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" Have you ever taken NyQuil to help you sleep? I once had a friend in college who downed this stuff like you wouldn&amp;#x27;t believe. One Vitamin G reader admitted her NyQuil habit, and wanted to know if it was safe...**** Lisa*, a reader in Seattle confessed: &amp;quot;I take NyQuil to help me sleep several times a week. Sometimes I can&amp;#x27;t go to sleep without it. Is this bad? Help!&amp;quot; I asked Dr. Neal Barnard of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to weigh in. Here&amp;#x27;s what he had to say: &amp;quot;When used as directed, NyQuil does not present substantial risks, even with repeated use,&amp;quot; he says. But, he adds, better stop using it for sleep-inducing purposes. &amp;quot;...it is not a good idea to rely on a medication for sleep for an extended period. There are natural ways to improve sleep.&amp;quot; His best tip? Stretch and yawn. This sounds really simple, but it works, he writes in his book Breaking the Food Seduction. &amp;quot;Children stretch and yawn as their day draws to a close. While most of us think of these signs of tiredness as having no physical function, it is worth noticing that they help ready the body for sleep. Most animals, of course, do exactly the same thing as they prepare for slumber. Cats and dogs stretch out their legs and make a big yawn. When I was a medical student, my pet rat--a refugee from a laboratory--used to stick out her little white leg with a big yawn and then curl up to sleep.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Many adults no longer go through these sleep preliminaries, either because they are not physically tired or because alcohol or caffeine has disrupted their normal physical rhythms. But if you intentionally bring them back, you&amp;#x27;ll find you sleep better. Here&amp;#x27;s how: About a half-hour before you go to bed, stretch out your arms the way you did as a child, and open your mouth to simulate a yawn. At first, you&amp;#x27;re just going through the motions, but you&amp;#x27;ll soon end up triggering a genuine deep muscle stretch and yawn. Do this four times before you go to bed, and you&amp;#x27;ll notice a definite effect on sleep.&amp;quot; Read more sleep news from Vitamin G. Have you ever taken NyQuil to help you sleep? *Name changed. Photo: Vicks"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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