Ambien

anyone here have any experience with this drug? good or bad, i'd like to know.

The time released stuff gives me a nasty hangover.

The regular stuff works tho.

that the time release was 'developed/released' because the patent was up for the 'regular' Ambien and the generic became available.

He felt it was just developed as a sales ploy----which is no big surprise!

They don't do a time release until the patent is up. When they use the time release chemicals, it becomes a new compound, and a new patent.

Of course, sleepwalking, sleepdriving, sleepeating, etc have all been associated with the time released stuff.

:D

From bloody mary to brandy alexander! :D

(Not within an hour of each other though) :rofl:

Thanks for the reminder!

:silly: ... especially when it kills that last, lonely brain cell.

the CAUSE of AND solution to all of life's problems! (Credit, Homer. Of the Simpsons variety!)

if it is it sounds nasty as all get outs

I sleep walk anyway. I'd be scared of something like ambien.

Ambien - almost three years ago I'm in the hospital for the second time that day with contractions 5 minutes apart...told to go home, again, and they gave me an Ambien, pretty much telling me, a woman who is having her second child, to go home and sleep so more. That was at 12:00 midnight, my daughter was born at 4:15 am so....let's just say that if you are having a baby, Ambien will NOT make you go to sleep... I know that doesn't help but the fact that they gave me a sleeping pill still pisses me off.

There is a window where you need to go to sleep, if you miss it, you may be up a while!

though if you come to take it regularly you will become dependent on it and your tolerance for it will increase and it won't be as effective (this is if you take it over a long period). it is no solution for long term sleep problems. i say all of this based on current experience.

if it's for one or two scrips worth then there's no worries...i've had no problems with sleep walking or amnesia-eating or any other side effects but that's just me, it would definitely be something to look into.

but i would also advise never taking it and then not going to bed. it can screw with your head (makes you feel drunk), cause temporary amnesia and in severe cases minor hallucinations. so only take it right when you're about to go to sleep, it metabolizes quickly (within 15 minutes or so) so you'll be out soon.

and finally as someone mentioned above, i like the regular better than the CR version. then again once i'm asleep i have no problems staying asleep, it's just getting there that's the problem. if you have problems with staying asleep than regular ambien will not fix that as it'll clear out of your system sooner.

hope that helps

I've never built up a tolerance to it. I take just 5mg (anything higher and I'll do the sleepwalking, sleap eating, etc. stuff, and I don't need a higher dose to go to sleep). I'm dependent on it in the sense that I do not sleep without it, or if I do, it is not a restful sleep. But that was the case before I started taking it, which is why it was prescribed.

I think doctors start people out at too high a dosage and that's what leads to problems. Most people are started at double what I take; some take four times as much -- which I can't imagine doing.

What I like about Ambien is that the sleep I get with it is good, restful, and then there's no hangover the next day.

I've taken it since the late 90s, and it still works for me. 5mg., as well.

I was prescribed it because of menopausal problems---which lucky for you all, I won't go into here! ;>O

But---all the things I've been reading here seem to be a result of not taking it as prescribed.

Take it about 1/2 hour before you plan to fall asleep---and you WILL fall asleep. I never have been able to sleep all night anyway, so Ambien doesn't help me in that respect, but I do get at least 4 hours of restful sleep.

Take it when you're going to be up, cleaning windows ???etc., then expect it to cause problems.

Of course I'm dependent on it---because I want to sleep so I'm not a miserable wretch the next day---aching like crazy because I tossed and turned all night.

Follow directions and most should not have a problem. In my opinion.

Before I discovered that the 10mg dose was too high for me, I did some pretty strange things in my sleep and had amnesia of the events. But just cutting the dose in half ended that.

It gave me terrible nightmares. Quit after a couple nights of that. Lunesta also worked as advertised---EXCEPT it leaves a horrible, terrible, awful taste in your mouth that lasts all day.

I woke up thinking someone had poured liquid chrome down my throat. And it took more than a couple of days to get rid of it - after taking it once.

:shrug:

i generally prefer it to ambien.

not nightmares, just weird and disturbing enough to wake me up - which defeated the purpose of taking it in the first place

haven't tried lunesta, thanks for the warning about the horrible, terrible, awful taste

It can cause you to lose inhibitions and generally not think things through. I took it for a while and don't anymore, because I had a tendency to take more (without realizing it) if I wasn't falling asleep. It also causes bad amnesia during the time you're taking it, as well as being off balance.

The worst part is the loss of reasoning. I've attempted working on things that I shouldn't ever be trying to do and not remember a thing about it the next morning. Once I tried to take apart a light socket outside because I was convinced that I could make a regular sized compact fluorescent bulb fit in a smaller socket. I ended up electrocuting myself, and then tried to do it again. I only know this because my wife woke up and made me stop.

In short, don't take it unless you really need to. Hypnotics are not a good thing for most people.

I had terrible insomnia after surgery.

I tried Ambien and it completely blacked me out. I would take one and black out. It's a horrible feeling.

I switched to Lunesta but the side effect of that was a horrible metallic taste in my mouth. Not just in the morning...but all day long. It never went away.

I went back on Ambien but just could not take the black-outs.

Now, I take an Ativan. Gentle and much more effective.

I was hoping to turn my wake/sleep cycle around. I get plenty of snooze time, it just usually starts when others are getting up for the day.

So, with Ambien, I got a good 7-8 hours of peaceful sleep with no hangover...for 30 days. Then went right back to the old routine.

I am an incurable night owl.

It worked for about a week. Then I had to up the doses. Eventually, it's worthless - unless you like benzo-like dependency.

If you are using it less than once a week, it's fine. But if you have insomnia as bad as mine, find something else. "I've heard" that there are better, natural, green solutions. But I would never recommend something that might not be legal.

I find that one drink makes me sleepy. However, I don't have insomnia.

A drink or two (depending on my current tolerance level) makes me pretty sleepy.

got a good nights sleep with no ill effects.

Besides the sleep eating, it can also cause weird mood swings. It's fine if you need help on a night or two, but anything longer and it messes with your moods. It can also mess with short term memory. I was regularly prescribed this as part of a pain management program, and had severe problems with memory. When I found myself having to carry a notebook to remember what I did the day before, I stopped taking it. Luckily the problem went away.

never a problem, although i prefer lunesta.

spent the whole night tossing and turning, you do not remember it. I imagine that is why the sleepwalking and sleepeating incidents. Would not touch the stuff myself and I have been desperate enough for sleep.

sleep-hangover the next day..and who knows what else?

I had to take my wife to the ER after Ambien.
She washed the windows in a blackout, which is very dangerous on the 4th floor.
One morning she awoke before it wore off and felt like her legs were on fire.
Off to the ER for some tranquilizers.

A librium will do the job, without the nasty side effects.

and have been taking it 3 to 4 times a week. It seems to work great and though I've been having some short-term memory problems it's hard to say whether it's the Ambien or just getting older...

the generic S U C K S

I just posted about it--but I've been taking generic for a few months and it works just as well. The Pharmacist told me that she'd heard that it didn't work for some people.

Different strokes for different insomniacs, I guess!

but left me with a headache

Totaled the car she hit, and did several thousand dollars damage to her car. Luckily, no one was hurt.

After that, her husband confiscated the pills and got rid of them.

(Besides 'sleep driving', she also 'sleep cooked', frying a pan of Crisco thinking it was grits - and she doesn't even like grits! She's lucky she didn't burn her house down.)

on an occasional (few times a month) 5 to 10 mgs. per night dose. One thing you have to watch out for is if you don't plan to take it all the time, you can have nasty "refractory insomnia" on nights you don't take it. So if you take it like 4 nights in a row then don't take it, your 5th night will really suck in terms of sleep. So I try to limit myself to not more than 2x per week. I do like the stuff, though, and could easily see myself taking it every damn night, except I know my doc wouldn't write a 'scrip for that much.

I only take the name brand, no generic shit. Costs me about $125 for 90 caps of 10 mg. pills. Better living through chemistry. :D

I was stupid and sleepy for TWO DAYS.

After major kick-ass surgery, I couldn't sleep for beans. Ambien was prescribed and it did wonders for exactly sixty days then it simply stopped doing anything for me.

fuck the hard stuff

One of my favorite recreational drugs (though I use it when I can't sleep, too).

Just two months ago, I had a two week worth supply of 10 mg. pills. They were good. I slept well. But, I didn't renew them because I'm trying to sleep naturally. I often have trouble sleeping, and I don't want to rely on any pills.

Seeing people in the house that were not there. Little blue snowmen. My wifes face chancing to Lego blocks. It didn't help her sleep either, made her very agitated.

Though a relatively very few number of people have adverse reactions to it, it is overwhelmingly well tolerated, safe and effective. If you stay up too long after taking it, you may have some memory recall issues the next day and may be a bit loopy while on it, but overall the effects are more than manageable and if you need it for sleep, it should work quite well for you. But in the end, it really is up to each individual user to judge for themselves whether they like it or not. No harm whatsoever in giving it a try, so just try it once, see how you react to it, and then decide from there. But there's no risk in your trying it once, so don't sweat it!

Personally, I swear by the stuff. I love it (though I don't really take it anymore).

nt

not a joke. he didn't say neo cons, he said, we all use it. this was at the end of aa press conference.