AMBIEN Reviews (ZOLPIDEM TARTRATE)

Average Rating: 3.1 (1450 Ratings)

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 SEDATIVES HYPNOTICS    DEA Schedule IV   

 Type: Rx Drug

  

AMBIEN  (ZOLPIDEM TARTRATE):  Zolpidem is used to treat a certain sleep problem (insomnia) in adults. If you have trouble falling asleep, it helps you fall asleep faster, so you can get a better night's rest. Zolpidem belongs to a class of drugs called sedative-hypnotics. It acts on your brain to produce a calming effect. This medication is usually limited to short treatment periods of 1 to 2 weeks or less.   FDA Approval Date: 1992-12-16 (Sources: U.S. Centers for Medicare Services, FDA)

  

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Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.)
5=HIGH (this medicine cured me or helped me a great deal.)

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RATING  REASONSIDE EFFECTS FOR AMBIENCOMMENTSSEXAGEDURATION/
DOSAGE
DATE ADDED
 
 1  insomnia sleep walking, sleep eating, amnesia I took ambien for over a year. At first I thought it had solved my sleeping problem. Apparently, after several months, I started to get up at night, have conversations with my husband (he didn't know that I had yet taken the pill in the evening) and eating A LOT of food. I couldn't figure out who was leaving the mess in the kitchen and candy wrappers in my bed. I put on a least 20 in 6 months. I fell once when I was wandering around. I have no memory of any of this. I am no longer taking ambien, but I am now habituated to getting up and eating at night. Scary medication! F 46 14 months
11/15/2006
 3  Insomnia Initial dose was 10mg. Altered perception within 20 minutes of taking it. Would cook, eat, watch movies, read books, and have conversations I did not remember the next day. Only stays in my system about 4 hours so can't take it too early. Also takes about an hour or two to make me fall asleep, and have vivid dreams thereafter. Not nightmares or scary, just very lifelike. I dont find any of these side effects amusing or entertaining and currently only take it when I am at home with adult supervision. I increased my dose to 15mg and that knocks me out, which is what I am looking for. If you are the kind of person that has difficulty shutting your brain off at night no matter how tired you are, I do not recommend Ambien. It is just not strong enough for the severe worrier/insomniac type. If it does put you out, it wont last long enough to do you much good. I only way a buck 20 so I dont think the high dosage needs are related to weight. The Dr.s will tell you that a half pill/5mg works as well as 10. I have obviously not found that to be the case. If you just have trouble falling asleep, but tend to stay asleep once you have fallen asleep, this drug will probably work great for you. This is a powerful drug with a lot of side effects and I only take the stuff on really bad nights. I have mostly switched to a different sleeping pill with far fewer side effects that keeps me asleep longer for the not-so-bad nights. For the record I am NOT on it right now :) F 36 1 years
11/14/2006
 3  Insomnia Initial dose was 10mg. Altered perception within 20 minutes of taking it. Would cook, eat, watch movies, read books, and have conversations I did not remember the next day. Only stays in my system about 4 hours so can't take it too early. Also takes about an hour or two to make me fall asleep, and have vivid dreams thereafter. Not nightmares or scary, just very lifelike. I dont find any of these side effects amusing or entertaining and currently only take it when I am at home with adult supervision. I increased my dose to 15mg and that knocks me out, which is what I am looking for. If you are the kind of person that has difficulty shutting your brain off at night no matter how tired you are, I do not recommend Ambien. It is just not strong enough for the severe worrier/insomniac type. If it does put you out, it wont last long enough to do you much good. I only way a buck 20 so I dont think the high dosage needs are related to weight. The Dr.s will tell you that a half pill/5mg works as well as 10. I have obviously not found that to be the case. If you just have trouble falling asleep, but tend to stay asleep once you have fallen asleep, this drug will probably work great for you. This is a powerful drug with a lot of side effects and I only take the stuff on really bad nights. I have mostly switched to a different sleeping pill with far fewer side effects that keeps me asleep longer for the not-so-bad nights. For the record I am NOT on it right now :) F 36 1 years
11/14/2006
 4  insomnia oh there are so many, i wake up and find food missing, or a mess from the night before(making mac n cheese at 2 am etc), ive driven miles to a friends house and after acting strangely they questioned if i had taken my ambien yet, i had.i wake up to random text messages, and read the ones i sent which dont make any sense. And thats all i know about, ive been told about other odd behavior interactions ive had. Despite the odd side effects, i wouldnt discontinue ambien, it is the only sleeping pill on the market that helps me sleep. without it, i go all night long thinking about sleep, but not actually doing it. F 21 2 years
11/13/2006
 1  Wife: Labor. Me: Insomnia from pain Amnesia, psychotic behavior. My wife took ambien in the hospital while in labor. Her doctor gave it to her to sleep after she was induced. She woke up in the middle of the night trying to pull her IV out and was confused where she was and what was going on. She started acting very psychotic and demanding a c-section so they gave her one. After she got out she was still confused about what was going on. Apparently she tried smearing blood on a nurse who was cleaning her the blood from her vaginal area after surgery. The next day child protective services show up and claim her "bizarre behavior" was enough reason to take our newborn child away. After a week the child was released into our grandparents custody then another couple weeks into my custody and several months later my wife now has custody after months of parenting classes, mental exams and such. Almost 3 months later and several court dates later we are just about to take all custody away from the state. What CPS did was wrong, but if M 22 1.5 months
11/12/2006
 3  insomnia None when taken EXACTLY as prescribed. Ambien is fantastic, but only taken exactly as prescribed, and not along with anything else. I recently started taking 100mg of Zoloft daily, and have found that the ambien has stopped working. (I still fall asleep quickly, but wake up about 2 hours later and do not get back to sleep). Very true that it works best on an empty stomach, also very true that you need to get in bed immediately after taking, if you don't want to do crazy things that you don't remember. Not so good with alcohol. Increases hangovers, dangerous, etc. F 27 9 months
11/8/2006
 3  insomnia ringing ears F 52 7 days
11/8/2006
 5  Insomnia None This is a great medicine for those who really need it for insomnia. I take 10mg 30 minutes before bedtime and get a good nights sleep and wakeup rested and alert with no drowsiness at all. M 45 1 years
11/7/2006
 1  Insomia I took this for one year, and it nearly drove me crazy. I became addicted, anyone who takes this drug will become addicted and lose the ability to fall asleep naturally. I had to learn how to fall asleep by myself and it took me over a year to get over the effects of this dreadful evil drug. I feel sorry for those addicted to this, you're in for a real nightmare once you get off it. I feel happy today, sometimes I have insomnia, but I do sleep again the following night, all my myself too, with no help whatsoever. I am medication-free today, I am not touching pills ever again!!! I was so addicted, I became so cross, forgetful, a complete change of personality. Now i feel normal, but it took a long time, it was a long way back to normalcy. Why is this drug on the market? F 53 1 years
11/7/2006
 5  Insomnia I am a teacher and I noticed that when I take Ambien I yell at my students the next day. I get mad at little things. I have been taking it for over a year, and I noticed one day when I did not take it things were calmer in my classroom. I stopped taking it and have noticed I am much calmer around my 7th graders. I totally experienced the calls and emails to other people, who later told me I sounded drunk. Never thought I would Ambien dial. I also talked irrationally on a transcontential flight after taking it- so beware. F 39 1 years
11/6/2006
 2  Insomnia Last night I took 1 Ambien and within about 20 minutes, I was hallucinating. I was on the phone with a friend while it all occured. Had I not had someone on the phone talking me through it and talking me into getting into bed, I don't know what I would have done. It was very scary & unexplained until I read this website. I have taken Ambien on several occassions over the past 5 or so years and never had this happen. Be careful. F 36
11/6/2006
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 4  To aid sleep None at first, but now the odd fit of the munchies. However, I do not feel compelled to eat, a glass of water will do. I have been tyaking 10mg, many times 20mg, for 4 years. It is an excellent product. I have not experienced any of the side effects, such as hallicunations etc reported elsewhere on these pages. M 44 1400 days
11/4/2006
 1  Sleep disturbance/depression relate A few episodes of sleep paralysis and associated hallucinations, where people were in my bed, sitting around the bed and talking to me. Then one very terrible experience when taking it earlier in the evening with one glass of wine and dinner, when I fell asleep briefly, woke with a jolt, then apparently caught a taxi to my ex-partner's home and acted out, resulting in being arrested. I am a 46 year old woman, who has never ever done anything remotely aggressive, never acted out in any way, and in fact hate any confrontational experience. I threw out this medication the next day. I am ashamed and humiliated and cannot bring myself to tell any of my friends. Fortunately, I have spoken to medical colleagues who have related other stories about this medication - the one thing in common seems to be that it should not be taken by people who have significant levels of stress or depression as it can cause a automatism type reaction, and that apart from the sheer embarrassment, can lead to more serious consequences. This medication should be prescribed with much greater caution. F 46 2 months
11/2/2006
 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
 5  Sleeplessness After 10-15 minutes, there is some very definite hallucinogenic situations that occur. There also seems to be a problem with memory recall and sleepwalking. Wow! This is REALLY A DANGEROUS DRUG!! Absolutely incredible that this medicine has gotten so far without being reported on. Earliest indications that this medicine can cause hallucinations, can be stretched back to 2003. This medicine goes by various different names in other countries, so a world-wide recall/recognition of Ambien and its Hallucinogenic properties is further exacperated by it going under several different names. Ambien in the US is reported by CBSNews to be the vogue drug of choice, therein referred to as zombie-pills or tic tacs. (A) I find it absolutley outrageous that the medical profession is so lax with administering hallucinogens, in terms of not reporting on the problem, and not telling patients of the problem. (B) I find it outrageous that the likes of the DEA Drug Enforcement Agency is so overtly lax with the #1 prescription sleeping aid drug - even in presence of so many reports - it plays the See no Evil Speak no Evil Hear no Evil Card - I think you need to spell DEA K,A,T,R,I,N,A. (C) The F 30 4 months
10/30/2006
 3  Sleeplessness After 10-15 minutes, there is some very definite hallucinogenic situations that occur. There also seems to be a problem with memory recall and sleepwalking. Wow! This is REALLY A DANGEROUS DRUG!! Absolutely incredible that this medicine has gotten so far without being reported on. Earliest indications that this medicine can cause hallucinations, can be stretched back to 2003. This medicine goes by various different names in other countries, so a world-wide recall/recognition of Ambien and its Hallucinogenic properties is further exacperated by it going under several different names. Ambien in the US is reported by CBSNews to be the vogue drug of choice, therein referred to as zombie-pills or tic tacs. (A) I find it absolutley outrageous that the medical profession is so lax with administering hallucinogens, in terms of not reporting on the problem, and not telling patients of the problem. (B) I find it outrageous that the likes of the DEA Drug Enforcement Agency is so overtly lax with the #1 prescription sleeping aid drug - even in presence of so many reports - it plays the See no Evil Speak no Evil Hear no Evil Card - I think you need to spell DEA K,A,T,R,I,N,A. (C) The F 30 4 months
10/30/2006
 2  insomnia Sleepwalking, drug trip-like actions, altered personality, loss of rational thought Was on Ambien for a couple of years. In the beginning the drug acted quickly and I was able to take as recommended, in bed. After several months, drug stopped taking effect so quickly, and I would brush teeth, shower and do other getting ready for bed things before retiring. Occasionally would regale roomate with one act performances of Medea, or theories of life or other nonsensical antics. We thought it was amusing, until she was away for the night and I went outside and sat in our front yard talking to myself for hours. A kind neighbor helped me back. Went to bed several times without locking the doors. Extremely perilous to take if you live alone, or are in charge of children or pets. Should be monitered much more closely, the cavelier attitude toward this drug is frightening. F 35 2 years
10/30/2006
 4  sleep disorder, sleep apnea (Using Ambien CR) no side effects to speak of. only getting about 5 hrs sleep a night with it. Effectiveness seems to wear off with continued use. M 40 3 months
10/29/2006
 4  insomnia memory loss; purchacing items online with no memory of it; talking on phone to family members with no memory of conversations; organizing bills, etc (which is so unlike me) I really like Ambien. Did not realize how wonderful a good night's sleep is. At first I woke up refreshed, with lots of energy, but that part has faded unfortunately. I still sleep well for about 7 hrs. F 46 10 months
10/28/2006
 5  insomnia Disoriented, dizzy, sleepy which is not really a side effect, but the expected result. Calling it a side effect is like saying insulin lowering your blood sugar is a side effect. This medication is great. I am able to get to sleep quickly and sleep well, feeling rested the next day. For the most part, people on here do not use any common sense or take charge of their health. It's like any drug, if you have bad side effects, stop taking it and look at alternatives. If you find yourself doing unsafe things, then use some intelligence and go see your doctor. If you keep taking this drug and you know you are reacting badly and do nothing about it, you get what you deserve. There are many alternatives to ambien, so don't put it down and wreck it for those of us who use it successfully. Again, use your head and go see your doctor if you have bad side effects. DUH!!! about sums up the intelligence of those who are negative about this medication. F 36 3 years
10/27/2006

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