Am I taking crazy pills, because I've been taking PE for years and it works just fine? Like yes the behind the counter stuff is stronger but it also comes with more annoying side effects.
I use it to sleep during allergy season and I can tell when I don't take it when I mouth breathe the whole night. I might try some experiments to see if I can tell but I didn't think you could placebo while sleeping.
You're almost certainly experiencing the placebo effect. There's mountains of evidence phenylephrine does exactly nothing.