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 Date added. 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 |
| 1 | Work stress induced insomnia | I experienced mild visual problem, akin to hallucinations, the very time time I took it. Every time I took it made things in the room look fuzzy and strange, and if i saw motion like moving my hand there was a visual perception of "trails" behind the movement. I did not feel sleept so much as disoriented within 30 minutes of taking it, difficulty walking from the bathroom to the bed. I also began to have significant memory problems, after 2 weeks I couldn't remember things from work or where I parked my car or left my notes. I made the mistake of taking it after having 2 glasses of wine at a work dinner and experienced profound disorientation, confusion looking in the mirror as though it was not me in the mirror but another person my hotel room, and loss of equilibrium to the point where I felt in my hotel room and injured my wrist. I could not see properly at all or make sense of what I was seeing. It was a very scary experience and I can only compare it to LSD. I disliked t | While it did help me get to sleep right away it never kept me asleep. I would wake up after 3 hours on the button for the entire month I took it, and I had difficulty getting back to sleep. The memory gaps I began noticing after 2 weeks of nightly use contributed to the stress from my job that was the reason for my insomnia in the first place that lead me to take this drug. I will never take this again. I think it should not be recommended to people who need a sleep aid b/c of profound anxiety as this drug definitely cause more anxiety for me. | F | 31 | 30 days | 4/10/2006 | 1 | insomnia | I only take one Ambien occasionally. On the night after I have taken Ambien, I have horrible nightmares. The nightmares are so bad that they wake me up. I feel like I can't win. I either feel bad from a lack of sleep or have to have violent dreams. | F | 75 | 2 years | 4/10/2006 | 2 | insomnia | It was like having a bad trip!!!! the nights that I could not fall asleep I would lay in bed and watch everything in my room come to life. It was like being in Alice In Wonderland. At first I thought I was going crazy then finally I realized it was from the Ambien. I almost checked myself into an institution it was insane!!!!! | Built up a tolerance to it. | F | 25 | 1 years | 4/8/2006 | 3 | Insomia | Hung over feeling the next morning but wears off by noon. Sexual side effects - difficulty achieving and maintaining an erection the next day or night. After a day or two of not using Ambien the sexual side effects passed. Difficult decision - sleep or good sex life? | Much less hung-over the next day than Lunesta, but still not much better than just getting by on less sleep. | M | 2 years | 4/3/2006 | 3 | recreationally | I took the drug at a friend's house, after hearing about the trippy side effects. It was really cool and swoopy feeling, but I must've blacked out. Next thing I know it I woke up in a strange man's bed with my pants around my ankles and my anus sore and greasy feeling. Apparently, another friend came over who was gay (I am not) and he and I 'hit it off.' I agreed to go home wih him and he did stuff with me that I have no memory of. I get a flash here and there of being with the guy, but whoa. Scary stuff. | The feeling from the drug was great, but the lost dignity wasn't worth it. | M | 23 | 1 days | 3/28/2006 | 1 | Insomnia caused by Prednisone use | Rapid heart rate, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, blurred vision, leg/arm twitches, long-term rebound insomnia. | Took it for 3 months almost every day. Symptoms of depression/suicide crept up on me slowly over a several week period. I've been off it for 5 weeks and I'm still not sleeping. Avoid this like the plague. Even if you take it only one day to sleep, you'll always give up the next night w/no sleep due to the strong "rebound" insomnia effect. | M | 49 | 3 months | 3/27/2006 | 2 | chronic insomnia | My body felt sort of watery and cool, I seemed to have more energy, in a mellow way, v. similar to effects of Lunesta and Ativan. Reduced appetite. Felt a feeling of my brain working slowly and not finding logic in other people's speech or actions before I went to "sleep" in bed and the next morning. | I tried Ambien as last resort before other benzoes, but Ambien doesn't seem to be working. Seems there's not much hope in anything other than super hard core drugs, here's what I've been put on to try and solve the problem, listed in chrono order: Seroquel (which I kicked, even though it's the only one that made me sleep) Trazadone (didn't work and had very uncomfortable side effects), Remeron (knocked me out, but I had night sweats for the first time in my life every night I took it, and had the worst nightmares I've ever had), Rozerem (no side effects, didn't touch the sleep), Lunesta (unpleasant taste in mouth, loss of appetite and odd "watery" feeling in stomach--plus, it didn't work at all), Restoril (didn't touch sleep although it's a benzo), Clonodine (sometimes gives me the nods, but I'm wide awake again in 3 hours). | F | 25 | 4 days | 3/25/2006 | 5 | Insomnia, anxiety | Some memory loss after taking with alcohol. I took it that evening because I had been drinking and was feeling too stimulated from the sugar in the beer to sleep. I vomited during the night and had a nice long conversation with my boyfriend that I do not remember. After that little experience I do not take it after drinking. Once I took it with only about 5 hours left to sleep and driving to work the next day was a really problem. I could barely focus on the road. Only take this drug, as indicated, if you have a full 8 hours to devote to sleep. When you do take it like you should it is the best sleeping pill ever. No hangover feelings! | I began taking the 15 mg Ambien that my father had prescribed to him after he died from lung cancer. It helped me so much during those tough times. For years I had suffered from insomnia and his death made it worse. I also developed generalized anxiety after that event. Ambien is pure gold. I have a great respect for the drug though. You should always understand what can happen when you are taking a strong sleeping aid and use only as indicated. I have never tried to stay up on Ambien because when I take it I actually want to sleep, not make new imaginary friends. All I have to say to the people who take it in order to hallucinate is please be careful. It's such a shame when people are hurt because they have used a drug improperly. Also, I would hate for a bad incident to cause this wonder drug to be pulled from the market. But I digress. The medication that the doctor gave me for anxiety was way to strong and even taking it at night was not possible because of the way it ma | F | 27 | 300 days | 3/21/2006 | 5 | Not able to shut off brain to sleep | I did have some weird side effects, (goofyness and short term memory loss) but mostly when I stayed up to long after taking it. I had one bad experience with total amnesia; I drove my car one night (no memory of taking a drive), wrecked my vehicle, and had no memory of it the next morning, and wasnt sure how my front end got damaged. So now I take it after im in bed and hubby doesnt leave me alone. Side effects where lessoned by taking with bread I found. | I think Ambien is a god send. I never really new what a deep and sound sleep was until I was given Ambien. Now I seem to need it because 2 or 3 hours of sleep a night just doesnt cut it like before it took it. I take only when I didnt sleep the night before and am feeling the signs of sleep deprivation. I get 10 (5mgs) a month if needed and usually one months will last for quite a while. Love to be able to sleep!! (tried Lunesta and couldnt deal with the horrible taste...) | F | 39 | 3 months | 3/20/2006 | 2 | Chronic Insomnia | None | Didn't seem to do anything. I tried when I was around 20 and it made me feel a little weird, but I couldn't fall asleep. Tried again 2 years ago and kept raising the dose - not much of anything. Lunesta works, which isn't supposed to make sense, but what can I say? | M | 33 | 1 weeks | 3/18/2006 | 5 | Insomnia | Dizziness, hallucinations, inability to concentrate. | This is by far the most effective sleep medication on the market. I've personally suffered from varying degrees of insomnia since I was 13, and have taken every OTC med that is available. This works like a charm and I pay retail for it ($65 for 15 pills, which I generally take every night). I prefer to take it on an empty stomach because I find that its effects are dulled significantly by taking after eating. I find that on an empty stomach it takes 20 minutes to kick in, and then you really feel it. Try to walk, and it's almost like a drunken stagger; try to read and the words will start moving right off the page; try to focus on any other task, and you'll find it difficult. But remember, this is for SLEEPING, not recereation. The side effects are only bad if you neglect to pay attention to the purpose of this drug. Take it, get into bed, and go to sleep. Don't attempt any great feats, because the dizziness will literally make you sick. Do with it what is intended, and you'll never ha | F | 25 | 3 months | 3/15/2006 | 1 | My father was...I was not | The other day I heard a discussion on the radio about Ambien and things started sounding familiar. Even though the side effects discussed were serious. People were joking about it. I don't see anything funny about it. My father who passed away last year of inoperable lung cancer was given a low dose of Ambien when diagnosed. He would be up all night and sleep all day. He would put a movie the the VCR during the day (when not on Ambien) and be asleep by the time the titles at the beginning of the movie stopped and the movie started. Then he'd be up all night. About 2 years ago my father fell out of bed and hurt his head and arm. We thought he must have been having a nightmare (he'd never fallen out of bed in his adult life). Then it happened again 6 mo later and he split his head open on a bed table next to the bed...very dangerous when also on blood thinners. | I heard about hallucinations...my father thought the hospital he was in was on fire and was begging to get out of the bed and know the way out of the hospital. He could not stand anything on him...clothes, sheets, leg wrappings to help with circulation. In the hospital he told us to bring back a little girl who had been in to see him, but I never left the hospital room the whole time my father was in the hospital and there never was a little girl. At home when he was dying he would mumble a lot. Sometimes a little made sense and sometimes it did not. One time I asked him what he was doing. He said praying that they do not kill his family. I said who. He named an old friend and started naming other people, but I could not understand the rest. I would have to tell him I had a gun and boarded all the windows and doors and was standing watch and would swear I would not fall asleep so he and we would be safe. After a half an hour of telling him this, he would finally start to calm down a li | F | 38 | 3 years | 3/13/2006 | 5 | for fun | I dont even know where to begin! thinking i am beyonce, looking like chucky, drowning while washing my hair in the sink, talking to the wall, thinkning someone ate my chicken wings, thinking there were more people in the room, burning my hair on the stove, thinking my room was a cabin, wanting to be naked, talking to random people on the phone and computer, watching home alone, doing crazy shit!! thats the ambien experience and i love every minute of it even thought i black out and cant remember half the stuff i do. me and my friends are on it and we have a good ol' time! | Ambien is a god! | F | 18 | 10 days | 3/12/2006 | 1 | Insomnia | THIS DRUG SHOULD BE IMMEDIATELY REMOVED FROM THE MARKET! IT IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS! I took 10 mg of zolpidem recently and tried to commit suicide by jumping out my window. I can completely understand and associate with what others have said on here. I experienced all these things people are saying: seeing imaginary people, obscene hallucinations, suicidal feelings, nausea, extremely bizarre behaviour, sleep-walking... all from one tablet! I have never tried to kill myself before and hope I never will again but I was CLOSE the other night. The only thing that saved me was the fact that I couldn't squeeze out my window. I was walking around my flat naked and muttering to the invisible people who were detaining me. It's now some days later and I'm still struggling to spell words and to concentrate. If you take this drug, YOU ARE RISKING YOUR LIFE! You have been warned. | How this drug is still on the market is beyond me. The company must have reports and realise that many people are having suicidal thoughts and experiencing other disturbing behaviour from standard doses of the drug. Sure, most people are fine with it but reading through this damning list of comments, it's clear that what happened to me was not some fluke effect. To those who have written on here that the people who are complaining are doing something wrong, how can you say this? I've read of at least one person who's taken their life having ingested this drug. This is serious stuff folks. I'm going to write to the company asking if they are aware of how many people have committed suicide having taken zolpidem. This is a disgrace in modern medicine. | M | 25 | 7 days | 3/12/2006 | 1 | insomnia | paranoia, hallucinating, anxiety, fear | i took a pill and went and laid down in by bed, i never fell or feel asleep. i was nervous and half consious, and talking to faces suroundimg my head. i scared my mom so badly because she thought i was up at two in the morning on serious drugas or something. i hate this. i dnt see how any one cld want the side effects... i did not even feel rested at alllllll when i woke up, i was more insanely paranoid and tired from before i went to bed that night, after not sleeeping for two and a half weeks. | F | 15 | 15 days | 3/12/2006 | 5 | Well, when I take this drug I see other people and I think they are taking my food. I thought my bright pink room was "paradise", and my friend, whom is also taking this drug, thinks she's Chucky. She also thinks she's dancing with the famous singer, Beyonce. | This is some amazing stuff right here! | F | 52 | 10 months | 3/11/2006 | 5 | Fibromyalgia/Insomnia | First let me say it's very unfair the way some people on this forum are calling others dumb and drug addicts. I've never abused drugs in my life. The side effects of Ambien, and there are loads, can happen even if you don't eat 1 to 2 hours before and lie down right away. If something. Anything keeps you awake. Say an itch or hive breakout which I've had. or an upset stomach and trip to bathroom... suddenly you're on a different plane with no inhibitions WHATSOEVER. It really is quite scary. I don't find the things I've done on Ambien FUN. And yes the court cases are on their way. I can't believe it hasn't happened yet. I live alone. I can't imagine what I might do or say to another person if they were there with me when this stuff hits. | It can work for a good night's sleep but there are definite dangers with it. I've often thought If I have a child I would definitely have to stop taking it because you simply don't know what you might do on it which includes ANYTHING imaginable. | F | 38 | 6 years | 3/10/2006 | 4 | Insomnia... inability to fall aslee | Whoa. Where do I start? This drug if taken before you are in bed (and sometimes after) left me inhibition FREE. Like being totally drunk. Making phone calls to a Father I haven't spoken to in years. DRIVING to ATLANTIC CITY! Leaving a love letter on the outside of a store for a clerk who worked inside. When you're on your Ambien Trip everything seems RIGHT! Also, pictures talk to you. Things move. My Data (from Star Trek) figurine was waving to me so I brought my Mom in to see. I freaked her out when I said 'don't worry Data would never hurt me!" I've never smoked pot or done any type of drug so this feeling is new to me. One time I decided I'd be better off bald and decided to cut all my hair off. Not sure what on Earth stopped me. And the wierdest part is... you don't remember any of this until something jogs the memory and then it all comes back in a rush. I've made plane reservations to Miami SEVERAL times and had to cancel. I've called my Brother who's 48 to sing him a lull | You must take it on an empty stomach and lie down but if by some chance you do not fall to sleep. Look out. To it's credit. I've been taking it for years and it still works Most of the Time. You must fall asleep right away though or anything could happen. | F | 38 | 6 years | 3/10/2006 | 5 | Insomnia & Fibromyalgia | Hallucinations, memory loss, irritability, Ambien addiction | I have another post in the dissatisfied section, but wanted to add that I have taken this as recommended. I actually take it once I'm in bed. I will fall asleep for a short while and then get up, either to do things I don't remember or hallucinate. My partner has observed this for years now, but neither of us connected it to the Ambien. The side effect info does not place enough emphasis on these side effects. My memory loss extends to my non-sleeping hours as well, I'm very forgetful now, which is frustrating, making more irritable than the Ambien already makes me. I take one 10mg tablet nightly. Fortunately, I don't go outside of the house and have never tried to get in the car. But I have prepared food using knives, all the while alseep and unaware. I also think this has made my IBS worse, as I have several nights a week when I wake-up fully in extreme pain, something that did not happen before I began taking ambien. | F | 49 | 7 years | 3/9/2006 | 1 | Insomnia from stress & fibromyalgia | Whoo Hoo - Hallucinations, memory loss and increasing irritability. | I've been taking Ambien every night since 1999. Sure I read the side effects from the package, but it wasn't emphasized as a major side effect, nor did my doctor mention them. I didn't realize that my unremembered noctural activities had anything to do with the Ambien. In the beginning, they were mainly phone conversations I had no recollection of having, finding an empty bottle of alcohol in the recycle bin (I'm not a drinker and this was a partial bottle at least 7-8 years old), partially cooked meals, food spilled in my bed, etc. These things began to happen more frequently. My partner often tried to direct me back to bed, but said I would get very agitated and angry. I wasn't sure I believed him. Then last year, while sharing a room with my sister and her family, I got up in the middle of the night, still sleeping, rummaged through my luggage, found some dried fruit, and proceeded to try to feed everyone. I had absolutely no memory of it. Now sometimes, there's a positive. | F | 49 | 7 years | 3/9/2006 |