…so what precautions should I take to keep from sleep walking/car driving under the influence of the drug?
I’ll read (I hope) your suggestions when I return. 
The vast majority of people who take Ambien see no such side effects. You take it, you go to sleep, you wake up. Even the most common side effects - daytime drowsiness, dizziness, and diarrhea - are reported in only 1-2% of cases. Exotic behaviors like sleep walking are vanishingly rare.
If you are the one for whom lightning strikes, don’t take it again. I don’t know what other precautions can seriously be taken.
Non-serious precautions are sure to follow. 
Excellent user name/OP combo!
IANA doctor, but as I understand it, the whole point to the time release coating (which makes the difference between Ambien and Ambien CR) is to address the somnambulism issue. What this comes down to as far as the consumer’s responsibility is a) NOT to split or chew the tablet, and b) NOT to underestimate the potential for a quick onset – i.e., don’t leave home after taking it, not even for a “quick run down to the store.”
I’ve been taking Ambien CR for chronic insomnia for about a year and it works quite well for me 95% of the time. Taken at about 10:00 PM, I fall asleep around 11:30 (my normal bedtime) and sleep throughout the night. There’s some sluggishness in the morning, but it’s nothing compared to the knock-you-flat-on-your-ass hangover that I got with more reasonably priced sleep aides. What’s more, my daughter has been able to wake me up on a couple of occasions when she had nightmares, which was not possible when I was doped up on Tylenol PM. YMMV, of course.
Good luck!
No freaking kidding! I’ve taken it once. I don’t know if I’m once of those super affected by it or not, but thinking it would kick in at the same rate as, say, a Tylenol PM, I took one about an hour before bedtime and hopped into the shower. Uh oh.
This is all pretty hazy but apparently I finished my shower, went to the sink and proceeded to massacre my beard with a pair of scissors. Think a three year old giving himself a haircut with a pair of hedge clippers. Even though it was now late, I got fully dressed in business casual slacks, shoes and a dress shirt and climbed into bed. Our AC had gone out upstairs and earlier I’d dragged a mattress downstairs for us to sleep on, but then I chose to stay up there, bathed in sweat, and fell asleep as hard as I’ve ever slept. My wife said I was talking crazy, so she stayed up next to me, watching to make sure I was okay.
The next morning I awoke to hazy recollections. Chuck Berry (yes, that Chuck Berry) had come into our house sometime during the night. He was dressed like a barber, had a white towel draped over his arm, and had proceeded to shave my beard off against my will. I was confused about this somewhat unusual departure from our routine and wanted to know how this had been allowed to happen.
When I got to work (after shaving off what was left of my disparate hair patches), I wrote an OP about it here. I was still so out of it, it was barely understandable, just ramblings really.
So, ummm, BarnOwl, I trust you’ll be in pajamas and sitting on the edge of your bed when you reach for that little pill.
ETA: By the way, you’re doing this with a doctor’s prescription. I didn’t have that. My fault entirely, bad me and lesson learned.
Ambien … is that the one with the little Angel-of-Death butterfly in the commercials?
I believe Lunesta’s got the butterfly.
If I’m not mistaken, that’s Lunesta.
lieu, stop sucking up my glory. The first time I have an answer on here, damn.
I believe Tylenol PM has the butterfly.
ETA: Oops, no, I’m wrong. brownsfan is right yet again, it’s Lunesta.
Oh, that’s it. Thanks.
I had a prescription for Ambien, and still have a few pills rattling around in my medicine cabinet.
When it works for me, (not always) it kicks in fast. I’m one of those people who usually lies in bed for an hour or two before falling asleep. With Ambien, I’m out five minutes after swallowing. And I’m gone until my alarm clock dings in the morning. Most of the time.
About one time in three I’ll end up waking up after 4 hours, and I absolutely positively cannot get back to sleep. I’ll be groggy as hell for another 8-12 hours, barely capable of maintaining enough focus to do one thing at a time, and certainly not capable of driving. It’s like having my brain wrapped in hectares of gauze.
I used to practically collapse into a coma about 10 minutes after taking Ambien, so count me down as another vote for “just be reeeeally ready for bed before you take it, just in case.”
Of course, it also gave me waking hallucinations, like magazine advertisements coming to life and talking to me…so…I stopped taking it.
I cannot tell you how much I appreciated your posts - every single one of you.
Thank you all.
If you get so groggy within a few minutes of taking an Ambien that you can’t function, you probably are taking too much. Try splitting a pill in half. 5 mg works as well on many people as the standard 10 mg dose.
10 mg didn’t work for me. My doctor upped me to 20 mg, 10 an hour before bed, and 10 right at bedtime; that didn’t work either. I seem to be immune to it, so I quit taking it. I can’t sleep for crap; I might ask for Lunesta.
Am I correct in assuming that getting old-school barbituates (sp) are out of the question? In my youth, those really worked, but I never had a prescription, duh. Would it be a waste of time to ask him for some?
I’m pretty sure Ambien made me fall asleep with my eyes open. I took half a pill a coworker gave me to try while I was in front of my computer. I swear I lost a good 45 minutes just sitting there staring with my eyes glazed over. I don’t remember what happened.
I’ve been taking Ambien several times a week for several years for chronic insomnia. IMO, take the pill when you go to bed, not 1/2 hour before when you’re still up and doing things. If I take it ahead of time, I’ll sometimes forget what I did. Never done anything bad, other than occasional incomprehensible posts or emails.
I hear there are 2 types of Ambien. However, my pharmacy gave me the generic medication - ZOLPIDEM. Which type of Ambien is this and what side effects, if any, should I be concerned with?
(No swipe at you Exapno Mapcase. In fact I value your opinions quite highly.)
Except that some formulations carry many scary warnings DO NOT SPLIT CRUSH CHEW THIS PILL!!!
Ambien reliably knocks me out within 15 minutes of taking it.
Standard operating procedure around here is for me to turn over the keys to my husband so he can hide them before I take the pill. So far, I’ve never attempted sleep-driving (or anything else other than sleeping) but if I can’t find the keys I won’t be able to get in the car, right?