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Posted 9/10/2011 9:44 PM (GMT 0)
I tried Ambien for the first time last night (10 mg). I think I had a good night sleep. Didn't feel as miserable in the AM and was good until around 3:30 when I needed a nap. My question is this--doesn't Ambien lose its effectiveness if taken for a long period of time? Not to mention addiction. My Dr. didn't say any of this and the bottle just says take one nightly. I assumed it wouldn't work so I wouldn't continue anyways. But what if I decide it does work? How long can you safely take this without it stopping to help?
Posted 9/10/2011 11:11 PM (GMT 0)
I never took Ambien but my mom did.  When I picked up her prescription for her there were only 10 pills in the bottle which was supposed to last her a month...obvioulsy not meant to take every night.  When I asked the pharmacist about it she said the drug was for short term insomnia...also that it was highly addictive.  Maybe that's just how her doctor prescribed it...I don't know.  I know that my son took it when he was working shift work...he took a pill, went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and woke up the next morning on the floor with the toothbrush still in his mouth...OMG...when they say go directly to bed, they mean it...LOL!

I also know that for some people it looses it effectiveness after awhile and you have to up the dosage...but everyone is different.  Hope it works for you...we fibromites need our sleep!

Donna

Posted 9/11/2011 4:45 AM (GMT 0)
I was on Ambien for over 5 years. Yes, it is addicting, and yes, it does lose its effectiveness after a while. I also did a lot of binge eating at night after taking it. My sleep doctor told me that he could probably get me down to using it 2-4 nights a week if he worked with me long enough, but I decided to just quit using it cold turkey because I got tired of the binge eating. I barely slept for 5 nights; the 6th night, I figured out that it was anxiety that was keeping me from sleeping because I have been an insomniac all my adult life, so I started taking my Xanax about an hour before I went to sleep, and then I took two Soma and my trazodone, and I started sleeping, and it was better than sleeping with Ambien. My advice? If you can avoid it, don't go on Ambien.

My sleep doctor asked me if I watched the clock at night. I said yes, and he said, "Why?" I told him, "So I will know how many hours I have left in which to get some real sleep." How stupid is that? So he told me to turn my clock radio away from my bed so that I didn't know what time it was and couldn't "watch" the clock all night long. That was very good advice! He also said if I woke up at night and it was dark, go back to sleep, and if it was light, get up. Also good advice.

Hope everything works out for you.
Posted 9/11/2011 2:37 PM (GMT 0)
I have been taking ambien for years and it still works for me. I don't know about the addiction, I don't worry about that because I plan to continue to take it as long as it works. I find when I want to take a med holiday from it, I take melatonin for a few nights. Melatonin only works for me for a few days and then it stops. But it is long enough for me to take a break from the ambien. I have never had withdrawal symptoms from it. We are all different and it works differently on all of us, but I am glad that it has worked for you. I sleep anyway, I just don't get a restful sleep without it. I feel good when I get up in the morning afterwards.

If it works try it. I wish you the best. You will find a variety of responses here, do what works for you.

Hugs, Karen

PS speaking of binge eating.  My husband use to take it (he takes trazadone now).  He would talk in his sleep and eat in his sleep.  So some people do experience this.  Hopeing it doesn't do that for you...  It was kind of funny to me at the time, but not him...lol...

Posted 9/12/2011 3:51 AM (GMT 0)
I read a study that had the patients take magnesium and zinc along with melatonin. You could search the link in the search box at the top of the page by using all the key words.

To keep from getting addicted or having Ambien lose its effectiveness, I too use melatonin, adding the mg and zn.

The two meds work quite differently. Ambien puts me to sleep right away but doesn't work very long. Melatonin works in about a half hour and seems to last at least 4 hours, so I don't want to take that in the middle of the night.
I had a side effect of muscle twitches the next day from taking Ambien. I just had to cut the dose down from 10 mg to 5. I notice a bit of drowsiness from melatonin.

After taking these two meds for a few weeks and keeping to a strict bedtime schedule, I can do without any sleep meds for a while.
Posted 9/22/2011 8:01 PM (GMT 0)
I take Zopiclone and have taken it for about 12 years for chronic insomnia but I limit myself to once a week. I have tried the Melatonin, Zinc and Magnesium combo with no success for insomnia. I've tried Melatonin 3, 5 and 10 mg and nothing. It's funny how it helps some yet not others! As I have celiac disease I must take the zinc and magnesium for malabsorption. I was sooooo hoping Melatonin would work! :-(
Posted 9/23/2011 1:49 AM (GMT 0)
I have had Ambien before. I need to break it up in half or thirds otherwise i wake up feeling hung over. But in the smaller doses its like heaven. I don't even wake up to pee!

My doctor won't prescribe me any right now, she wants to see if the Cymbalta will help lower my stress/anxiety which in turn might help me sleep.

For now I use something called Calm's Forte - which does help for a few days (like melatonin).
Posted 9/23/2011 3:17 AM (GMT 0)
I took Ambien for many, many years and like some others, I would binge eat at night. I would fall asleep and wake up an hour or so later, get up and go eat. At the beginning, I had no recollection of eating, just would find things in the morning that made me realize I had been up eating. After a while, I remembered going down to eat, but continued to do it anyway. I did not put it together with Ambien. I was on many other medications at the time. It did stop working after a while and so I'd stop taking it for a week and then go back on it and that worked very well. During the time I was off of it, I would take Flexeril or Ativan. I finally figured out that it was the Ambien that was causing the eating at night and weaned off of it and I have not gotten up during the night to go eat since I stopped taking it. I am now taking melatonin, zinc and magnesium and it is working for me. I take a break from it to keep my body from stopping production of the melatonin. So far, so good.

Miriam

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