Tell me about your Ambien (and other sleep aids) experiences...

My wife has a prety tough time sleeping at night, and not much of the normal stuff seems to be working.

She takes Melatonin as it is, and she is worried that is going to stop helping as she is up to taking 10mg or more a night to get to sleep.

I have suggested she looks into Ambien or some other RX sleep aid, but she is concerned about the bit where it says that you MUST be able to dedicate 8 hours to sleeping, as she normally is in bed for no more than 7 hours at night.

Do you really need that full 8 hours or risk being a zombie the following day?

If you’re on other sleep aids, or have suggestions that are not the normal “warm milk and soothing music” type, feel free to throw those in as well.

Thanks all!

No, 7 or even 6.5 is Ok, assuming you’re not going to leap into the car 1st thing.

Here’s the thing- be ready for bed once you take the pill. Do NOT ever think, “well, I am not really drowsy yet so I can just drive a mile and pick up a quart of milk”.

Ok, here’s a few other things that work:
Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime, with maybe a half-shot (no more!) of brandy, etc.

Benadryl.

I tended to find that Ambien left me zombie-like even after 8 hours, but things like that hit me pretty hard. I wound up switching to Sonata, which is supposed to have a shorter half-life (for example it’s listed as being suitable to take if you wake up in the middle of the night). Much less residual grogginess (I think… I have other sleep issues so it’s sorta hard to tell, LOL).

Any of them can have some bizarre side effects. Check for some earlier threads here on the subject. They’ve never cause me to do anything like sleep-eating (I know someone who made peanut brittle while under the influence… which is pretty frightening as that syrup is hotter than boiling water). And I’ve heard that some people find it hits them like a ton of bricks - e.g. they take it in the bathroom, and don’t remember getting into bed. Again, doesn’t hit me like that.

I did once take a Sonata after having been up the entire night before (quite sick with gallbladder problems)… and made the mistake of posting to an email list about 45 minutes later. Oh boy. It wasn’t anything too awful but apparently when I’m wasted, I think it’s hysterical and want to share the joke with the whooooooole world. I quoted this in a post here a few months ago, when an earlier thread came up on the topic of Ambien.

The reason I sort of had to switch to Sonata was that for me, Ambien had a NASTY rebound, sometimes even after one dose. I have Restless Legs Syndrome and this was before I started on a dopamine agonist, so the Ambien was to take on occasion when I couldn’t stand the twitchies. It got to the point where I could only take it if I could plan to get very little sleep the next night, or if I was willing to take it for several days. e.g. I could take it on a Thursday, and plan to get crappy sleep Friday night.

This is, I gather, an unusual reaction - sleep meds can certainly cause this, but usually it takes more than a handful of doses to cause rebound. Sonata is much less troublesome in this regard, for me at least.

Concur!!

I wouldn’t even do the half-shot of brandy… might help the wife fall asleep, but it messes up the sleep patterns later in the night. Dunno about Benadryl - it’s sold as an OTC sleep aid because it does have drowsiness as a side effect, but it doesn’t work well for some people (it just makes me mean) and some folks need to avoid it anyway (it’s a strong trigger of RLS for some of us). Couldn’t hurt to try it for a night or two though.

Sleep MD is an OTC herbal/melatonin blend that I have found helpful.

OTC stuff does nothing for me. Ambien usually works if I actually go and lay down. Sometimes nothing works.

One thing I’ve found that’s helping me lately is a pillow I bought that vibrates in the rhythm of a meditating heart. It doesn’t sound like a heartbeat, but you can feel the beat. Sometimes when I don’t feel like sleeping, I just go and lay down with it and it works.

It’s called My Beating Heart and I bought it on Amazon. It eats through batteries but I like it.

My problem has been the weird, disturbed sleep of hypnagogic hallucinations. I was prescribed Trazodone, which is one of the older antidepressants. One of the things Trazodone does, however, is regulate sleep cycles. It worked very well for me.

I was groggy upon waking for the first week or so, but that side effect abated.

During a period of extreme stress in my life I took Ambien about 5 nights out of 7 for 3 weeks.

Almost exactly 15 minutes after I took it, it was like someone flipped a light switch and I was out. This is why you DO NOT do anything but get into bed after you take that pill.

Exactly 7.5 hours after I took an Ambien I woke up. Again, it was like flipping a switch. I experienced no lingering drowsiness, but your mileage may vary. You can experience that side effect, but not everyone does. I think they tell you “be able to devote 8 hours to sleep” so no one gets the idea that you can schedule four hours of sleep with this. You can’t. It lasts about 8, but I suspect if you normally only sleep 7 hours a night that’s likely what you’ll get. And if you normally sleep 8.5 or 9 you might wind up doing that. Note, that is your normal, natural sleep requirement, not the Corporate Warrior “I can live on 4 hours a night forever with enough Starbuck’s coffee for breakfast” sleep pattern.

I didn’t do any sleep eating, sleep cooking, sleep driving, etc. I just slept. This is good, really, since that was the whole point of the taking the drug. The first few nights the spouse kept watch over me, hid the car keys, etc. just in case but in my case all it did was make me sleep.

The spouse did try rousing me after I feel asleep under the influence, just to see if it was possible. I have no recollection of it, but according to him, he was able to rouse me sufficiently so that if, god forbid, there had been some emergency he could have gotten me out of the house or whatever. I probably wouldn’t have remembered such an excursion, but that’s a different question.

So, for me, Ambien worked very well for its intended purpose and with minimal side effects. Then again, I only took for a short while under very specific circumstances. As always, consult your doctor, your mileage may vary, and so forth.

Ambien is habit forming. If you stop taking it you won’t sleep at all. My doctor won’t even prescribe it but it is still very popular. I did take an old antidepressant to fall asleep while on nightshift. It was called Trazedone. It is not habit forming.

I sound like your wife. I take Melatonin and 3 Valerian Root capsules about a half an hour before bed. I am lucky to get 7 hours of sleep and I take a nap after work. I recently tried Tylenol PM but it didn’t seem to make me any more sleepy then the Melatonin and Valerian root.

People are all different with sleep. My Grandfather slept 4 hours a night tops. I need 8 to feel my best. When I was younger I could get by with less sleep but as I get older I need more. Babies need more sleep and then less as you grow up and when you get old you go back to needing more again. I’m junk on 4-6 hours sleep. I would be a zombie the next day and it would affect my performance at work. Still, I am a die hard night owl.

If she wants the natural approach tell her to pick up some Valerian root capsules and take 3 with her melatonin. It is sold at any drug store or Walmart. I think it is in Sleepytime Tea? The tea never helped me but the capsules work for me.

Ambien == nothing
Seroquel == nice, but has side effects, like not being able to think.
Benadryl == won’t make you sleep, but will help you stay. Will be depressed later.
Valerian/Kava == make you hyper
Opiates == Tired but no sleep
Melatonin == same
Benzos == make you sleep at first, but then you start hallucinating, and I don’t understand how anyone can stand sleeping when they are hallucinating. Plus, withdrawal will make you suicidal.

you could also try half an ambien. knocks me right out for 3-4 hours. I mean it’s like taking a whole one but lasts half as long.

I don’t feel zombie like afterwards. I do notice it if I’ve only slept say 5 hours. normally for me, whenever the time is up, it’s almost like a switch is flipped.

I use zopiclone instead of ambien normally. same effect. Usually use it for jet lag. I’ll take half when I wake up wide awake at 3.00 am and it puts me out until a more nnormal 6 or 7.00 am wake up time.

I also take a half when I occaisionally wake up stressed in the middle of the night.

note - these pills taste butt nasty. Don’t bite one in half.

Been thinking about getting something myself, but Ambien scares the shit out of me. No way I need to “sleep kill my neighbor’s kid because she’s screaming in the hall at midnight” and have no memory of it. Damnit, if I’m going to kill someone, I want to remember it!

Tried Melatonin and Valerian years ago and neither did jack for me. Tried ‘sleep aid’ doses of anti-histamines and all that did was make me jittery.

Was prescribed Trazadone for several years and it was a great help, but not a cure-all. Sadly, when I separated from my psycho-ex and moved into Divorce Country, my psychiatrist refused to allow me to get off the (bare bones minimum) dose of anti-depressants I was on (mainly to placate the wife) and I had to walk away from him and quit cold-turkey, which meant no more trazadone either. Honestly didn’t need it for years, but right now, I could seriously use it to help me sleep.

<mod>

Edited title at OP’s request to add word “sleep.”

</mod>

I took a benzodiazepine, alprazolam, every night for a couple of years to sleep while I was taking Effexor, which interrupted my sleep cycles and caused insomnia. It worked beautifully for me, I never had a problem with hallucinations (what’s that about?), and didn’t have any problem stopping it once it was no longer needed. I’d feel much safer using something like that than something like Ambien, which I would be hesitant to use unless it was a last resort.

I’ve been taking OTC sleep aids for about 6 years. In the beginning, I was prescribed something of which I can’t recall the name of, but I remember that I would get a weird taste in my mouth about a half hour afterwards and be really hungry. After a few months of that, I switched to OTC sleep aids. At some points I was taking 100mg of Diphenhydramine (Nytol), but I have since cut back to 25mg. I have also tried Melatonin and Valerian Root, both by themselves and together.

I hate that I take a sleeping pill every night and have tried to stop but have horrible rebound insomnia. I really recommend against sleep aids if you can help it, instead opting for the typical recommendations of a sleep schedule, no reading in bed, tea, warm milk, etc., etc. If I could go back, I would never have started taking sleep aids.

ETA: I don’t feel groggy in the morning with 25mg of Nytol, but I make sure I get 7 hours at least.

I love Ambien and take it every night. I fall asleep swiftly and feel rested and alert the following morning. Most of the time, it works wonderfully.

I have had a few strange middle of the night episodes that I do not remember. I have had maybe two food binge experiences, I tried to use the bathroom in my closet, and just this past week, I somehow created a facebook account that I have no memory of whatsoever.

Despite these occasional quirks, I think the stuff is well worth it.

First of all, 10mg of Melatonin is waaay too much. Sleep researchers have found that the smaller dose of 300mcg is better. It is not a case of more is better. Also, if she can stand it, dissolve the pill slowly under the tongue.

As for Ambien: I tried it a few years back. Great night’s sleep. Felt so much better within days. But then I kept on it and the habit forming part stepped in. Was a major pain to wean myself off it and even trying it once in a while thereafter didn’t really work well.

Go with sleep/hypnosis tapes (if that’s the right word…).

I’ve had periodic sleep trouble ever since I had kids–it would be especially bad the week before the menstrual cycle. Getting a good night’s sleep as safely as possible has become a finely honed skill.

#1 priority for me:
A cool bedroom, preferably 64 °
(the husband does not always enjoy this)

I can’t take Ambien. It made me feel asleep when I was awake, and awake when I was asleep.

Melatonin and Benadryl are my standby OTC sleep aids.
I take just a half of either tablet.

After entering menopause, I began taking the occasional Hot Flash, with nice, sleepy results.

If traveling or having a stressful time, I do have a prescription for Lunesta, and I use it. It gives me a good night’s sleep with no ‘hangover’ the next day.

Probably not. Usually it takes the equivilant of two drinks. Still, peoples systems do vary.

I have allergies, so if I’m going to go to sleep anyway (and sleep for at least 4 hours, i.e. I can take it if I wake up at 2 a.m., which is my usual insomnia pattern), I take Benadryl. Yay for killing 2 birds with 1 stone.

Melatonin helps sometimes, but not always. But I can also take it if I wake up in the middle of the night and not be groggy in the morning.

I had a prescription for Rozerem once, but it didn’t help; it’s designed for people who have trouble falling asleep (which I usually don’t), not staying asleep.

Ambien CR worked like a charm at keeping me asleep, but I was still a zombie at 7:30 am after taking it a 9 pm the night before, so much so that I was crashing into walls trying to get across the hall to the bathroom and had to call in to work. So I would only take it in cases of total desperation. But most drugs seem to affect me more strongly than they affect most people, and in this case it wasn’t necessarily a good thing.