NyQuil responds to TikTok’s viral ‘Sleepy Chicken’ trend

NyQuil has responded to a viral TikTok trend which sees participants cook chicken in cold medicine, after the FDA warned users against trying the “unsafe” trend.

In September, the Food and Drug Administration warned users against a social media challenge that encouraged users to cook raw chicken in cold medicine NyQuil, also known as the ‘Sleepy Chicken’ trend.

Videos featuring ‘Sleepy Chicken’ have garnered hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok, though it appears that most of them are intended as a joke to shock viewers, who have made a number of reaction videos to this bizarre ‘recipe.’

The FDA wrote: “It could also be very unsafe. Boiling a medication can make it much more concentrated and change its properties in other ways. Even if you don’t eat the chicken, inhaling the medication’s vapors while cooking could cause high levels of the drugs to enter your body. It could also hurt your lungs. Put simply: Someone could take a dangerously high amount of the cough and cold medicine without even realizing it.”

After a number of people tweeted NyQuil about the trend, the company responded to the posts and the viral trend.

“Consumer safety is our number one priority, and we do not endorse inappropriate use of our product,” they wrote. “NyQuil is an OTC medication that treats nighttime symptoms of the common cold & flu. It should be taken as directed using the dosage cup provided – not to exceed 4 doses in 24 hrs.”

It looks as though ‘Sleepy Chicken’ could continue to pop up on social media in the future, as each time it goes viral, it prompts a new wave of reaction videos and posts from people who are just encountering the trend for the first time.