Benadryl is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.

I don't anyway: sometimes somnolence, sometimes huge paradoxical reaction - very very activating. the worst was as one person described - like a panic attack.

I will not take it if avoidable, and never for sleep. But from the times that i used it as an antihistamine, 25 mg were usually "safe", might or not make me groggy. With 50mg (most i have taken) more likely i become Jumpin' Jack Flash... and it ain't no gas!

But I'm really not sure... it seems like once i took 50 and it was a knockout. back to square 1. me+benadryl = ???????

fwiw i have had occasional paradoxical reactions with other antihistamines, including the one i usually use - Chlortrimeton. But nothing in the extremes of Benadryl. When I first saw ppl here given it for sleep here I was like...

I read that paradoxical reactions to antihistamines are quite common in children. Perhaps because kids are already in "high gear" and thus more predisposed?

~ waves ~