Drowsy Discovery

Every now and again I will come across a product which makes so much sense, I will wonder why it hasn't existed before then. The infomercials for patent lawyers tell you that the next big invention will be something which no one has thought of before, but I'm not so sure that is the path to commercial success. I think what you want to do instead is find the sweet-spot where the product will clearly fill a need, but at the same time that need hasn't been so crushing that society demanded something be invented before that point. It's about giving people something they may want, but do not really need. I think that is why so many of the most famous products the world has seen were created accidentally. A few months ago I remember writing a post about how the maker's of Play-Doh had been trying to come up with an easier way to strip wallpaper and instead invented a beloved children's toy. No one was crying out for multi-colored clay that would occupy their kids for a couple hours but that doesn't mean they were going to ignore it once it was available. Well, I can only imagine the product I saw came about in kind of the same way. It's called ZZZQuil.

As you would expect from the title, ZZZQuil is from Vicks, the same company which produces NyQuil and DayQuil. For those of you who may never have had a cold in your life or believe in holistic healing, NyQuil is what you take when you have an illness and are worried about staying up all night long, coughing and sneezing. Since the body needs rest at those moments, Nyquil knocks you out within a few minutes of taking it and you wake up between 8 and 49 hours later feeling much better. Sometimes when you are sick all you want is a really deep sleep and NyQuil provides that. You may not know what day it is when you eventually come to, but at least you can inhale through your nose while you try and track down a calendar. In other words, it is the heavy artillery of cold medications. I'm a big dude, but one small cup of it can take me right out. Meanwhile DayQuil doesn't knock you out, but seems to do a good job of fighting colds. Still, I certainly wouldn't chug some and then operate a lawnmower, never mind heavy machinery because it is not like you are very clear-headed after taking it.

It seems a lot of medication is discovered accidentally. That is understandable, given the number of drugs which have to be combined and tested, because you never know what two random chemicals are going to do when mixed together. For example, scientists were trying to come up with a medication for high blood pressure and came away with Viagra instead. (Ironic, considering the commercials tell you not to take Viagra if you have high blood pressure. Still, you can't deny that was the most profitable failure since Columbus landed in America while trying to find India.) I have to imagine that something similar happened here. Since DayQuil is essentially NyQuil without the medications which make you tired and ZZZQuil is designed to only make you tired but not fight a cold I assume someone was sitting around one day, looking at the two halves which make up NyQuil and simply had an epiphany. Apparently when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade and when life provides you with a powerful concoction of drugs which will render people unconscious within a few minutes, you make sleep medication.

That is why this product seems like a natural next step. After all, the marketing behind NyQuil is all about it knocking you out and helping you sleep through the night. Also, I've heard of people who take NyQuil at the first sign of a cold because they just can't get that kind of deep sleep anywhere else. Since taking cold medication when you don't have a cold can't be healthy for you, it is probably a good thing that Vicks has come out with version which provides the rest but doesn't have as much unwanted medicine. The claim that it won't be as addictive as the sleep aids which require a prescription, but that remains to be seen. Considering drug companies exist to try and keep you alive just long enough to have to buy more of their medicine (this is Chris Rock's old joke about why they never cure anything), I have my doubts. The tagline for Nyquil used to be that it was "The nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, best-sleep-you-ever-got-with-a-cold medicine." I don't know is ZZZQuil is just going with "The best-sleep-you'll-ever-get medicine" but when you've got a foothold in the public's memory banks you should never be too quick to give it up. Maybe no one was asking for this medication, but now that it is here I'm sure a few people will be wondering how they ever lived without it.