AMBIEN Reviews (ZOLPIDEM TARTRATE)Average Rating: 3.1 (1450 Ratings)Filter ResultsCompare AMBIEN with similar:
Type: Rx Drug
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Results are sorted by Age oldest to youngest. Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.) Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 |
More on AMBIEN: Reviews Summary | Drug Safety Information
| RATING | REASON | SIDE EFFECTS FOR AMBIEN | COMMENTS | SEX | AGE | DURATION/ DOSAGE | DATE ADDED |
| 4 | Insomnia | Funny twitching like sensation the next day. Usually in the evening. Only if I took 10 mg or more the night before. I few eating binches. | I take 5 mg a night to fall a sleep regularly. Once I fall a sleep I am fine. | M | 37 | 3 years | 5/21/2009 | 3 | Insomnia due to stress | Muscle pain, dry eyes, dehydration, mild depression | Sure helped me sleep, to the point of being habit forming. Don't expect to sleep easily without it for a night or two after taking. After sustained use of ~5 mg/night noticed severely red eyes and dehydration throughout the day. Couple that with the coffee I would have to drink to clear my head and I was turning into a prune. Also experienced delayed muscle pain. Ambien seems to cause me to tighten up just enough that I would have various aches and pains for a few days after taking. It took me 1.5 years to tie the two together, but after numerous doctor and physical therapy visits I found that my chronic muscle pain ceased about 2 weeks after stopping Ambien. When combined with recreational drugs (pot, E) can lead to some very scary memory loss and impaired judgement episodes (then again, so can the drugs themselves). A great "silver bullet" for critical nights, but you will run the risk of dependancy. At least for me the side effects of prolonged use do NOT make it worth it. | M | 37 | 2 years | 12/14/2009 | 3 | Insomnia/Jet Lag | My most recent experience with the drug is that I had a very vivid hallucination of James Earl Jones tucking me into bed. He talked to me and told me that I was going to be OK. If I did not know better, I would swear that he was there. I take the drug pretty infrequently but seem to be having more and more strange side effects with each use. I like the drug but am afraid I am through after the Darth Vader experience. | F | 37 | 1 years | 9/12/2006 | 3 | insommia | sleep walking, sleep talking, memory lapses | Be careful when taking this medicine. Go right to bed right after taking this medicine. Make sure there is someone there to watch over you. I was found talking loudly to myself and walking around my house in the middle of the night the second time I had taking this medicine. The first time I took it I wasn t able to go to sleep. The third time I took it I don't remember having sex with my partner. I have not taken it again. I am afraid of what else I will unknowingly do since I have an 8 year old child. | F | 37 | 3 days | 12/6/2008 | 3 | None. I take 5mg and go right to bed. | Why would you take a sleeping pill then jump in the shower??? As so many others have stated you take the medicine right before you jump into bed. You are clearly not supposed to take a sleeping pill and then attempt to shower,stay on the computer,watch t.v.,etc. | F | 37 | 1 years | 2/13/2009 | 2 | insomnia | none, didn't get tired either | F | 37 | 1 days | 1/16/2008 | 2 | insomnia | HORRIBLE nightmares, very real. Lethargic and exhausted and groggy the next day. It did make me sleep, but not worth it!!! | the nightmares could possibly be associated with ONE dose of Cymbalta I took, which also had horrible and sudden side effects. | F | 37 | 2 days | 11/27/2007 | 2 | insomia | slepiness, dizziness. memory problems. | when you here about having a conversation with your spouse that you do not remember and going into the kitchen to eat and find the dishes beside your bed that that you don't remember. That was enough to make me stop the ambien asap. | F | 37 | 1 days | 11/1/2006 | 1 | chronic insomnia | i experienced no side affects at all, in fact this drug wouldent put me to sleep at all | AMBIEN IS FOR VERY MINOR SLEEP PROBLEMS, I HAVE CHRONIC INSOMNIA AND AMBIEN DOSENT DO ANYTHING FOR ME AT ALL. THE DOCTOR HAS PUT ME ON OLANZAPINE, THAT HELPS ME SLEEP, EVEN THOUGH IT IS AN ANTIPHYCOTIC, SWEET DREAMS | M | 37 | 30 days | 1/18/2007 | 1 | Insomnia | Physical addiction, withdrawal, euphoria, loss of motor control, severe depression, anger, suicidal ideations,slurred speech, ravenous hunger, uncontrolled behaviors, highly unsafe sexual conduct, dangerous driving, dynamic mood swings, heart palpitations, severe memory loss | So those were the "main" side effects I described. And like any good highly addicting substance, all the wreckage that goes along with it. Strain on family, destroyed relationships, job loss, etc etc. This is perhaps the most insidious drug on the market today for one reason. Opiates, benzodiazepenes, tranquilizers, you do -NOT- see commercials for on TV because there deleterious effects are well documented. Not so with Ambien though a growing body of evidence is starting to develop rapidly. The drug is horrifically addicting and like many here I found my dosage going up and up, and the physical addiction became inescapable in very short order. 6 years of my life were taken from me, and after lots of time around recovery people and a rehab I found out this drug is -quite- common in addiction circles. I absolutely do not doubt any of the horror stories I have read here because I lived many of them personally. The medication makes a truckload of money for Sanofi-Aventis so it is well worth their effort to sweep most of this under the collective rug. However with the various stories from around the internet and even the comments here I could easily see an actionable class based legal proceeding getting some traction. Summary: Only take this medication or recommend it if you -really- hate yourself or the person you are giving it too. | M | 37 | 6 years 10 4X day | 6/2/2010 | 1 | Imsomnia | This stuff is HORRIBLE and should be taken off the market. I had uncontrolable dizziness, heart palpitations that bordered heart attack, mettalic taste in mouth, agitation, depression,erectile disfuntion,coordination loss. AVOID THIS AT ALL COSTS!! | This medication should be pulled off the market. The dizziness was sooo bad, my mood changed, was drowsy during the day, and above mentioned. I had circulation problems. This was the second time I took the medication, the other time was for a month. It was two weeks this time and a NIGHTMARE! Shame on California Kaiser Permante Doctorsfor presciring this so liberally and not following up! This stuff is like posion. Think again before taking or going to a Kaiser facitity! | M | 37 | 30 days 10 1X day | 3/24/2010 | 1 | Insomnia | Helped with sleeping, but caused major depression, fuzzy thoughts, inability to concentrate, suicidal thoughts, self injury | I had been having trouble sleeping for about a year. Drs found I had borderline apnea, not bad enough to get a cpap or do anything else. Dr prescribed ambien. Worked great for about a week, then the side effects started in. I had had chronic depression as a teenager, this was worse. I started planning my suicide, and started cutting myself, which I had not done in 20 years. I drove away my wife and several friends, and ruined my job by not doing pretty much anything useful for a month. Fortunately a friend with her own history of depression recognized what was going on, helped me to see it and got me off the meds. A few days later I was mostly back to normal, and set about repairing the relationships I damaged. Unfortunately it was too late to fix my job and I ended up being let go. I don't doubt that that friend saved my life. I was progressing so rapidly through the depression that I expect I would have taken my own life within the next few weeks. | M | 37 | 6 weeks 1X day | 6/6/2012 | 1 | Couldn't sleep due to a broke foot | I broke my foot two weeks ago and had trouble sleeping, I asked my dr what I could do. He prescribed 10 mg of Ambien. I never took a sleeping pill before and made sure I asked both the dr and pharmacist about the side effects. They both told me that it will cause dizziness, drowsiness, to make sure I have at least 8 hours to rest and that I should start feeling something in 15 - 30 mins. I wasn’t sure what the effects would be so I decided that I’d try taking it on a full stomach first. I knew that if anything it would take or should take longer to affect me. I took one pill at 8pm, and as I was swallowing the pill I thought I'd better use the restroom before it took effect. I was in the restroom for no more than 5 mins and started feeling drunk. I said to my husband, "I am not feeling very well, I think I better go lay down". It was just a few mins later, and I was starting to feeling obscenely drunk. I turned to walk out of the room and that was the last I reme | I think it is a DANGEROUS drug, be very cautious when taking it. Make sure you read ALL the warnings. Ask your pharmacist for the drug insert that comes with the drug so you can read all side effects associated with this drug. Make sure you have a family member or friend there to watch you and make sure you are safe. They really need to explain the side effects more with the doctors/pharmacist and then they should really explain that to the patients to make them aware of what could happen. Just because most people will not have a bad experience doesn't mean that others won't and for that they should advise you of all the effects and let you decide if it's worth taking. I only took it one time and will never take it again, not even a half a dose or a quarter of a dose, nor will I try any other sleeping medications ever again. It's really frightening to think a drug could have such an affect on people as to make them black out, producing a drug induced amnesia. | F | 37 | 1 days | 11/3/2005 | 1 | insomnia | sleep driving/eating, having sex without remembering it, buying things online without memory of it until they showed up. | This drug is dangerous!!! After reading all the comments, at least I know I'm not the only one that had these crazy side effects. I would not recommend this medicine to anyone because the side effects are not worth it. | F | 37 | 1.5 years | 3/19/2008 | 1 | Couldn't sleep | Very bad nightmares. Sleepwalking in the middle of the night and eating whatever was in the fridge. | F | 37 | | 1/30/2008 | 1 | insomnia | Inability to focus eyes/saw double, memory loss | Ick, this med is AWFUL. One pill didn't help, two threw me into a visual spin that sent me sailing off a chair onto the floor and left me with a nasty bruise the next day (trying to take down curtain rod during a drug-induced compulsion to redecorate my house). I never did get any sleep. | F | 37 | 1 weeks | 1/22/2009 | 1 | trouble sleeping | sleep texting after 1/2 dose! | Doc gave to me after breakup. I did what he said and was laying in bed when took 1/2 a pill. Was asleep almost immediately but was up at 4 a.m. wide awake. However what I later found out was that I had texted one of my employees who happened to be a supervisor where I worked nonsense all night.I didn't believe him but then I checked my texts...OMG!! Will NEVeR TAKE AGAIN!!!! | F | 37 | 1 days | 11/6/2009 | 1 | Middle of night awakenings | Sleep walking, sleep eating, sleep emailing, sleep talking to people, sleep doing lots of stuff and not remember having done any of it, short term memory loss | I was prescribed Ambien CR because I was waking up a lot in the middle of the night and having a hard time falling back to sleep. It turned out that it was asthma...I was waking up because I couldn't breathe. I'd take the medication before bed and I'd wake up early in the morning and do stuff. Complex stuff...have absolutely no recollection of having done it. I cooked, made coffee, did email, talked to people, ate...did lots of stuff. Luckily I never drove. I also had short-term memory problems. It was frustrating. As soon as I stopped taking the medication the short-term memory problems went away. I take and have taken some toxic medications, but this one really scares me. I will never, ever take it again. | F | 37 | 4 months | 11/8/2009 | 5 | Severe Insomnia | Mostly, I fell asleep and woke refreshed. No amnesia, no hallucinations, none of that crazy stuff you hear about. My psych. doc. told me those crazy things you hear happening while on Ambien happens with people who are psychotic to begin with. | Tried sleep restriction, Lithium, SSRI's, Trazodone, Elavil, Seroquel, Remeron, you name it... none worked. Ambien is the only med. that works. My psych. doc. put me on 20 mg/night. Been on it almost three years. No tolerance. | M | 36 | 3 years | 8/1/2009 | 5 | insomnia | I've gained 13 lbs by stuffing my face every night against my will, have incredible nasty sex (according to my happy husband), had deep conversations with the plants (they talked back) my ceiling fan had aliens jumping off the blades, faces have melted, emailed the most embarresing letters that i have to explain afterwards, tried to drive but my family stopped me, talked on the phone, and shopped on Ebay (and won to my horror) and to top it all off, I have very little memory of most of it but always have a good laugh about it. I did have a few very memorable "trips" where I saw demons and shadow people coming out of my computer tower, I kept telling myself it was the Ambien but still felt very scared. | I love the sleep I do get, I wouldn't trade it for anything else. Tried Lunesta and it was horrible because of the metallic taste in the mouth it leaves you with. If I could stop eating while under Ambien I would be extremely happy. | F | 36 | 8 years | 3/12/2008 |