Waking Up Refreshed

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of ZzzQuil for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have struggled with sleeplessness for much of my adult life.  I read somewhere that it takes the average person about 7 minutes to fall asleep at night.  That's crazy talk!  It takes me about an hour -- minimum.  And when I'm stressed about something, I can pretty much forget about sleeping at all.  In fact, one night last week I watched a documentary about biscuits at 3 a.m. because that seemed just boring enough to do the trick.  No such luck.

My husband, on the other hand, balances me out.  I'll never forget laying in bed one night when he said, "I'm not very tired right now.  I think I'm going to go watch tv for a while."  Before I could even respond -- BEFORE I COULD EVEN RESPOND! --  he had started snoring. 

Sometimes I want to punch him.

Most of the time I'm content to lay there and wait for sleep to come.  I have a little routine.  I lay facing my husband at first and we chat for a few minutes.  When he starts snoring I roll over to the other side for about 15 minutes.  Then I roll to my back for a while.  I get up, go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, and lay back down.  Usually within 15 minutes or so I fall asleep.  It's fine.  I can function on very little sleep usually.  I'm used to it now. 

But there are times when I just have to be awake and alert the next day.  I need an ace-in-the-hole to help me fall asleep quickly and stay asleep til morning.  I've tried a few products on the market, but they make me twitchy.  There's not much worse than being super sleepy, but not being able to sleep because your leg muscles won't stop twitching.  Plus, they almost always have pain reliever in them.  I'm not in pain, I just can't fall asleep.

I'm in the midst of planning for Girl's Camp right now so I need to bring my A-game every day to get stuff done.  I was really excited when ZzzQuil gave me their product to sample.  ZzzQuil is from the makers of Vicks NyQuil, for when your only symptom is occasional sleeplessness. It’s not for colds, it’s not for pain, it’s just for sleep.  No extra medicine that you don't need, which is awesome.  ZzzQuil’s active ingredient, diphenhydramine HCI, helps reduce the time it takes for you to fall asleep when you have difficulty falling asleep, so you can sleep soundly and wake up refreshed.  Plus, it is the only over-the-counter sleep-aid medication available in both Liquid (Warming Berry flavor) and LiquiCap® forms.

I tried the Warming Berry liquid.  I didn't love the flavor {it's medicine after all}, but I did like the warming sensation.  That was pretty cool.  I was a teeny bit skeptical based on my past experiences with sleep-aids so I took it around the time my kids usually go to bed, several hours before my normal bed time, and laid down to watch tv in bed.  I don't think I even made it to the end of the 30 minute sitcom I was watching before I was sound asleep.  The next thing I knew I was waking up TWELVE HOURS later, feeling pretty great.  I'm sure I only slept that long because I am so perpetually sleep-deprived, but I might try taking just half a dose next time. 

The important thing is that it worked.  I slept.  Quickly and easily.  It was awesome and I was able to accomplish a ton the next day.  If you struggle with occasional sleeplessness, I recommend keeping a bottle of ZzzQuil in your medicine cabinet to help on those nights when you really have to be rested and alert the next morning. 

If you give ZzzQuil a try, join me and tweet about your experience using the hashtag #ZzzQuilNight.  Like ZzzQuil on Facebook, too, for the latest product information and promotions.