REVIEW: NyQuil Injuries

Remember when I wrote one of the afore-mentioned Conventional Confessions about my adventures with NyQuil? Well, my love of the “red syrup of slumber” exists no more; I’ve been taking it for the last couple of nights to help me sleep through a lousy sinus infection, and it’s turned me into a stumbling idiot. As a tall and awkward person, I don’t really need help in order to be clumsy, but that’s just what NyQuil has done to me. Case in point: This morning I fell down the stairs in front of our house.

I was walking outside to call our cat in for breakfast, and I was wearing the fuzzy boots that I prefer over slippers. I also happened to be drugged, NyQuil-style, and I’d risen a little later than I’d like to admit. As I lugged my weary self off the first step and began my descent in search of our feline companion, the sole of my boots caught on the lip of the porch, and down I went. I landed at the base of our stairs on the brick walkway, ass over face. Once I realized what had happened, I hopped up and scanned to see if any neighbors had been witness to this display. Amazingly, no one was out despite the later morning hour, and so I began laughing hysterically.

Maybe that was just the NyQuil, though.

I was totally fine, but the episode made me realize that enough is enough already, maybe it’s better to just lose the sleep than to ingest such a powerfully debilitating potion. I’ve come up with a plan for my ill self, one that’s based on holistic healing by the use of essential oils and teas. Here’s what I’m going to do:

1. I’m going to buy a humidifier and put some drops of eucalyptus essential oil in the water. I’ve been reading about this, and it seems like a good way to help heal my aching throat while I sleep. There’s a small chance it could clog or otherwise ruin the humidifier, but they’re only like thirty bucks, so that’s a chance I’m willing to take.
2. I’ll dab a drop of lavender essential oil on my temples before bed. This is a trick I use when I have headaches, and it helps to ease tension.
3. I’m going to ingest a few cups of Traditional Medicinals Organic Nighty-Night Tea in the evening. This stuff is really quite calming, and it tastes delicious. Even better, it has no side effects. Like, say, making one fall down one’s porch stairs.
4. I’ll place a few drops of Bach Rescue Remedy under my tongue before I hit the sack. Or I’ll try the company’s Rescue Sleep Spray, which Jenni has written about before. I used Rescue Remedy throughout college to help combat stress when I had a paper or a project due, so it can definitely handle this.
5. I’m going to start doing some restorative yoga poses at night before I get ready for bed. I know how lame that makes me sound, but whatever. If a few minutes of cat-stretching and Legs-Up-the-Wall pose can help me get some shut-eye, I’ll gladly take the risk of sounding like a hippie dork.

That’s all I’ve thought of for now, but I’m sure other things will come to mind. Of course, I’ll continue taking Emergen-C and drinking my favorite fresh-squeezed orange-carrot-ginger juice, as well as downing ginger infusions by the mason jar full. Also, whenever I’m feeling under the weather, I like to eat lots of organic red palm oil. It’s amazingly full of fat-soluble vitamins, which are vital to the healing process. In West Africa, which is where Jungle Products gets their palm oil, children are given a spoonful of red palm oil when they’re sick. I prefer to eat it via pan-roasted potatoes, or I add it to tomato soup while it’s warming, and it’s really, really delicious.

So the moral of today’s story is, out with the NyQuil, and in with healing myself with herbal remedies and healthy foods. It certainly won’t hurt anything, and with luck it can help me avoid falling down any more stairs. That sounds like a good deal to me.