Flying with the cold symptom dwarves: dopey, sleepy, sneezy. and drippy.

May 21, 2008 12:34 PM

Tomorrow night I'm flying across the country. I've got a cold. I want to sleep, but not be so out of it I can't manage my connection. I'm in Canada -- what can I buy OTC to make my flight as painless as possible?

Tomorrow night I'm taking the red eye from Vancouver to Halifax. I've got a cold; I'm sniffly, sneezy, drippy and my ears are slightly clogged up. Not a good time to be on vacation, but I'm visiting friends and cannot reschedule. I need to make the most out of this.

What can I take (OTC) that will make my life less miserable? Ideally, I'd prefer to sleep through the whole flight. I'm also hoping to keep my nose from dripping as much as possible.

The difficulty here is that I have a connection to make in Toronto 4 hours into my 7 hour journey, so I can't be so doped up that navigating the airport is impossible for my already sleep deprived body. (The connection occurs 6am local time, but for me it'll really be 3am.)

I've stocked up my iPod-equivalent with extra TV shows and a movie, and I'll take my DS and will have a couple books with me - entertainment is not the problem. I'd simply rather be sleeping, and not a mess of cold symptoms. I don't usually have much of a problem sleeping in moving vehicles, but this flight combined with my cold and the connection in the middle of the night is really stressing me out. Worst case scenario, I do have a couple Ativan around, but I'm afraid they'll dope me up too much in my current state. What are some better ideas?

posted by cgg to travel & transportation (19 comments total)

Ny-Quil
posted by gnutron at 12:41 PM on May 21

Benadryl will help the nose and put you to sleep. The store-brand generic version usually costs only two or three bucks. (note: Benadryl is the brand name for dipenhydramine in Canada and USA. The drug company uses the same brand name for other substances in other markets).

Sleep-Eze is actually dipenhydramine in exactly the same dose as is in Benadryl.

You can test it in advance to see how out-of-it it makes you. It should be acceptable for making a flight connection.
posted by winston at 12:42 PM on May 21

Sudafed aka pseudoephedrine. You may have to ask the pharmacist for it but you don't need a prescription and you won't have to sign a log book or any US anti-meth nonsense. There are generic versions that will be cheaper.

It may make you restless if you take it straight. (it may not - people reeact differently. it never makes me not sleep) The every popular Nyquil has an antihistamine that may make you drowsy and is marketed as a "night-time" medicine.

But any/every drug store will have some sort of cold/flu medicine. "Daytime" is universally a painkiller + a decongestant (pseudoephedrine is what you want, not phenylephrine) and "nighttime" is universally the same thing with an antihistamine (usually Diphenhydramine or something similar). If you look at the labels you'll see that nearly every box on the shelf contains the exact same stuff. There are 20 brands selling 3 active ingredients.

If it's just your nose, skip anything for cough suppression (Dextromethorphan) or or expectorants (Guaifenesin). These are the other two active ingredients that you see in every Canadian cold medicine (and I assume everywhere but I have never really check cold medicine anywhere else).

I always buy the no-name/store-brand stuff. Same ingredients. Cheaper than Sudafed/whatever name brand.
posted by GuyZero at 12:48 PM on May 21

Ditto Benadryl.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:48 PM on May 21

If you're stuffy and getting on a plane, you absolutely need to take some pseudoephedrine. Bring lots extra: you will want to take it every four hours. I like it combined with guaifenesin for runny-and-stuffy. Be aware that this combination really, really dries you out, so bring plenty of water.

And I don't know if diphenhydramine will necessarily stop a non-allergic runny nose (will it?), but it will likely knock you out. It knocks me out hard, and I know people who can't function at all after taking it. Some people--like my mom--have the opposite reaction, though, so you might wind up pacing the aisles instead. Definitely try-before-you-fly.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:50 PM on May 21

Be warned that not everyone is put to sleep by Benadryl. Some people (30% according to my doctor), including me, have the opposite reaction. So when I take Benadryl for my cold I endure a sleepless night where it feels like I have consumed crazy amounts of caffeine.

I second Winston's suggestion that you test this BEFORE you fly.
posted by Sheppagus at 12:50 PM on May 21

I've stocked up my iPod-equivalent with extra TV shows and a movie

Slightly OT, but I'd go for podcasts over video here. Something that you don't need to see in order to consume. Listening with your eyes closed, you'll be that much close to drifting off.

As far as making your connection, why not ask for an electric cart ride? They're there to help people who can't move very fast/comfortably speedily navigate distances in airports. You're going to be out of it, exhausted, and muscularly sore... I would think that either a flight attendant or the gate agent in Toronto would summon a cart for you without m/any questions.
posted by mumkin at 1:02 PM on May 21

Benadryl makes me pleasantly sleepy (but not groggy); NyQuill makes me sleep like the dead (and often makes me barf the next morning--haven't figured out that one yet); Sudafed/pseudophedrin is makes me wired and also really dries out my sinuses (maybe not so good for a plane trip). So if it were me, I'd go with the Benadryl. But it seems that the moral of these responses is...everybody's different! Try what you can before tomorrow night, and once you're travelling, start with the minimum dose of whatever you decide on and then bump up the dosage as necessary.
posted by Jemstar at 1:05 PM on May 21

I have to nth the suggestion to try it out first. I was shocked to see someone recommend pseudoephedrine for sleeping -- it's great, but partly because the one or two times a year I take it are virtually the only times my house gets cleaned! If you are like me, this would be help you feel perky around your friends.

OTOH, Benadryl and other antihistamines make me sleepy -- I've been asked more than once if I was drunk. So apparently, reactions vary widely.
posted by ecsh at 1:07 PM on May 21

I find that Benadryl puts me right out for night one, then gives me insomnia for the next night or two. When I have a cold and want help sleeping, I'm a big fan of Neocitran, and it doesn't have any significant side effects. (In fact, if I wait through the immediate sleepiness effect, it no longer helps me sleep.)
posted by jeather at 1:08 PM on May 21

I was shocked to see someone recommend pseudoephedrine for sleeping

I don't recommend it for sleeping, I recommend it for breathing. And like I said, it doesn't really impact my sleep - certainly not as much as as being unable to breathe. It varies for people.
posted by GuyZero at 1:13 PM on May 21

I recommend it for breathing

And for reducing the pressure, which will only get worse with altitude. I will say that, alone, it can make me a bit excitable.
posted by uncleozzy at 1:32 PM on May 21

I'd say "night time" meds of OTC cold/flu varieties of advil, tylenol, etc. They tend to last between 4 and 6 hours. Take a dose before you go through security and you should be pretty groggy by the time you board the plane. 4.5hr flight to Toronto is just long enough for most of the grogginess to wear off.

Also, Toronto is not all that fun to traverse, even when not ill. I was just there last week making a connection back to Vancouver and it was tremendously un-fun. I cursed myself for not checking literally everything but my ID and flight papers. If your connection is kind of tight (an hour or an hour and a half) consider checking everything, as the short connection time will be eaten up by the walking you'll be doing between gates.
posted by kirstk at 2:18 PM on May 21

Thanks all. I bought some pseudoephedrine with an antihistimine, and I'll give it a try tonight. Hopefully that works.
posted by cgg at 3:58 PM on May 21

Yeah, pseudoephedrine is a must. Maybe you'll have trouble sleeping but, believe me, that is vastly preferable to coming in for a landing with badly blocked sinuses. When the pressure tries - and fails - to equalize in your sinuses it feels like little hot needles repeatedly poking into your face and head. It's awful.
posted by Justinian at 4:11 PM on May 21

I recommend Sudafed and Earplanes.

JUST PLEASE BE CAREFUL.

As I've expressed before, flying with a cold is actually one of the biggest regrets of my life. Sounds crazy and overly dramatic, but it's very very true. The odds are against you having my experience... but then again, they were against me having it too. YMMV, I'm just sharing my own personal truth. I regret that flight every single day of my life.
posted by miss lynnster at 4:18 PM on May 21

Sudafed Sudafed Sudafed Sudafed. Do NOT take Nyquil or any antihistamine- they'll knock you on your ass and make it hard for you to handle the torture that is changing planes at Pearson.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 5:05 PM on May 21

For me, Sudafed doesn't even scratch the surface when I'm congested, so I use Mucinex (guafenesin) at the maximum dosage (check the bottle.) I find that it's a huge help when it comes to unblocking my sinuses and ears.

I should add that it will do nothing for a runny nose.
posted by corey flood at 6:35 PM on May 21

This is also more to the flying-with-congestion than the sleeping, but I've been told by ENTs to use both pseudoephedrine and nasal spray. Nasal sprays are NOT good to use on a continuing basis but as a one-off for flying they help clear you out and avoid ear complications.
posted by yarrow at 9:55 AM on May 22