About Ambien

Discussion forum about the side effects of Ambien. Share your experience and opinion about Ambien. What would you tell your best friend about this product? Please remember that we do not give medical advice. That is for your local health care provider, who is familiar with your medical history.

Memory recovery?
Date: 4/27/2014
I noticed AskDocWeb replied to a few people with memory loss lasting after discontinuing Ambien, that some but an unknown amount will come back. Where are you getting your info from? Experience with patients? If so can you outline more of those experiences? Or is any of it a source I can locate, like published research? At this time do you have updated info on how much memory recovery can be expected?

I have a family member who’s off it for 1 month and memory loss is still severe. I see a lot of complaints online, but this is the only site I’ve seen where possible recovery is mentioned, so I’d like to gather more info! Thanks.

I’ll add, they are in late 70’s and took it for 2-3 months. Problems were very obviously linked to the med, and not from another source. But with other factors the 10mg dose may not have been clearing well, so may have accidentally been on higher dosing. Had trouble sleeping for years and used various sleep aids successfully, without this problems.

Curls

AskDocWeb: We use multiple sources, the main one for this is Jerome Jaffee Thee Pharmaceutic basis of Therapy, DSM 4R, Kaplan and Sadock Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry. It seems that a lot of people who have memory loss don’t recover completely. However they’ve often taken it a long time, over 2 years or overdosed. Keep in mind that people who do recover don’t tend to post because there’s no motivation for them to do that. The reports of recovery are out there, you just have to search for them. One senior recovered 90% of their short-term memory and another report of recovery on this page.

Strange phenomena
Date: 5/10/2014
I have been prescribed zolpidem tartrate 10mg at bedtime for insomnia for about 18 mos. although I have had a few minor episodes with posting comments or status updates that I did not recall when I saw them the following day, I’ve otherwise had no problematic episodes. However, I have been experiencing a strange phenomena for about 8 mos where I occasionally am woken from a sound sleep via spontaneous orgasm! It usually occurs on weekend mornings when I have not taken ambien the previous night and sleep in late.

I did not put the two together until last night when I skipped my ambien because I fell asleep watching tv at 10pm and was awakened 4 separate times during the night in the middle of a full on orgasm! I do have an above average sex drive and it takes me a lot of effort to have an orgasm with my boyfriend of 6 years. I’m 36 and have never experienced this until about 8 mos ago. I am now positive that the orgasms in my sleep are somehow related to ambien withdrawal. I suppose I’m not really complaining, but I just find it odd.

Michelle

Long term use of Ambien
Date: 5/25/2014
I’ve been taking ambien 10 mg for several years. In the last few months it seemed to not work so well as I could take it and not get sleepy. Now I take it and eat something sweet about 30 minutes later. Within 5-10 minutes I’m out. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this with ambien

Rick

Hair follicle test
Date: 5/27/2014
Does lunesta and ambien show up in a hair follicle test?

Sara

AskDocWeb: No, the medications that do show up on a drug test for drugs of abuse are listed here.

Lower back pain
Date: 6/9/2014
I’ve been taking Ambien for a year, and the last 5 months I have a horrible lower back pain that just keeps getting worse. I have neuropathy in my feet and it seems to be getting a lot worse too. My doctor has sent me for a bazillion blood and urine tests that all come back ok. I’m looking for a new doctor…mostly cause this one is over-booked and can’t even remember my name. Is it Ambien? He doesn’t know, and I can’t seem to find anymore info on it. I hate not sleeping, but, these pains are unbearable.

Laura

AskDocWeb: Ambien is one possibility. Of the people who reported having side effects when taking Ambien 5.59% of them have back pain. Since it goes through your system in less than a day, discontinuing would likely give relief within a few days if the pain was caused by the Ambien.

I was becoming violent
Date: 7/15/2014
I was going through a strained relationship with a gal and i started smoking and drinking eventually i couldnt sleep even after getting drunk. First i started taking Chantix to quit smoking but i was smoking a pack a day on top of the throwup feeling you get when you take chantix. i was becoming violent which i knew and i promptly stopped taking chantix. Then i got a prescription for Ambien to tackle sleep disorder. I booked a ticket for an expensive vacation trip on ambien to Alaska. After coming back from my vacation last week i took one to sleep and then morning i woke and said hi to my roommates in the morning. It was a Sunday and i wanted to sleep more took one more in the morning, thats all i remember and then i had started drinking in the morning too! Took 5 more ambien.

Next morning i woke up with massive black eye, burn marks on my fingers and swollen head and none of my roommates were home. I had also driven my car in between because it was not parked where I had it before I went to sleep. Going through my texts i realized i had been behaving violent at home and texted weird stuffs to roommates. I had called cops and talked to some phone number which was unreachable! I put together that I had been nonsensical all along and texted the girl I like that I have been sick and need a surgery etc. My roommates wanted me to vacate the room and I immediately vacated the apartment on the same day. I donot remember anything that had happened between Sunday morning and Monday.

Since then I have stopped ambien and I have being sleepless everyday. I think its better to not take ambien and be violent than be sleepless. Now I have stopped drinking and also stopped ambien. That brought an end too great friendships and roommates. I am done with Ambien for good. Donot ever take Ambien!

JA

Bizarre nightmares
Date: 10/2/2014
I took Zolpidem for a week or so while on a trip to Spain. After 2-3 days of being home I stopped taking it. Bizarre nightmares for a couple of days, The first time it happened I woke up clenched and sweaty from fear three times in one night. Second night it happened again but just once in night. Third night was ok. The drug worked great when I took it to deal with jet lag, but not sure I will take it again given what it did to me after stopping it.

Helen

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