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.

Please be careful with Ambien
Date: 5/25/2005
I was first introduced to Ambien as a sleep aid to help me adjust to the time change when flying to Paris. It worked great and then my overseas travel increased and I always relied on Ambien to help me with the time changes. Eventually, I got my doctor to write a prescription for 30 tablets because I was going overseas for 2 weeks – I was hooked. I needed Ambien to tall asleep and depended on it for months at a time. I would then go without sleep for 48 hours or so to get back on a normal sleep pattern. The withdrawal was hell every time, but my sleep would soon return to normal. My 2 teenagers would tell me about the conversations that I never remembered and I would find emails that I had written that were complete gibberish. I never the left the house on Ambien, and I consider myself lucky after reading the other posts. I would have total amnesia of my activities on Ambien – I never knew about anything of this and never had any warnings. I will be heading to London for a week in July and will be handling the time change without Ambien. Please be careful and only use as directed – if you must.

Shellie

Nasty
Date: 5/25/2005
Ambien caused depression for me, the next night around 6:00 PM, I would be cold and sad. Also grouchiness, I wouldn’t recommend this drug to anyone, its nasty.

Dan

Ambien information from user
Date: 5/30/2005
Hi, I am relieved to find a website actually relaying TRUE personal stories from real Ambien users. It’s been 10 days since I got my #30 – 10mg RX of Ambien from the doctor and here I am trying to figure out if I have some kind of terrible illness or if it’s the Ambien that’s messing up my body. I also have migraine headaches almost every day – Ambien doesn’t seem to increase them – but I am also on pain killers during the day most days of the week to keep the migraine at bay.

Anyway – Ambien. I have been sleepless – or sleeping only 1 -2 hours night for months so I asked for the Rx. I did sleep – but I noticed after about 4 nights one 10mg tablet wasn’t working anymore so I had to take 2 to get to sleep without waking at 2 AM for the night. About one week after this I got extremely painful breasts and a few days later had some alarming discharge from my right breast?! I have already started the investigation process of that with another doctor – and we will see.

I am going to try to go off Ambien tonight. I have not felt right for the past two weeks – have had this creeping sensation that I am seeing the end of my life come rushing up way before it’s time – I’m only 37. I have these really deep and real feelings like I am heading down the pathway to eternity — it’s really hard to explain – but a deep silence – something I have never experienced before. One night I fell asleep on the couch after it set in and when I woke 2 hours later to try to get to bed, forget it – I was so dizzy I could not get upright. It was like the earth was pulled out from under me. All my might could not get my body up and balanced enough to get to bed – not even to crawl!

All in all this is freaking me out so I am going to try not to take it tonight and see if I can sleep at all. What else can a person take for sleep that doesn’t whack you out like this?? I know this site doesn’t give advice… I just wonder. Thanks

Amanda

AskDocWeb: You might try talking to the people at your local health food store. They may have a suggestion or two for natural sleeping products.

Taking Ambien
Date: 5/30/2005
I too take ambien on a regular basis. I began with Half and now take a whole each night, I don’t worry because I am still sleeping but cannot with out it. I sense this may be coming addictive. But it works so well I don’t want to give it up unless there is something better.

Gail

Ambien and perms
Date: 6/9/2005
Hi. Has anyone ever reported a problem with getting their hair permed as a result of Ambien? I just rec’d a perm and it didn’t take – AT ALL – and they suggested it might be medication I’m on. Anyone else?

Lbritz

Ambien worked well at first
Date: 6/20/2005
I’ve been taking ambien for almost 2 years. I thought it would help me sleep due to all the stress in my life. I was going through cancer treatments and a side affect was insomnia so, the ambien was a miracle drug at the time. I also noticed alot of forgetfulness (I transplanted a plant into a beautiful carnival glass vase) then remember looking at it the next morning and thinking to myself, “I wonder who did that?” I also learned recently that I’ve been sleep walking now. I had been working hard all day and into the evening, I was EXHAUSTED when I when to bed. My husband said I got back out of bed about 20 minutes later and called 2 of my friends. One said I was hard to understand and was breathing very rapidly and she asked if I needed any help. I noticed the phone wasn’t where I had placed it when I went to bed and mentioned it to my husband. He informed me that I called my friend twice asking for some important information that only she could tell me. (I don’t have a clue what that could have been) My husband never realized that I was actually asleep. I am now up at 1:41AM after taking an ambien at 11:00PM that evidently didn’t work this time. I do feel like I have alot of memory loss that I believe is associated with this drug. I will still continue taking it for now due to the stress from my divorce. But I hope to get off of it as soon as I can.

Leslie

Hallucinations and sex with no memory
Date: 6/24/2005
Ambien is a wonderful sleeping aid. But also agree with others, it can definately make you have hallucinations if you try to fight going to sleep to ride out the high it can give you. My husband told me all kinds of crazy stuff I did one night, we even had sex and I don’t even remember any of it. You have to take Ambien as soon as you get in the bed, it works quickly, and as soon as you feel your eyes are starting to get heavy, cut of the tv and lights and GO TO SLEEP!

KM

Once a week
Date: 6/26/2005
I take .05 1x a week normally on the weekend. I have 6 children and I can sleep for 4 hours without waking up at every sigh, cough etc. I have never felt groggy upon waking and when a child cries I can wake up and respond. I love it, I am in control and relaxed but I only take it 1x a week due to fear of addiction.

Lee

Ambien is ripping me up
Date: 7/3/2005
Just started taking 10 mg of Ambien about a week ago. It is ripping my stomach to shreds! I have had stomach pain, nausea and diarrhea. I’m calling my doctor tomorrow to get off the medicine. I can’t sleep because my stomach hurts so much!

Lisa

Ambien is messed up
Date: 7/8/2005
I am on ambien right now and am about to fall asleep soon. This drug is messed up. Yeah, it’s fun for a while when you feel wasted every night before conking out, but the novelty wears off when you need to take 2 pills a night to get that sleepy feeling…and count your pills at the end of the month and realize you are screwed because you can’t get a refill. I’ve been off it before and my life was so much better. But I also get depressed and need to get back into ambien to get a regular sleep cycle. But ambien really messes you up and when you have a hard time blurring a dream from reality or start to care less about the difference you definitely need to stop. My advice. I’m trying to wean myself off of it and only use it when I absolutely need sleep. Clearly I’m not doing a good job but I will keep trying because you function productively, clearly, and have more control over your life without this drug.

Abby

Not recommended
Date: 7/13/2005
Warning: if you are a chronic insomniac do not take this drug. I got all the side effects because if you don’t sleep without it you are immediately addicted. I would recommend Klonopin instead.

Vicky

AskDocWeb: Klonopin is an anti-seizure medication that belongs to the same general class of drugs as Valium, Librium, etc. Like these drugs, it produces sedation, decreases attention span, and has the possibility of long term physical dependence. Using it for insomnia is NOT recommended.

Take less and it still works
Date: 7/14/2005
I started using Ambien for a trip abroad. I wanted to be able to sleep on the plane. I started by taking small amounts of the pill, like 1/3 the pill or 1/4 the pill. This seems to work great! I slept better and was hoping to be less dopey in the morning. I’d still recommend this to people, take less at first. Some people are more drug sensitive than others so I always personally start with less medication; however, this may not be your personal philosophy or your doctors recommendation and of course you should go by what they tell you. You should know that taking the 1/3 portion of the pill helped immensely for a fine nights sleep, but I’m still a little out of it in the morning. Now that I’m back home, I do not think I’ll continue to use Ambien on any level unless my work stress continues or my husband’s snoring is unbearable and I can not sleep at all.

Jill

Overdosed on Ambien
Date: 7/20/2005
Ive been taking Ambien for about 5 month and the craziest thing that happened to me was I overdosed, and I had no memory of doing this, and I woke up in the hospital, with my friend by my side. I had no memory what so ever except for a nurse taking my blood and I said ouch.

Jason

Read more Ambien Feedback.

Ambien – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – Page 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – Last Page 120

---

If you find this page useful share it with others. If you have used Ambien, use the form below to add your review of Ambien, feedback or suggestions that may help others. Please note that all addresses are held confidential.