Tonight, I gave my wife all my keys, and she laughed at me. She noted that I took one of her Ambiens recently and did nothing strange or unusual.
(Well, I did have sex with Britney that night, but what’s strange or unusual about that? 
)
There’s Ambien (Zolpidem is the generic name) and Ambien CR which is the controlled release. According to their commercials, it has 2 layers. The regular fast acting outer layer gets you to sleep and the inner layer helps keep you asleep. I’ve taken both and IMHO, the CR works better but I seem to recall my doctor telling me that it would never be generic. I’m not sure how he could know that.
BTW, the emptier your stomach is, the better it works. DO NOT take it with alcohol. Don’t ask me why I know you shouldn’t.
Right, And no booze and be ready for bed. Completely ready for bed- teeth brushed, PJ’s on, TV off, alarm set. Make sure you get at least 7 hours sleep time.
I have been taking it about twice a week for several years now, and once I learned to be READY FOR BED I have had no problems.
Now, it’s Ok to take the pill, siy down and get out a good book, with a cup of herb tea or cocoa* already made and ready to drink*. Don’t be suprised to wake up in the AM with a chapter read and not remembered :eek: , in the chair and the tea cold and untouched.
This does not often or even usually happen, but *prepare for it to happen. *
I’ve been taking Ambien for over 3 years and its never caused me the slightest problem. Of course it doesn’t always work either.
Zolpidem is the standard, not the time release form, unless it says specifically otherwise. I assume that’s what you mean by two types.
You’ll hear lots of stories about Ambien. It has never knocked me out or affected me in any way, including the pill I took a half hour ago. Hasn’t affected my typing either. It’s still bad.
If it works fast for you, great. If it doesn’t work at all, well, I have a huge list of sleeping drugs that never worked on me, even with larger than normal doses. If it works too fast or knocks you out for too long, try cutting the dose. Just don’t get spooked by the weird stories. Something like 4 billion doses of Ambien have been prescribed. If one one-hundred of one-percent has a weird effect, that’s 400,000 weird effects. That’ll get into the news, but the odds are still 10,000 to 1 against your having a real problem. (Odds completely made up.)
I have nothing substantial to add other than a quick anecdote.
I took a friend’s Ambien one night. For me, it worked like this:
I’m awake
I’m awake
I’m awake
I’m awake
I’m asleep
The alarm clock is going off.
I woke up this morning from my Ambien-induced sleep. When it came time to go on our errands, I couldn’t find my keys, and wondered if I’d gotten up, gone out, etc.
,
Then I remembered that before going to bed last night, I gave ALL my keys to my wife to prevent this kind of adventure. :smack:
I have fond feelings for Ambien. The last time I took it, it knocked me out in about five minutes. When I woke up, I gave birth. YMMV.
A coworker’s father-in-law didn’t pay enough attention to that “go to bed immediately” warning and fell asleep quite soundly on the toilet.