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 Gender males first. 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 |
| 5 | insomnia | Don't stay awake when you take it. If you stay up for too long when taking it, you can have visual hallucinations. Nothing scary, just be in bed ready to go to sleep. No grogginess the next day. Sometimes it doesn't work, usually due to you eating a high fat meal shortly before taking it. | I love it. Its not for people who need help STAYING asleep. I need help GETTING to sleep. Once I'm out, I'm a deep sleeper. | M | 20 | 2 years 20 mg 1X AN | 9/22/2010 | 5 | insomnia | temporary increased desire for tasting food, temporary lessening of emotions, fluid retention in feet, psychological dependence because of effectiveness | This drug has long been outstanding for me. I don't get a "hangover" from Zaleplon (Sonata) and it only lasts 4 hours so I can take it even when I only have 5-6 hours of sleep time left. It makes me feel warm, pleasant and peaceful before falling asleep. I sometimes suffer from awful headaches at night and this drug lessens or eliminates those symptoms so I can sleep. I'm surprised so many others have negative experiences, as my wife likes it, too. | M | 30 | 5 years 10 MG 1X AN | 1/20/2012 | 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 | 5 | insomnia | It's hard to remember what I said to my wife during the time between taking the drug and falling asleep. Also, better lay down right after taking it; I was sending e-mails and it was a little challenging getting from the computer to the bed. | This stuff knocked me out in about 30 minutes, while Lunesta is not so dramatic -- one night I was not able to sleep right away even with the Lunesta. Sonata definitely seems like the stronger drug. I have not tried Ambien. After I got back on a normal sleep schedule, it was easy to quit the Sonata. | M | 34 | 1 months | 4/13/2006 | 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 | 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 | 5 | sleeping aid | none | help me sleep for over 4 to 8hrs | M | 25 | 1 months | 6/17/2005 | 5 | insomnia | none. IT WONT WORK AT ALL UNLESS ITS ON AN EMPTY STOMACH | Great for sleep onset insomnia. Great for middle of the night awakenings. 0 hangover unlike even ambien. Due to its 1hr half life. But because it is weaker it won't KNOCK you out. It does incinerate anxiety before you sleep. You will have to get in bed and close your eyes and "try" to sleep. The difference is you will. MUST take it on empty stomach or will feel like nthing. It can be addictive if you dont treat it like serious medication. As others said it will be incredible at first. Later on the amount of sleep it guarantees will be far less. That said 10 mg still guarantees me 3 hours of sleep. If i am super worried/wired. I take 2 at bed time Usually i take one at bedtime. Sometimes I take a second in the middle of the night. if I want to sleep longer that night. Not saying you will never sleep more than 3hrs after 10mg. I'm just saying it's just not going to deliver that consistently. It will get you 3hrs or so with 0 hangover. So even if you toss and turn all night, its like out of your system in 3 hrs too. If you are a person that can't even count on 3hrs of sleep when you need it. leaves sleep architecure intact Lunesta is way long acting and feels weird to me. Ambien eventually starts to affect your cognition in the day because it's too effective. Trazadone was too much for me and made me feel weird. CBTi only took me so far. Sonata address the root cause of my insomnia which is a anxiety. and gives you just a nudge of gaba | M | 32 | 6 years 20 2X day | 9/5/2020 | 5 | Middle of the night awakenings | No side effects, which is why like SONATA. I can take it in the middle of the night and not be groggy in the morning. | I only use it 1-3 times week, if I wake up in the middle of the night. Sonata will put me back to sleep, without the typical "grogginess" that occurs that occurs with other sleep meds. | M | 55 | 2 weeks 10mg 2X W | 11/1/2023 | 4 | insomnia, not staying asleep at night | sleepwalking, memory lapses, difficulty concentrating | The reason I gave this a high rating is because it does actually make me sleep. Not quality sleep by any means, but before sonata i got maybe 4 hours of sleep a week, if I was lucky. That being said, waking up in front of the coffeemaker at 4am drinking old coffee from the pot is a little disconcerting. My biggest problem with sonata is that my adhd medication negates its effects, and recently I have been getting no sleep at all because my other meds keep me up. TL;DR it might not work with your other meds and it might make you do weird stuff. | M | 16 | 2 months 1X day | 6/20/2015 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 4 | sleep | Hallucinations on a grand scale.. This is a VERY odd drug, i cant believe its a CIV drug, considering the things i saw on this drug. I began to see everything double on more than one occasion.. I took it once during the day, and i felt euphoric, and highly social,.. very strange! | This drug never made me tired.. infact its only use for me was as a recurational drug! | M | 23 | 100 days | 9/24/2006 | 4 | insomnia | none | I use this on nights when I don't take Lunesta. If I wake up in the middle of the night, 20 mg of this stuff puts me right back to sleep w/ no groggy side effects in the morning. If 20 mg does not work, adding a Benadry always knocks me out, although it does not feel as restorative as when I just take the Sonata. | M | 31 | 4 months | 1/20/2006 | 4 | Cant get to sleep | Now taking 15 mg, still takes awhile to get to sleep. No sluggishness the next day. | M | 48 | 3 weeks 10 mg 1X day | 3/5/2011 Patient History | 3 | Insomnia | Next day inebriation (despite short-half life..). I felt considerably out of it, no matter how hard I tried to "snap out of it" or "wake up and pay attention." Don't be fooled by the purported "ultra-short half-life." The after-effects are quite capable of lasting longer than the drug itself. PLEASE BE CARE WHEN DRIVING | I was able to fall asleep within about 25 minutes. I was also able to wake up the next morning without too much of a fight. Don't plan on doing anything which requires precision, and please be careful when driving. | M | 25 | 2 weeks 15mg 1X AN | 9/3/2010 | 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 | 3 | to get to sleep for an early shift | I had taken before and never had problems, until this last weekend I took it and stayed up watching tv. (didn't go directly to bed like normal) I was up according to roomates for 2 hours. During that time I sent an email to friends that I would NEVER have normally sent...and bought a Yogurt maker. So I guess I would take it again but be in bed when I did | M | 31 | 2 days | 8/28/2006 |
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)