DOSE:	50 mg	oral	Butalbital	(pill / tablet)
	40 mg	oral	Caffeine	(pill / tablet)
	325 mg	oral	Aspirin	(pill / tablet)

BODY WEIGHT:

140 lb

Set & Setting:
It was Tuesday night (last night) and I had just come down with a bad flu. I also have, as I've had for 5 years, a recurring problem with insomnia, and feeling ill only makes this worse. I've been using kratom to deal with insomnia, but I've been trying to cut back on use, having heard it is habit forming and having had used it the past three nights in a row.

Pertinent Past:
Substances like 'NyQuil' only make it harder for me to sleep because they contain pseudoephedrine - albeit in smaller amounts than the antihistamines which make medrowsy; ie, if there is an upper and a downer in a concoction, the former is more likely to keep me up than is the latter to put me to sleep. However, I have a surprisingly low tolerance to alcohol (a campus security guard who apprehended me vomiting in a public bathroom and brethalized me exclaimed in shock: 'That it?!'), though 'a couple drinks before bed' certainly does not help me sleep, perhaps becasue it wears off to quickly and the opponent process kicks in.

Experience:
My throat terribly sore and in the midst of what is becoming another intensely insomniac week, I scrounged for something that could perhaps help in both departments. A friend of mine had given me five pills with 'West-Ward 785' written on them, and I had heard they were 'a barbiturate.' So, looking this up online, I learned these pills contain 50mg butalbital, 325mg aspirin... And 40mg caffeine.

Uh-oh, I thought. NyQuil, which knocks out most people I know, keeps me up because of the pseudoephedrine. What of something which contains caffeine? Realizing that I was unlikely to fall asleep anyway, I decided to just go ahead and take a pill, and just one because of the aspirin, a pain reliever I have never used before (why, when ibuprofen is so effective and comparatively safer? -- ie, stomach bleeding vs. Coma).

Several minutes after taking the pill, I noticed my sore throat was gone almost entirely; no doubt, I thought, because of the aspirin, which seemed to work as well as a much higher dose (say, 800 mg) of ibuprofen.

About ten minutes after that I started reading 'Godfather Death' from the Grimm's Fairy Tales, and towards the end I was having trouble following the writing and decided the butalbital must be kicking in, though I did not feel particularly tired, and felt less 'groggy' than I had felt just a half hour ago.

I lay down in bed and turned out the light, and the next thing I knew I awoke, after a night of vivid dreams, to my CD Alarm playing Therion's 'In Rememberance'. Not only had I fallen asleep more effortlessly than on most nights (despite the caffeine content), but this morning I awoke refreshed and feeling very well-rested.

Exp Year: 2005	ExpID: 41294
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jun 28, 2018	Views: 1,920
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Caffeine (11), Butalbital (576) : Combinations (3), Therapeutic Intent or Outcome (49), First Times (2), Alone (16)