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.

Recommend Ambien
Date: 9/30/2009
I’ve been using Ambien for about two years now. I have ruptured discs in my lower back & sometimes the hydrocodone doesn’t kill the pain enough for me to be relaxed enough to sleep. Before Ambien I was on Restoril and I can tell you that, although the “sleep” activities that have been experienced without memory of the activities don’t outweigh the benefits. Restoril is addictive (physically and mentally, not just mentally like I believe Ambien is). After three years of trying different things to cope with my insomnia, zolpidem tartrate has been a major blessing. Anyone who doesn’t like taking the benzo’s, I highly recommend Ambien.

Flick

Nausea remains after 4 or 5 days
Date: 9/30/2009
When I was recently discharged from the hospital after surgery, I asked my doctor for a sleep aid. He prescribed 10mg Ambien. I took it for about 10 days. Every night I fell asleep quickly, but had dreams in which I was frantic — moving from one environment to another, each with its own problems. My vision was blurred all day and I experienced dizziness and nausea until about 2 PM every day. I realized the symptoms were very similar to a drug reaction I had had years earlier. So I stopped taking the Ambien after 10 days. The dreams have subsided, but the nausea remains (after about 4 or 5 days). I’m 65. I consider myself lucky after reading all the other posts. Can’t wait to feel normal again! Talk to your doctor at length before taking this drug! Try an over-the-counter sleep aid — the 4 hours of sleep I get with a non-prescription are better than the side effects of Ambien’s full night of sleep!

Jane

Fibromyalgia
Date: 9/30/2009
I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia around 4 years ago and lack of sleep is one of the symptoms. I’ve been on .05ml of Ambien, almost every night since then. My doc feels that a lack of sleep is a bigger problem than the half of Ambien, but after reading the comments I’m not sure. I don’t think I have any side effects other than not sleeping when I don’t take it, and no other OTC meds help. Please let me know what you think.

Roxanne

AskDocWeb: The known benefits of any medicine have to be weighed against the possible side effects. Sometimes it is worth taking and sometimes it is not. If you are not having any side effects then it is obviously working for you.

Total insomnia
Date: 9/30/2009
I have been taking ambien for clinically speaking too long. But it is/was the only thing that would work. However, the past three weeks. It hasn’t worked. After taking 15mg in a night. I have total insomnia? Go to bed at 11 PM let’s say and still wide awake at 230 no eating or caffine, after 8pm. Don’t know what is going on?

Sherrie

It seems to have stopped working
Date: 10/1/2009
I have (am) using Ambien. I started about three years ago when my then fiance was being sent to Iraq. I didn’t want to be up all night worrying so I figured it would help those times that I needed it. I eventually stopped using it and only recently (over the past year) started have terrible insomnia. Entire weeks were going by where I was only falling asleep an hour or two before had to be at work… I got the prescription filled again but as many have said on here; it seems to have stopped working. The last two of my previous bottle didn’t even make me fall asleep and it had been quite a while since I had taken it prior to then. Just tonight I had my prescription filled again because for over a week I haven’t been falling asleep until 4 or 5a.m again and I just feel awful! Actually last week it wasn’t until after my daughter left for school that I was able to lay down and sleep and even then I only slept for an hour.

I too must admit that when I first started taking it it worked much better -but like many have already NOTED, I also apparently sent crazy texts, left phone messages (LATE) that I have no recollection of and also had sex that I have no memory of. I also had those unexplained bruises in the morning from for some reason while unable to sleep still trying to function accomplish tasks or getting housework done or going into the kitchen and conjuring up massive strange combinations of food that I would find evidence of in the morning. Additionally, I don’t know if this is related but I can’t remember anything anymore it seems. No, not just when I have taken the ambien but even when I am not using it nightly my basic memory has been shot…simple basic things I should be able to recall or remember to do on a daily basis even to big things like paying my bills, picking my daughter up from practice: and I am only 34 so I doubt that this is merely a result of aging!! I just don’t know what to do. I have tried so many self help books and teachniques over the years, falling asleep at night has always been difficult for me, but the past year and a half has been like a living hell and I so yearn to be able to enjoy laying in my bed and reading like I used to and then falling asleep. I just can’t do it anymore.

Tonight I took the first one at 11:15…3 hours later and nothing, so at 2:00 I took another…this is just awful. My entire sense of self and spirit have changed. I am always grumpy and mean now…I don’t know what to attribute it to, side effects of the medication or simply lack of sleep. Clearly this second one didn’t help one bit because it is now an hour later and to be completely honest feel more alert than I have all day…which is BAD. Maybe I should just get up and do all the housework I have lined up for tomorrow…but wrap myself up in pillows to avoid any injuries! I am just SO FRUSTRATED! I REALLY needed to sleep tonight hence why I picked it up today…I said that there was no way I could take another night of this staying up till the birds start singing…and hey; in two hours that’s right where I will be, and my daughter will be getting up for school and…ugh.

Colleen

Ambien suicide
Date: 10/1/2009
My good friend took Ambien for her insomnia – I’m not sure how long she had been taking it – but she was displaying many of the symptoms I have read. She had more and more trouble sleeping. Her final dose resulted her getting in her car in the middle of the night and driving to a bridge and she jumped. I know she had no intention of suicide and she leaves behind a husband and 3 young children. Please don’t take Ambien!

Michele

Short-term memory issues
Date: 10/2/2009
I’ve been taking Ambien almost nightly for about 3 months. The thing about taking it on an empty stomach is 100% true for me too. I also take Wellbutrin and have found Ambien to be a godsend at times when I just could not get my mind to stop. My sleep has been much improved but I don’t want to take Ambien anymore because of the memory loss side effects. At first they seemed to be limited to the 30 minute period after I took the pill and before falling asleep. This I could deal with though it was weird and a little upsetting.

Now I am having short term memory issues that are effecting me throughout the day. It is like things just fall out if my head a few seconds after they happen. For example, my husband and I were arguing a few days ago and I could not remember what he was saying for long enough to respond to it. I kept forgetting what I was saying before I was done saying it. These symptoms remind me of early dementia. My Dad had it. Horrible disease. Anyway, I’m already freaked about dementia in old age let alone in my 30’s. Bye bye Ambien, hello natural remedies. Hopefully my smarts will return. I’ve been having so much empathy for stupid people.(sorry, gotta have a sense of humor in life).

One interesting… positive thing I will add. Apparently Ambien makes me a wild woman in bed. My husband does not want a horny vegetable for a wife but he did look disappointed when I told him I was going to stop taking it. Having great sex and not remembering it is just cruel anyway.

Dawn

Firefighter shot himself
Date: 10/2/2009
My sister just lost her husband 4 hours ago. She went into the bedroom and he was talking out of his head. While she was on the phone trying to get his some help, he got out of his bed and walked outside. My brother in law shot himself in the head. My brother in law was a firefighter for over 15 years, volunteer policeman. He was a WONDERFUL person. Everybody loves him and is heartbroken. The only thing different is he started taking ambien. We miss him, my sister had finally found someone who she really loved and who deeply loved her.

Teresa

I don’t understand
Date: 10/3/2009
I use Ambian temporarily – no more than 3 days in a row – for jet lag or when I have back pain. It is fantastic. I fall asleep right away and get a full night sleep and wake refreshed. What I don’t understand in reading all this feedback is why people are blaming doctors and the FDA. All medicine should be treated with respect, there ARE side effects and the information is out there. Most medicine is also habit forming, if not outright addictive, so you always need to exercise caution. I don’t want products that work well for most people to be banned because some people cannot take responsibility for their own actions.

Priscilla

NO MEMORY of doing this!
Date: 10/6/2009
I just started taking Ambien about two weeks ago. Last night I took a half tablet and went right to sleep. However, this morning one of my cats was outside. This cat was definately inside when I went to bed. At some point I must have gotten up gone into the room where he sleeps, carried him downstairs and thru the house to put him outside then went back to bed. I have absolutely NO MEMORY of doing this! Since I live alone I had to be the one who put him out. This freaks me out so I am not sure if I will take it again.

Glenda

Suicidal thoughts
Date: 10/6/2009
I have trouble sleeping due to shift work. Was perscribed 10 – 10 mg tabs of Ambien. I cut them in 1/2 and only took 1/2 every few days. I slept great. After a couple weeks started taking 1/2 (5mg) every day because I could no longer sleep without it. After about 4 or 5 days developed suicidal thoughts. I’m glad I recognized these thoughts as a possible side effect of this medication. It would have been very easy to kill myself and the scary part is, I wanted to. I have never felt that way before and when well rested I am a very happy, well adjusted and content person.

Chris
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