SONATA Reviews (ZALEPLON)Average Rating: 2.8 (133 Ratings)Filter ResultsCompare SONATA 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.) |
More on SONATA: Reviews Summary | Drug Safety Information
| RATING | REASON | SIDE EFFECTS FOR SONATA | COMMENTS | SEX | AGE | DURATION/ DOSAGE | DATE ADDED |
| 4 | not sleeping | none | Too short acting but better than not sleeping | 91 | 3 months | 5/20/2009 | 4 | Early awakening | I take Sonata between 2:00 am and 4:00 am if I have woken and can't get back to sleep. In the mornings I sometimes experience lethargy lasting a few hours, and lapses of memory. Usually Sonata DOES promote sleep (not always). Sometimes the quality of sleep with Sonata is not good and occasionally it gives me bizarre, unpleasant dreams. | The trick with Sonata is not to take it too often. I try not to take it two nights running. It usually helps me to get back to sleep after early awakening, but the level of sleep may not be restful. The scary thing about this drug any any other sleep aid is the memory lapses. Is this occuring naturally because of my age? I don't think so. This has frightened me a little, and I take Sonata as little as possible. One other thing to consider: Alcohol will cause early awakening. Attend to that before resorting to Sonata. That said, I wouldn't be without it when I actually need. Hence the 4/5 rating. To sum up: Use it sparsely. | M | 70 | 4 years | 1/19/2008 | 4 | insomnia | No side effects | As others have stated, Sonata gives me about 4 hours of sleep. I found it put me to sleep quickly, but the effect is short-lived. However, even if I wake up around 4:00 a.m. I feel refreshed and have no "hangover" or other after effects. I often fall asleep again until about 6:00 a.m. | M | 69 | 1 months | 8/16/2008 | 4 | Early wake up. | None | When I wake up, usually between 2-3AM, I take 5mg and sleep another 2-3 hours, which is what I need. Take 5-7 nights a week. No side effects or "hangover." Have tried all the other sleep aids, only regular Ambien was effective. Ambien CR did not seem to work. | M | 67 | 1 days | 9/9/2007 | 5 | Get back to sleep. | None. I average 5 - 7.5 mg per night, almost every night. Dosage depends on when I wake up and how long until alarm set to go off. No drug hangover or other noticeable afteraffect. | I very highly recommend this drug . . . but then I'm from the Dow Chemical/Berkley-in-the-60s "live better through chemicals" generation. | M | 64 | 2 years | 2/8/2006 | 4 | chronic insomnia | No side effects after 90 days! Least intrusive sleep aid I've used. | Too bad it's only meant to work short term - approx. 4 hours. I sometimes take awhile to fall asleep (45 minutes), but I've had no side effects at all. In the beginning, I was also using CPAP for sleep apnea. If Sonata worked for 8 hours, it would be perfect! | F | 64 | 90 days | 6/11/2007 | 2 | restless legs | headache, dizzy, upset stomach, "motion sickness" | M | 63 | 5 days 10mg 1X day | 3/9/2011 | 5 | Insomnia | No side affects. | About 4 years ago it worked only 2-3 hours for me which sleep doctor told me also. I took when I awakened around 4-5 am. Put me back to sleep and I awakened with no grogginess. I tried to take couple years later and I would awaken with serious depression??? A few days ago I started taking again and it is working well so far. | F | 62 | 1 years 10 mg 1X day | 8/21/2022 | 4 | Insomnia | The drug worked well if taken only twice a week. More than that and I experienced joint pain. Developed rotator cuff damage without any injury. Seems to weaken tendons. | M | 61 | 1 years | 6/29/2007 | 5 | Insomnia | I take 10mg before bed, works well, very mild. I try not to take it for more than 3 nights, then take a night or two off, so that it doesn't lose its effectiveness, and to limit my withdrawal symptoms. Sometimes it's hard to get to sleep on those off-nights, but Sonata is habit-forming and I don't want the symptoms to get severe. | M | 58 | 5 years | 2/21/2007 | 2 | Sleep | Rarely worked. | M | 58 | 1 years | 9/19/2005 | 2 | Insomnia | Definitely helps me sleep BUT have been suffering from increased depression. I take 20 mg Prozac daily and it has worked well for me until now. I'm hoping this is a result of Sonata but time will tell. Wish I had made the correlation earlier! | F | 58 | 3 months 10 mg | 7/29/2012 | 1 | chronic can't sleep more than 6 hrs | WORSE! Woke up after 5 hours, even though still exhausted. Body & mind have been totally drained after some of my worst months ever of NEVER being able to stay asleep longer than 5 or 6 hours. Desperately need restorative sleep, but this woke me up! And my whole day has been ruined so far. I never get headaches, but had such a bad headache & NECK-ache I had to take ibuprofin. My ONGOING always-hungry, never-satisfied issue is TRIPLE-BAD today = I am eating constantly yet feel I am STARVING. And, nearly 17 hours after taking it, I still feel like a complete ZOMBIE = FOGGY in a not-my-usual foggy way; "out of my body"; even my bones and muscles feel DRAINED. I hope I have given some validation to anyone else who has had such weird affects. I thought this was a MILD drug = but I am ultra-sensitive to "everything", so I probably should not be surprised! | TRUST YOUR BODY & YOUR DEEPEST INTUITION, everyone! Blessings! | F | 58 | 1 days 5 mg. 1X day | 5/20/2010 | 4 | Insomnia | Loved it the first year -- worked extremely quickly for taking with middle-of-the-night awakenings so I got back to sleep. But it has lost all effectiveness now. I have to take 10-20 mg and only lasts 2-3 hours. I end up taking my whole 30 day supply in a few nights and am still up several times per night. I even wondered if the last few bottles were placebos....sometimes I would take 2-3 pills over an hour and still be awake. Loss all effectiveness for me. | I never had side effects with Sonata, but horrid ones with Ambien, Ambien CR and Lunesta: night wandering with total amnesia, cooking and eating with no memeory. Woke up one time in bed with a grilled cheese sandwich and had left the stove on downstairs. Even gained weight from pigging out at 3 AM in bed without knowing it (except for the mess!) No memory whatever. Was afraid I might drive somewhere so I stopped and flushed the remainder. | F | 57 | | 1/2/2010 | 5 | insomnia; waking up too soon | fatigue for about 8 hours after waking up, although decreasing as that 8 hours wears on; aggravation, irratability and depession during that 8 hours | I have taken this medication on an as-needed basis for 4 years. I have tried all the others on the market as well. Sonata is not meant to be a put you to sleep for 8 hours; it has a 4-hour half-life, so it's more useful for put you BACK to sleep than to put you to sleep at the inception of your sleep cycle. Nevertheless, when you can't fall asleep to begin with, i.e., insomnia, it is capable of putting you to sleep (with some exceptions), hopefully for the rest of the night, or only for about 4 hours, after which its effect begins to wear off. So is best taken on those (hopefully) rare nights when you wake up between 2-4am, and need to get back to sleep. Beware that if you take it consistently, your brain receptors adjust to having it as part of their regular diet, at which point they are hooked, and you can experience withdrawal symptoms if you try to quit, this being those brain receptors way of letting you know that they are that they feeling deprived. Exceptions when Sonata m | M | 56 | 4 years | 9/17/2006 | 5 | none | This medication works great. Gets you just sleepy enough to drift off and doesn't last more than 4 hrs, but by that time you well asleep and wake up feeling bright and chipper. From what I understand, it's the only RX sleep aid that is approved by the FAA | F | 56 | 3 years | 9/19/2006 | 3 | insomnia; waking up too soon | fatigue for about 8 hours after waking up, although decreasing as that 8 hours wears on; aggravation, irratability and depession during that 8 hours | I have taken this medication on an as-needed basis for 4 years. I have tried all the others on the market as well. Sonata is not meant to be a put you to sleep for 8 hours; it has a 4-hour half-life, so it's more useful for put you BACK to sleep than to put you to sleep at the inception of your sleep cycle. Nevertheless, when you can't fall asleep to begin with, i.e., insomnia, it is capable of putting you to sleep (with some exceptions), hopefully for the rest of the night, or only for about 4 hours, after which its effect begins to wear off. So is best taken on those (hopefully) rare nights when you wake up between 2-4am, and need to get back to sleep. Beware that if you take it consistently, your brain receptors adjust to having it as part of their regular diet, at which point they are hooked, and you can experience withdrawal symptoms if you try to quit, this being those brain receptors way of letting you know that they are that they feeling deprived. Exceptions when Sonata m | M | 56 | 4 years | 9/17/2006 | 3 | cant get to sleep -3am,4am awake | few side effects. Next morning felt heavy for first awake hours. Assertive behavior with aggressive tendency. I found I would 'attack' on any given subject and felt persecuted for 24hr after taking SONATA | Want to take in combo with XANAX as catalyst 'accelerant' but cant find side-effects info. Rx says NO XANAX...but dont know why. Need boost since SONATA is good for about 3hr sleep for me. I am 260lb , 56 yr, male. Stressed with business. | M | 56 | 3 months | 8/22/2006 | 1 | For sleep | It was the most horrible night of sleep I have had in a very long time. My legs couldn't stand still, I was nauseas, but the worst is that going on 48 hrs I am still suffering from vertigo | Not for human use | M | 56 | 1 days 1 x 30mg 1X day | 6/15/2011 | 1 | Insomnia | I sleep for 1 1/2 to 2 hrs max - have tried taking 2nd dose and wake up another 2hrs later with awful migraine. Hallucinations. I sleep better/longer with Benadryl based sleeping aids - disappointed. | F | 56 | 6 days 10 - 20mg | 10/10/2013 |
SONATA (ZALEPLON): This medication is used for a short time to treat people who have trouble falling asleep. If you have other sleep problems such as not being able to sleep through the night, this medication may not be right for you. Zaleplon is known as a hypnotic. It works on certain centers in the brain to relax you and help you fall asleep faster. FDA Approval Date: 1999-08-13 (Sources: U.S. Centers for Medicare Services, FDA)