush or something. So who knows - maybe the Tylenol has nothing to do with it, because I don't remember such a thing happening before, but I do remember waking up this morning and being a) puzzled, and b) highly amused. Because you have to admit, the whole thing is pretty random.

But it was much better than the previously mentioned Ny Quil dream, so I'll take it! 😊

7 comments:

Araignee said...

I've had those kinds of dreams before and wondered if this is how people die in their sleep. I've woken up with my heart pounding and my hands sweating in a complete panic over something I can't remember. The other night I had a dream that Matt Smith, as his HOTD character Daemon, was my boyfriend. It made me tingle with joy like a 16 year old all day...lol.

Kim in Oregon said...

I wish I knew where those crazy dreams come from! I don't dream about famous people but random high school classmates will pop into my dreams now and then.

KSD said...

Well, I'm fighting The Crud, so I've been taking lots of things, none of which have gone weird on me. I will, though, never look at Paul Rudd the same way again.

Ellen D. said...

Hope your headache is gone and stays away! Wacky dreams!

Wanderingcatstudio said...

Paul Rudd is TOTALLY my celebrity crush! I would love to teach him how to knit!!! Lol.

Nyquil contains anti-histamines, which are known to give weird dreams, though I've never had much of an issue with it. Usually NyQuil conks me out so much, I don't remember my dreams

I take Tylenol 1s (over-the-counter here) and Tylenol 3 (prescription) regular, depending on my level of back pain. And if I taken them too close to bed time, it's weird dream city. I can't say if it's the acetaminophen (I take Advil for headaches so the only time I have acetaminophen is in my T1s or 3s), or the codeine.

Kym said...

I hardly ever remember my dreams when I wake up. . . But yours sounds like a fun one, in the general scheme of dreams. I hope you got rid of your headache. . .

Dee said...

I get really oddball dreams sometimes. Some are terrible. Some just weird. I haven't connected it to any medication, but I'll be thinking about it now. Sometimes I take naproxen sodium (Aleve) for back pain.

One of the blood pressure medications I took gave me night terrors and panic attacks at night. Needless to say, I switched to something else.