# Ask the guy whose Ambien is finally kicking in **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 9, 2010, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239 "2010-02-09T04:25:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/1 "2010-02-09T04:25:32Z")
It’s been a rough few weeks for a variety of reasons. I’m not the best sleeper ordinarily, but I am also being treated for carpal tunnel with splints I need to wear at night. These make sleeping impossible for me. So here we go. I am not in any danger of leaving my apartment. I don’t own a car. I will soon have mild hallucinations and if I am still awake by then, I will have to fight off the desire to eat an entire box of those fucking fantastic maple sugar cookies from Trader Joe’s. Better living through chemistry. So if you have any questions for someone whose consciousness is legally retreating, now might be a good time. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/2 "2010-02-09T04:32:56Z")
Just tell what the hallucinations were like. I took ambien while I was painting a picture and it took a while for me to realize that paint molecules generally do not have conversations with one another. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/3 "2010-02-09T04:37:00Z")
Funny you mention that. On my desk is a small replica of a mummy I got from the museum when I was a kid. In the past few minutes, it has started making unwanted advances towards my inkjet. I’ve even caught some of my wife’s stuffed animals having miscegenetic trysts. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/4 "2010-02-09T05:10:27Z")
I ate a cookie. Shit. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/5 "2010-02-09T05:14:01Z")
Go to sleep, goddamn it. 🙂 Dream sweet dreams of short swords. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/6 "2010-02-09T05:33:46Z")
I haven’t had a good fight dream in years. These days, I have had set theory dreams. Kind of depressing. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/7 "2010-02-09T05:39:17Z")
You’re not asleep yet. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/8 "2010-02-09T05:40:18Z")
Almost there. Staying on target. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/9 "2010-02-09T05:41:43Z")
Staaaaay on target… And stop arguing with Rand Rover. It’s bad for you. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/10 "2010-02-09T05:42:56Z")
I turned off my targeting computer. I dunno what the hell I am shooting at. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/11 "2010-02-09T05:47:02Z")
Trust your feelings. And the Ambien. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/12 "2010-02-09T05:48:16Z")
Yeah, good point. I think it’s telling me to sleep while I can. When the baby comes in six months, I am going go try to get my dosage doubled. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/13 "2010-02-09T05:51:18Z")
Whoa there. Wake the hell up. You’re having a kid? Congratulations! Mine is due in about two weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/14 "2010-02-09T11:32:42Z")
No need to ask anything - I take Ambien too. Was an interesting first few weeks with it. Now it helps me sleep, but it doesn’t hit me so hard. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/15 "2010-02-09T12:58:11Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Whoa there. Wake the hell up. You’re having a kid? Congratulations! Mine is due in about two weeks. Hot damn, that’s fantastic. August for ours. My wife is just getting over the first trimester hump and is finally feeling better. > [@Khadaji](#): > > No need to ask anything - I take Ambien too. Was an interesting first few weeks with it. Now it helps me sleep, but it doesn’t hit me so hard. It only hits me hard if I wait too long to go to bed. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/16 "2010-02-09T13:20:20Z")
I don’t get hallucinations, or drive or eat in my sleep. I just get about 6 hours of sleep. Good stuff! ---
**Author:** ![BaconAndEggs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f4b2a3/32.png) [@BaconAndEggs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaconAndEggs)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/17 "2010-02-09T15:26:31Z")
Is it safe to take Ambien while pregnant? Everytime I take Ambien when I’m having insomnia it doesn’t do anything. I say up the whole night. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/18 "2010-02-09T15:53:07Z")
When Chuck Berry comes into your bathroom with a straight razor and wants to cut off half your goatee, don’t worry, it’s normal. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/19 "2010-02-09T18:47:51Z")
> [@Maeglin](#): > > Hot damn, that’s fantastic. August for ours. My wife is just getting over the first trimester hump and is finally feeling better. Man, that’s some hump, huh? The mental adjustment will continue, but I’m glad she’s feeling better. We’re in waiting-on-pins-and-needles mode now. I just wish there was a way that he could just BE here already, dammit. As a first-timer, I’m going nuts right now. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239/20 "2010-02-09T20:41:44Z")
> [@Maeglin](#): > > Yeah, good point. I think it’s telling me to sleep while I can. When the baby comes in six months, I am going go try to get my dosage doubled. Don’t… or your wife may harm you. You’re going to need to help out with the midnight wakeups! I’ve never posted while on Ambien (tried it in the early 00’s and found it had too much rebound). I use Sonata occasionally and normally it doesn’t do much beyond helping me fall asleep when I turn the lights out. This past December, however, I’d been awake for most of 36 hours due to gallbladder symptoms (the pain wasn’t fun, but the nonstop ITCHING made sleep impossible). At 8 PM, I took a Sonata hoping it would make me sleep despite the itches (it didn’t, dammit). A bit before 9 PM, I posted the following to a Restless Legs email list. > [@Sonata](#): > > Anyone have that writeup that one should show to a surgeon / anesthetist? If so, can you email it to me soonish please? > > My stomach (well, upper abdomen) has been giving me pain the last 3 days, I’m noticing severe itching especially of the hands and feet, and have not slept more than a couple of hours since yesterdsay due to the itchies. Last night this was even after taking Sonata at 4 AM… gave me 2 hours of sleep > > No definite proof that it’s affecting the liver, because my eyes are not yellow, but the hands/ feet being itchy are, very much so. My husband put his hand on my knee tonight before he took the kids out (to a scouting event I will have to miss, doggonit) and I shrieked because he seemed to have soakted them in the snow before doing so. Then I made him move it to my itchy foot which felt DIVIIIINE. So, I had a warm shower and are nearly ready for bed just got to dry my hair a bit or it’ll be miserable. Anyway a few days more of this and I’ll be chsing the surgeon with a garden hose and a pair of nail scissors and felt-tipped an arrow saying CUT RIGHT HEEEEEEEREEEEEE=\>. So that information may be needed sooner rather than later. > > Hopefully you haven’t yet seen that I am posting under the influence (Sonata+\_sleep dep… Sonata alone won’t d o it,), Lots of backspacing and letters weren’t done property and there appears to be a lit up room behind my monitor. All those bits of crud on the screen theyre really eyes for the little white snow creatues sorta like polar bears. If I don;t look too closely they amble about back tere, If I scroll down to a bit with more white space I see tables, ladies wearing wide skirts and dancing. 's amazing what some licit drugs and lack of sleep can do. This is the first time I’ever posted while impaired, Hope you found it funy. > > If the medoicos don’t l?ke what they see tomorrow, my chrismtas present may be a brand-new bouncing vial of gallstone. I really wanted diamonds. Can be gallstones be set in very very scary jewelry\> At midnight - afte the Sonata gave me precisely ONE hour of sleep and the pain had showed up again, I saw what I’d written and … oh my. I cleaned the computer screen a couple days later. I miss the polar bears though! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-whose-ambien-is-finally-kicking-in/528239.md?page=2)