Effects of chloral hydrate

[perdita02]

Hello everyone, I'm writing a bit of a Dracula fanfiction and I'm having trouble researching what chloral hydrate feels like to use, most sources I look up just say "it's a sedative, and here are all the negative side effects."

The types of things I'm looking to know: does it flat-out put people to sleep or could someone remain awake if they tried? Would a person using it stay unconscious through something painful happening to their body (ex., a vampire bite), and if they woke up, would they still be groggy and have difficulty moving? Does it cause the pupils to contract or dilate or anything? Are there other externally visible effects? Does it have any mood-altering or euphoric effects? How risky is it when mixed with alcohol, and what kind of synergy do they have? Answers to any of these would be much appreciated!

Comments

[melannen]

I am once again recommending Erowid for all of your "What does this drug feel like?" needs: https://www.erowid.org/pharms/chloral_hydrate/chloral_hydrate.shtml They've got a general summary of the effects and two first-person accounts (under "experiences".)

[(Anonymous)]

What they knew and how they used it in 1879 you can find in "The Advantages and accidents of artificial anaesthesia: a manual of anaesthetic agents, and ..." by Laurence Turnbull , starting page 206
https://archive.org/details/advantagesandac00turngoog

[lilacsigil]

does it flat-out put people to sleep or could someone remain awake if they tried? Would a person using it stay unconscious through something painful happening to their body (ex., a vampire bite), and if they woke up, would they still be groggy and have difficulty moving?

The fun thing about all sedatives is that they work differently in different people. Dosage, body size and composition, genetics, gender, how the sedative is administered...this is why surgeries have a specific doctor in charge of the anaesthetic, so they can constantly monitor the patient. So you can pretty much vary it in any way that works for the plot. If the person administering the sedative had someone wake up last time, they might give too much and kill their victim. If the last patient died, they might give too little and the patient wakes too easily. Then you have genetic variance, so someone might be quickly affected then wake up quickly, or take twice the dose that a larger person needed, or remain awake. It's not an exact science and chloral hydrate in particular is easy to overdose someone with.