What Is TikTok's 'Sleepy Chicken' Trend Doctors Are Warning Against?

The sleepy chicken TikTok trend is one in a long line of bizarre fads to take over the internet. Though it may sound like fun to a daring crowd, evident by the tens of videos going around of people attempting the 'challenge,' it is anything but. The medical fraternity has raised the alarm around this latest craze that is apparently replete with health risks.

'Sleepy chicken' calls for users to concoct a strange dish involving meat braised in medicine meant to treat the flu.

As horrible as it sounds, the trend has somehow found many takers among TikTok users, many of whom are sharing clips of themselves boiling the combination together. It is alternatively referred to as the 'NyQuil chicken' trend, named after the medical label whose product is being used to brew the preparation.

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Internet bugs may recognise the 'sleepy chicken' trend from a similar 2017 challenge that went viral on Reddit, called 'sleepytime chicken.' The latter required participants to follow a recipe on the lines same as the recent challenge. As per reports, the tag '#nyquilchicken' on TikTok has amassed lakhs of views, indicating its popularity.

Many are touting it as a great 'cold remedy.' (Why not just take the cold medicine directly instead?)

Doctors are not pleased with the trend, it seems. Mic quotes a physician as saying that cooking cold medicine on the stove with chicken saturates the meat with a "super concentrated amount of drugs" that is dangerous to consume. Even consuming one medicine-braised chicken cutlet would be akin to finishing off a half bottle of medicine in one go.

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2021 too witnessed some inexplicable trends that hung by a literal life-or-death thread. One of those was dry scooping, which imposed several health risks to the consumers. The trend involved ingesting a whole scoop of dry protein powder instead of diluting it with water, as is recommended.

Another fad called the 'blackout challenge,' which required users to hold their breath until they passed out, resulted in the tragic death of a ten-year-old girl in Pennsylvania who reportedly attempted it.