I had my first experience with pseudoephedrine last night. Really. I came back from the airport with a really bad cold, but I had to go meet someone for a business meeting, even as wiped out as I was. My girlfriend thought it would make me feel better to take some Sudafed. I've never taken the stuff before, and normally I'm stubbornly resistant to taking any sort of drug at all - even prescription drugs, much less over-the-counter ones. For some reason (blame it on being so sick) I took the horsepill, and went on my merry way.
Well, it didn't seem to do much - I was still sniffling and stuffed to the gills, and exhausted beyond belief throughout the entire meeting, so after I got home, I decided to go to bed a little earlier than usual. Not much, just a little - a half hour or so.
That was 11:00pm.
1:00 am rolls around and suddenly I was completely awake. No grogginess, no slowly coming up from a dream state. One moment I was unconscious, the next, my eyes were wide open and my heart was racing like I'd had a nightmare - but I didn't remember anything like that. I tried to lay back and calm down, but nothing doing, so I got up and surfed for a while, hoping that the strain on my eyes and boredom in my brain would eventually restore my sleep to me.
Four hours later, I finally yawned. When I realized how much time had passed, I was more than a little upset. Some of us have to get up early and work - and I was going to be a zombie all day long.
Thank you, Sudafed - never again!