I want to warn those of you with insomnia to avoid Ambien or Zolpidem (generic equivalent). I was arrested for drunk driving after taking Ambien. I went into a "twilight" state, overdosed, then drove, smashing my car into an inantimate object.

I have no memory of any of the driving or arrest. I am terrified at the consequences.

Anyway, I was told these episodes aren't that uncommon.

Record details well. It can't be too long before ambien lawsuits begin.

He too damaged vehicles and got jail time for it. I sincerely hope he's sued the Ambien creators as he also lost his job, if I remember correctly.

I will never take Ambien and I am surprised anyone still prescribes it.

My mother takes ambient regularly, gets up often to drink water and even has conversations. Come morning, no recollection. It honestly scares me.

My friend took Ambien. Her MD will no longer give her a RX for it. She told me she would get up in the night and eat candy. She had no recollection. Just found candy wrappers when she woke up.

After hearing about how this was happening to lots of people, I began referring to it as Zombien.

Not everyone has a negative side effect.

The reason it's a prescription drug is because (like most prescription drugs) it needs to be controlled. If you have a negative side effect, tell your doctor, and stop taking it.

Ambien has made life bearable for me. I've never had a bad side effect. If I did, I wouldn't take it anymore. In fact, OTC sleep aides have terrible side effects for me. Not to mention that they don't work. They put me into a depression. Ambien doesn't do that to me.

I've taken prescription drugs that had horrible side effects. I don't think everyone else should stop taking it because of that. Not all drugs work for everyone. That's why we have controls on the drug industry.

Also, when you get a prescription they give you a pamphlet that tells you what the side effects may be. Pay attention to these. They mean what they say. Until you know how a drug is going to work for you, you should take any and all of them with caution. If you have any negative side effects, stop taking it, and tell your doctor. Common sense goes a long way.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2012 11:38PM by Mia.

+1 Mia

My husband has chronic insomnia and takes ambien daily. He doesn't sleep without it.

I have seen him sleep eating on occasion, which is a known side effect. We were able to carefully observe his activities and realized that if he didn't get enough animal protein in his evening meal, then he would sleep-eat during the night. From then on we have made it a priority to ensure he gets several ounces of animal protein every night at dinner.

I take 5mg nightly. It's just enough that i can get back to sleep after waking in the night. I've had a couple of emergencies at night and coped just fine on that dose.

Insomnia is worse for me than ambien.

Yeah, 5mg is a pretty small dose, half of the average dose. But you might consider taking some time off every month, as you can develop different kinds of tolerance, or mental confusion. Time off can help reset and recalibrate your synapses.

IMO, even 5mg should be reserved for those most difficult nights when it gets too late, rather tan as a nightly dose.

But I don't take benzos of any kind, cuz they blitz my mind after a short while. Plus my DIL died from taking benzos and opiates.

Always gets me back on track. Best nights sleep ever. I've heard about folks doing things like the the OP says. People reacte differently to Rx's. Good to have warnings. I would not take it if I started doing things like that.

although I am tethered to a CPAP machine as well, which would complicate nocturnal wanderings. Also means I have no excuse for putting on weight.

Ambien (and Lunesta)are hypnotics, not sedatives. That means that the sleep, and the consequent dream state, are not the same as natural sleep and some (not all) people find that they don't feel well rested even after sleeping a solid 8-9 hours.

I know a lot of people out there have phenomenal results from these drugs. But a lot of people have bad experiences or find that it is disruptive. Someone once made this analogy: "Sleeping" while on a hypnotic is like staying awake for 36 hours using caffeine/stimulants. It might work, but it isn't as pure as the real thing. Your sleep might feel "staged" and not as restful as usual, just like using stims to keep you awake for a long time can leave you feeling groggy, out of it, and not "really" awake.

I had a friend who would be up half the night eating. Didn't remember any of it. I stopped taking it. I never really felt fully rested on it anyway and woke up feeling hungover.

Wow, I had not heard of this... a bit scary.

I'll stick to my Sleepytime Tea - though I normally sleep like the dead.

It's a drug class effect that is shared with the benzodiazepines (diazepam aka Valium), etc. Not surprising since they bind to the same receptor in the brain. In the 1990s all the press was focused on triazolam (Halcion) for the exact same reason.

NB: in sufficient quantities alcohol does the same thing. This is what an alcohol induced "blackout" is.

If I drank until I passed out, I would feel like @#$%& for at least a week.

If I take Ambien I wake up feeling rested and alert. No headaches, nausea, none of that.

To compare the two is just crazy. Totally NOT the same thing.

Alcohol is dehydrating and harder on the liver. That's the difference. Different process of effect, but same effect.

My husband has to take this. He has been on sleeping meds for a very long time and needs them. He is immune to the over the counter, can take multiple boxes of them and have them do nothing. He was on lunesta and amitriptylene (not at the same time) and grew immune to those as well. He is now on ambien and it works as long as he is in bed when it takes effect, other wise the effects pass him by and he stays awake for days without meds. He does not sleep without medication, and needs it to be on a schedule to be able to work and provide for his family. I know ambien is not for everyone, it sure does help our family though.

Ambien not only helps me sleep, but it helps to control chronic pain that i've had 24/7 for the last 18 years.

It is the difference between me having a little bit of a life, or none. For people who don't know what it's like to live a life of pain and insomnia because of pain, I say, butt out.

These drugs were created for a reason. They are controlled for a reason. If you are taking them to abuse them, you need to stop it.
You are making the people who legitimately need them suffer even more.

If you are taking medications for the right reasons, and they are helping you, how dare anyone judge you for that. I don't think anyone should suffer because of the mis perception of the unknowing.

you posted this, "These drugs were created for a reason. They are controlled for a reason. If you are taking them to abuse them, you need to stop it.
You are making the people who legitimately need them suffer even more." under what I typed. My spouse does legitimately need the medication, I thought I specified that.

I didn't mean that to be directed at you. Sorry.
I would be the last person to argue that this med. and many others are legit and help many. Including me. IMO ambien has been a life saver to me, and i'm sure many others.

Ambien works well for me - no adverse side affects. Your mileage may vary.

I stopped taking sleep medications like ambien because of the side effects.

A few years ago my nephew's girlfriend took ambien after taking nyquil and had a similar outcome as yours. Totaled her car and severely injured her 4 year old child. Scary stuff.

Hopefully you'll have a sympathetic judge. If this is the only time you've had a problem with the law I would hope they would be lienient. Make sure you have an attorney.

I can't take over the counter or some antihistamines. They give me strange disturbing dreams and I dream I am awake. The last time I dreamed I woke up and was snuggling hubby then I remembered he was out of town. Then I really woke up scared to death with my heart pounding out of my chest. I do take melatonin and most of the time it does help. It does have it's own problems though that can make life... uncomfortable. But some times you just HAVE TO GET SOME SLEEP! I don't take anything when hubby is gone. I sleep too deep and don't like to be that out of it when I am the responsible party in the house. I say be careful, try things out when it is safe and you have someone to watch/help you but do what you need to.

Sorry to hear about your troubles Robert. We will be pulling for you. Thanks for letting people know about this.

It is best to taper off of Ambien gradually. I cut down to 1/4 of a pill a night, but when I stopped, I couldn't sleep for 4 days. I was mad. Evidently, the brain gets used to the artificial melanonin, so it stops producing its own natural melatonin. If you insist on taking meds, take calcuim. Antihistamines (Dramamine) works for me, in an emergency.

Forestpal, what's calcuim? Did you mean calcium

I'm a graveyard shift worker. I've been on graveyard for 6 years now. When I first started working the shift, I couldn't sleep during the day to save my life. I asked my Dr for ambien and she absolutely refuses to prescribe it. She says it is so addictive, she has people ask for it more than they ask for vicoden and percoset combined. She says that once you've been on it for awhile, you'll never be able to sleep without it again.

She gave me amitryptoline to sleep and I sleep great now. Though, I suspect, my sleep now is attributed to a combination of the drug/blackout curtains/routine/sleep mask/air conditioner (for noise).

I have a client who took Ambien, then apparently in a sleep state, drove his car to a convenience store in the middle of the night, entered the store, bought a small item and left.

The surveillance tape showed that he was entirely nude. The tape made its rounds on the television stations trying to identify the man and generating stupid comments from the anchors.

He was arrested and charged with public indecency. That crime in this state requires registration as a sex offender.

A criminal defense attorney represented him in that matter. He could not afford an expert witness to testify about the side effects of the drug. He ended up doing seven months and is now a registered sex offender,

It worked well for me.
Till the night it turned on me. I also was on lithium at that time as well as some other Doc approved drugs.
I had incidents of eating all night and finding wrappers around but kept taking it. It also let my Aspergers off- leash (oh my). One night I did some very odd things and my daughter got involved, very awful.
I went off it about 4 years ago. Won't try it again but I do realize many people are fine with it.
My Doc should not of advised me to use it but I don't think they had as much info on it then as they do now. Even though I am no longer on lithium, I have no desire to try Ambien again, I can't trust its effects in my life.

Just if you get a hint that there is lost memory or confusion... NOTICE THAT.

My mother took Ambien. She didn't eat candy in her sleep. Instead, she woke up during the night, and must have forgotten she had already taken it and took more. When my father woke up, she was dead of an overdose.

Yeah. Be careful of this stuff.