Falling sick with the flu or a common cold can be miserable. Not only do you feel tired during the day, but you might not even be able to fall asleep at night due to coughing.
I religiously measure my sleep quality at night, and when I caught the flu, I could see the massive negative impact it had on my sleep. I decided to take some Nyquil to see if it would help me sleep better while sick. As with all medication, you should consult a healthcare professional before use. The results below show the impact that Nyquil had on my particular sleep quality, but it might not be the same for everyone.
Methodology
Using an Apple Watch, I measured my sleep quality for one night while sick with the flu at the peak of my symptoms. I measured my sleep quality the following night, with equally severe symptoms, after taking the recommended dosage of Nyquil. Finally, I also measured a night of my normal sleep when I wasn’t sick. I kept my caffeine intake and activity levels consistent across all days. I started my bedtime wind-down at midnight and entered bed between 12:30am and 1am each night. I woke up with my alarm at 8:30am every morning.
Sleep quality is measured based on the amount of sleep in each sleep stage. Time in REM (Rapid Eye Motion) sleep and deep sleep contributes to a higher sleep score while time awake lowers the sleep score. The full details behind the sleep score can be found here.
Results
Sleep while Sick (No Nyquil)
Sleep while Sick with Nyquil
Normal Night of Sleep (Not Sick)
| Trial | Awake (Mins) | REM (Mins) | Core (Mins) | Deep (Mins) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sick | 180 | 0 | 196 | 14 |
| Nyquil | 27 | 17 | 265 | 48 |
| Not sick | 30 | 95 | 289 | 52 |
Being sick decreased my sleep score from 117 on a normal night to -166. I received no REM sleep and minimal deep sleep. Taking Nyquil improved my sleep score when sick to -38 by decreasing time awake drastically, with moderate improvements to REM and deep sleep. Though the time awake and deep sleep became similar to a normal night, my REM sleep still lagged significantly compared to a normal night.
Discussion
The sleep impact of being sick was larger than I expected, mostly due to the time awake. Not getting any REM sleep also explains why I felt mentally fatigued the next day. By taking some Nyquil, I was able to decrease the time I spent awake at night to a normal amount, but I still couldn’t improve my REM sleep to the degree I was hoping.
David Stewart
David is a former statistics consultant.