Do antihistamines make you tired?

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Even the non drowsy ones?

I'm having a real battle this year with hay-fever, but the antihistamines are wiping me out.

I'm not tired by day, but come 8pm I can barely keep my eyes open. I tend to wake at 6, and whilst I do love sleep I've never needed 10 hours a night before.

Does anyone else find the same?

No. If I take piriton I have to take two and it does nothing

I find piriton leaves me far more knocked out than any sleeping tablet I have ever had !!

They don’t make me tired but I take the newer non-drowsy ones that were prescription only until recently - Telfast. But, one thing I did learn recently is that hayfever makes you tired! The histamine response also creates a hormone that makes you feel sleepy.

Never. I wish they did.

Yes they absolutely wipe me out for 24 hours even loratadine. I find taking half helps, then half later if I need it. I thought it was alone with this!

I've got one in cupboard we bought in Florida last year: has no effect on my energy levels at all.

Yes unless you buy non drowsy ones. X

I can take Loratidine.
But the other one, Cetrazine,? (sp) makes me feel drunk, spaced out and very drowsy.

in sure different non-drowsy ones have a different effect. The ones I’ve had this year have not made me drowsy at all but I remember taking some a few years ago that totally knocked me out and I’m sure they were meant to be non-drowsy.

Most of them make me sleepy. I used to take loratadine for years and it was fine, then one year I took one at the start of hay fever season and it knocked me sideways, I had to get someone else to do the school run as I couldn't drive. I tested again on a Saturday when I didn't need to do anything and it did it again. I've no idea what changed from the previous years.

Now I take Drynol (active ingredient bilastine) which is prescription only and it's brilliant, no drowsiness. Having said that the hay fever itself makes me tired depending on what pollen is in the air, birch pollen is particularly bad with persistent exhaustion and an increase in histamine reactions to random other things (like nuts, fruit, skincare, soap). When tree pollen season ends I suddenly feel like superwoman, full of energy compared to before.

It isnt just me then! I had to take Cetirizine Hydrochloride 4 days in a row to get rid of a nasty skin reaction in the garden on both my calves and feet. It felt as if I had chronic fatigue and this coupled with being low in iron of late has turned me into a zombie. I could only do half days and luckily although I work for myself now I know what it is like to feel 110 years old lol. Only just turning the corner now after over a week of awful exhaustion.

Yes,I am really sensitive too them. The only one I can take is Loritadine. I prefer a nasal spray though and those are fine.

They do for me, and citirizine makes me have crazy vivid dreams that wake me up, so I end up knackered the following day as well.

Piriton makes me sleep within an hour and not with it res5 of the say. I have a nasal spray which is fine, works on hay fever and doesn’t make me drowsy.

I'm sorry you're all in the same boat, exhausting isn't it?
I've never had such a strong reaction in previous years maybe I'm getting old and can't counteract the exhaustion any more.

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar how did you work out what you're allergic to? A few people have asked me this funnpiy enough this summer, and I have no idea. Bloody everything it feels like at the moment!

one quarter of an actual piriton none of your new fangled nonsense is the most I can take either end of the day

I have chronic spontaneous urticaria. Taking four cetirizine, two fexofenadine and one hydroxyzine a day ! Permanently knackered and still itching particularly in the evenings and at night. Seeing dermatology again in a couple of weeks, hoping for better treatment.

Liver?

Acrivastine doesn't make me drowsy. It's the only OTC one that doesn't.

The worst of my hay fever is tree pollen, and that's reasonably easy to work out which ones are a problem at which times because there is often visible pollen on the ground underneath. So it will start on the day the my neighbour's mimosa comes into bloom (end Jan - mid Feb) and generally stop mid-May. The type and severity of symptoms vary by which tree is currently putting out pollen. Then I get a milder version about now, that started on Tuesday (I think) and will go on for maybe three weeks. I have no idea what the current cause is because there is so much in flower at the moment.