Does AMBIEN have weird effects?

[BlakeTyner]

I’m one of those people who will sing the praises of Ambien; I could not have gotten through the past year of college without it, hands down.

Half a pill is enough to put me to sleep, although I’ve been known to take a whole every so often. Even with the whole dose, it takes about 20 minutes for me to start feeling sleepy, and I’m still able to function (write emails, IM, etc.) at any point after I take one.

Once, I did have some strange hallucinations, involving my comforter “moving” like…well, like there were mice under it, but I think it had to do with the pattern more than anything else. Even then, I knew that what I was seeing wasn’t actually happening. I watched for a while with some degree of fascination. No sleepwalking or sleep eating here.

The only problem I have with it is the cost, though I hear that the original formula will go generic this year (hence Ambien CR.)

[MaceMan]

AHunter3, I thought there was some poetry in your Ambien-induced ramblings. I took the liberty of interpreting/transforming the first 4 paragraphs of your writing (hope you don’t mind). In my interpretative view it seems to evoke themes of interconnectedness, spirituality, and the afterlife. I gave it a new title too.

“The Knitweave”
I have encountered…Awarenesses–collections of tingling, distracting things.
Distracting folks from the True One, who sings: “I AM primordial, found in the light
of campfires and fresh roasted clam and the smells of seafood in the air.”
One who revels in that song finds joy, ceremony, a sense of belonging, within the Knitweave of existence.

Within the trends and strands of time, our flames flicker out. But understand, it is not yet over.
We shall light another sconce and sing again, gaining new existence.
We nod our heads gently and proudly, sharing mutual experiences and acknowledging ourselves in the Knitweave of the Universe.
And, nodding in response, we begin to dance,
tossing more clams into the fire on the sandy beach,
overcome with weeds, mosses, and the acrid, happy smells of roasting clam.

So much of our last goodbyes are cries for what might have been, our lost worldly futures.
The gaps in our existence. Yet now the roasting clams surround us all with a hard aroma, evoking the smells of you, of me, of us.

It’s a good party on behalf of the persons that we were. And we sing, and hold onto things belonging to our pasts, in respect. And then we place them down. The flame dies, and darkness falls. It is over.

[Phantom_Dennis]

Awesome! I so want to take Ambien and become a poet now!

[China_Guy]

Ambien changed my life re jet lag. I’ll take one on the plane and wake up 6-8 hours later completely rested. I’ll take it the first couple of nights and guaranteed I’ll sleep through the night. Occaisionally I’ll wake up in the middle fo the night wiht that oh shit I’m jet lagging and wide awake feeling, and seconds later be back out. I still get jet lag during the day but at least I’ve had 8 hours solid sleep the night before instead of 2.

I think the effectiveness decreases but that may be psychological. A few days on each side of the flight takes the edge waaaaaay off jet lag. I may have a few restless nights after I stop but the worst is over and I’m rested going into it.

I’ve never had hallucinations. I even have a few beers too. Once it took me about 30 minutes of reading in bed to fall asleep. A couple of times I whip out the book and then wake up at 3 in the morning iwht the light on and book stuck to my face.

WTF was Kennedy thinking taking ambien and driving? Guy is too stupid to be a congressman.

[ouryL]

@username_taken

I read a few months back that some people have driven while on it and had no recollection of doing so, and others who’d wake up the next morning and find empty bottles of alcohol, also not recalling doing so (sorry, no cite), as well as the eating that Squink cited. It’s scary to think. I hope further testing and investigation is done concerning this.

But didn’t these people admit to taking the pill before getting in their cars?

[gitfiddle]

I’ve had sleeping problems since I was a kid. I actually took ambien for about two or three years (I’ve heard that that’s not such a good thing). Anyway, I didn’t take it every night.

I had MAJOR hallucinations. For instance, the first time I ever took it, I had just gotten home from work at about 4Am, and I was counting the money I had made. The hissing sound of the bills rubbing against each other became actual whispering voices.

On a regular basis, the walls would start moving, pictures I looked at would start moving. I would see things in my periferal vision.

The first time I met one of my college roomate’s sisters, she came to our appartment and I was standing with my hands pressed against the table. I told her that the table had turned to liquid and that I could stick my hands in the table. The grains of the table had turned into little streams of brown and black.

That’s another thing, I often wouldn’t remember most of what I did after I took the ambien. Sometimes I would wake up and find that I had written and recorded songs or made videos before I went to sleep, and I wouldn’t remember doing it at all (sometimes, for instance, I couldn’t even figure out how I played the songs).

Also, I often wouldn’t go to sleep for a long time because I was so enthralled by my visions.

When I was laying in bed waiting to fall asleep, also, I would have very vivid dreams long before I actually fell asleep.

I know this didn’t happen to everybody. A friend of mine took ambien and didn’t feel a thing, yet another friend of mine loved it because he had the same experiences as I.

I have to admit, sometimes, it was nice at the end of a long busy day to take an ambien and get away for a little while before going to sleep…Is that a bad thing?

[ralph124c]

I just started taking AMBIEN, for chronic insomnia. It seems to work, but I feel tired the next day. I also notice that it sometimes leaves you with a headache. My doctor told me NOT to consume any alcohol while using the drug-is it really dangerous to do so?

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

@ralph124c

My doctor told me NOT to consume any alcohol while using the drug-is it really dangerous to do so?

It certainly can be really dangerous to do so. Mixing sedatives is always full of potential hazards.

I would certainly recommend following your doctor’s instructions.

[elfkin477]

The makers of Ambien now admit that the hallucinations are more common than the .05% they cited in old literature. I suppose little hallucinations while taking it might be entertaining, but big ones aren’t.

[AHunter3]

@Guinastasia

AHunter3, having read that, perhaps we now have an explanation for the Time Cube guy?

All your simultaneous day are belong to us!

[AHunter3]

@MaceMan

AHunter3, I thought there was some poetry in your Ambien-induced ramblings. I took the liberty of interpreting/transforming the first 4 paragraphs of your writing (hope you don’t mind). In my interpretative view it seems to evoke themes of interconnectedness, spirituality, and the afterlife. I gave it a new title too.

I’m sure I had some kind of intention when I made the post. I have absolutely no recollection what, but based on my familiarity with my own head and my own use of language, I suspect it was intended to be a reply (not a new thread) and had something to do with relationships and someone breaking up or worrying about breaking up with their girlfriend/boyfriend.

But that’s just a guess on my part. I might’ve thought I was giving folks my best clam recipe

[MLS]

One of the reasons I took Ambien was that anxiety and tension were making it difficult to fall asleep. Now, you know how after a good night’s sleep you usually wake up feeling refreshed and relaxed? For me, when I took the Ambien, I’d wake up in exactly the same state of anxiety as when I went to bed.

These days, on the recommendation of a different doctor, I take Trazadone. It’s an older drug, initially used for relief of anxiety. However, according to the doctor, its effects are rather short-lived, and it tends to make many people very sleepy. Voila! Exactly the “side effects” I was looking for. It does not appear to be habit-forming or addictive.

[Capa84]

I think the alcohol in particular can cause greater hallucinations…I’ve heard several people say this.

The night I was hallucinating, my gf tells me we also had some conversations where she didn’t understand a single thing I was talking about.

[gitfiddle]

@elfkin477

The makers of Ambien now admit that the hallucinations are more common than the .05% they cited in old literature. I suppose little hallucinations while taking it might be entertaining, but big ones aren’t.

I’ve actually had several nights like that. Though I didn’t live with my parents, it became a normal ritual for my college roomates to try to figure out which shadows were speaking, what the Queen next to the television was motioning, where the words on the page were going (or why they wouldn’t stop running into each other)…etc.