Ambien works okay for me, but it doesn’t knock me on my ass like some people have experienced. It’s a more or less “You know, lying down with a good book in bed sure is a good idea” than instant on your face blackout. But like some of you, I’m a hardcore insomniac [horrible horrible dreams, scared to go to bed] and right now, it works for me. If I get under 7 hrs, though, I can NOT function the next day.
I do have some odd experiences… once someone called me early in the morning and I had a conversation with them, then went back to sleep and later had no memory of talking to that person. I also will take my pill and wait 30-45 minutes for it to kick in, and I will read stuff and do things, including eating, that I vaguely remember the next day. I will also wake up in the middle of the night and get a snack, and have little memory of it. It’s crazy! But I love my Ambien, these things are very minor compared to the benefits.
Works fine for me. Note that you have to entirely ready for bed, and make up your mind you will do NOTHING but bedtime stuff once you swallow it. No short trip to the store even if you don;t really feel sleepy.
I don’t think many really sleep walk under it- what happens is more like nyctea scandiaca sez- you don’t always remember things done after you take it.
I do not wake up groggy if I get at least 7 hours of sleep. Under 6- groggy as hell.
I’ve tried ambien but now generally use zopiclone. I take it mainly for jetlag. I’ll usually take a full pill on the plane and depending on how tired I am will sleep 6-10 hours. Often had the stewardess shaking me awake on the final approach. I’ll take a full pill every night for the first couple of nights and get 6-8 hours of sleep. No hangover type feeling. After the first couple of nights, I will take half a pill if I wake up in the middle of the night. Half an ambien or zopiclone will put me out for 3-4 hours.
My youngest kid has sleep issues. she’s often up at 2:00 for an hour or two, and this can make me wide awake. I often take half a zopiclone to get back to sleep. I can get up 2.5 hours after taking a half and be a little sleepy but function fine to make coffee, get the household up, and everyone off to school. I’m at my office desk 4 hours after taking a zopiclone and don’t feel a thing out of the ordinary.
I’m always ready for bed when I take a pill. Only occaisionally have I woken up at 2:00 with the lights on and the book stuck to my head.
Works very well for me 80% of the time. The other 20% I’m up all night and feeling really odd. But, I’ve found that I can increase the percentages by not taking it as frequently. I limit myself to once every two weeks and it’s a bit better.
But, I find that I sleep better knowing that I could take Ambien. Basically, I stress less about sleep which helps me sleep better.
On a family trip to London we land in Heathrow at 10pm, taxi to our rented flat, and after a little TV hit the sack. Some time around 3am we are all still in bed reading, since it’s only 9pm Iowa time. Dad, the MD, had brought us a supply of Ambien. We each take one and hit the sack.
I can’t speak for my family’s response, but after about 15 more minutes of reading I was not feeling the slightest bit sleepy. I did, however, hallucinate a tiny pixelated dragon sitting in the corner of my book. Decided it was time to turn out the light. Fell asleep right away (which does not happen to me).
Next morning I felt great! I adjusted to London time with no problems and didn’t have to take another pill. Good experience, and a tiny dragon to boot.
I used to use it. Once, when I was in high school and we were taking the standardized tests, I decided to take one to “pass” the time. Funny thing, I remember someone telling me that on these “pills” if you crouched down you couldn’t help but fall over. So I decided to show my friend in class. I got up, out of my seat, crouched down and fell over. Somehow, the teacher didn’t do anything to me but the next day I got called in to the guidance office and they asked me if I was doing drugs. I still remember what the hell they were talking about since I didn’t put two-and-two together. Ah, that was funny.
Oh you didn’t mean it like that… I see
A friend of mine occasionally posts to her LiveJournal under the influence of Ambien. It is hilarrrrrious.
I took Ambien couple years ago. It worked extremely well when used as intended. You take one tablet when you’re ready for bed, go turn off the light and lie down, and you will fall asleep and wake up the next morning feeling refreshed. It can also be abused however, and it can be addictive when used that way. At one point, I sometimes took two tablets at a time and then stayed up to enjoy the euphoria and hallucinations. The amnesia mentioned above is very real. If I decided to stay up after taking the pills, the only thing I remembered the next morning was that it felt wonderful and some tiny bits and pieces of what happened. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if I had made a “sheep post” on a message board or something equally stupid while under the influence.
I stay far, far away from Ambien these days. ESpecially now that I have a wee one in the house. However, a few years back I did take it and experienced the amnesia. I did the night eating and also called people at 2a.m. (ack!) and had no memory of the conversation the next day. My best friend told me that one night we had an hour long conversation where i was SOBBING and pouring my heart out and I had no freakin’ clue what she was talking about.
So my love affair with the tiny white pill had to end.
ETA- I also did an ambien post once to another board, thankfully it wasn’t too bad , just a little syrupy.
It works pretty well for DH. He’s had a couple of incidents of doing things and not remembering in the morning, or thinking it was a dream.
I found him sacked out on the couch one morning, and as I sent him upstairs to the bedroom, he described a dream that played out like a bad zombie movie. Later when he got up and checked his email, he had a request to review a…bad zombie movie that he’d apparently downloaded late the night before.
I’ve only taken it for trans-Atlantic flights. I doubt I would have been able to sleep on a 747 without it, and it helped me get perfectly synced when I landed. I can’t imagine using it often enough to form any sort of attachment. Some nights I go to sleep knowing I have to get up at a particular time, some nights I can leave the alarm off. But any given morning, I run the risk that I’ll be woken up with a phone call from someone with the expectation that I’ll be able to answer a question and solve a problem. Grogginess is not an option,
I take it fairly regularly now. Other than mild hallucinations and brief conversations with my wife that I do not remember the next day, I do not suffer any unwanted effects. I sleep for about 8 hours and wake up the next day with no grogginess whatsoever.
One of the first nights I took it I got a phone call shortly after laying down. I have no idea what was said. I was told that I did not confess anything embarrassing.
I’ve been on varying levels of Ambien and Ambien CR for at least 4-5 years, and it used to knock me out, but now I just fall asleep, and a lot of times get up once or twice in the night to pee or to let the dogs out to pee. I’ve never had trouble with daytime grogginess – a real plus. However, if I have taken it, I maintain I am not to be held responsible for anything I say thereafter. My kids will swear that I have given them permission to do something/go somewhere, and my response is, “Had I already taken my meds? No dice.”
That…was awesome. I felt like, enlightened.
She told me that the night I started taking it, I told her that the ceiling fan looked “like a robot”. I also apparently tried to go to the bathroom, walked to my bedroom closet, and was very frustrated that it was not in fact the bathroom.
I made it to the real toilet just fine. At least it was my closet I was struggling with. If I had urinated all over her shoes, there might have been a bit of a scene.
Ambien CR works really well for me. When I was on chemo a few years ago, it had me in a lot of pain and made it impossible for me to sleep through the night. My sleep problems persisted for years after the other side effects had worn off. My sleep patterns never really returned to normal. But Ambien CR gives me perfect results, an ideal remedy for my sleep problems. I hardly ever use it, though, only once in a while when I really need it, to avoid forming a dependency.
My dreams are often vivid anyway, but last nights were interesting… But I was up by 3:30 and here I sit. I often find though that if I get up and walk around for a while and go back to bed I sleep better than if I lay there and keep trying to go back to sleep.