Is Ambien dangerous if you have OSA?

[Robespierre]

Another issue with Ambien ... Medicare only allows 90 tabs per year for those of us over 65. When I could get it I just paid out of pocket and it was worth every penny. I'm hoping that a VA doc might be less squeamish about prescribing it if Medicare isn't an influence.

[jonny515]

I'm on Medicare Advantage, don't think I have ever reached the limit, but I guess I'd pay up if I did.

[Jeannh]

I'm on Medicare Advantage, don't think I have ever reached the limit.

Medicare Advantage doesn't have to follow traditional Medicare limits. You will likely never run into it unless you also have a Part D drug plan.

[FUQE3]

My sleep medicine doctor is totally happy to prescribe 10mg Zolpidem Tartrate as often as I want them and I have as a result, been using them in a fairly futile attempt to deal with my sleep maintenance insomnia daily for maybe over five years.

Then I got to thinking that not only are all pharmaceuticals toxic, but hypnotics like ambien are extremely addictive too. Additionally, there's several dangerous side effects. I have had plenty of short term memory issues on this drug and I know it is well documented. There are also some studies out there correlating long term use of hypnotics to an elevated cancer risk.

A Google search found me this: http://www.darksideofsleepingpills.com/ which is in my opinion worth a read.

I personally have concluded that as I am successfully addressing my biggest sleep challenge and health risk with CPAP therapy, perhaps now would be a good time to allow my brain the opportunity to regain its natural ability to send me to sleep and stay away from toxic, addictive pharmaceuticals. I have to tell you, this is really hard. I am quite addicted to the irresistible soporific effect of zolpidem and the rebound insomnia since abandoning this drug has been horrendous. I am almost at the end of my second week and I am getting a helping hand from valerian root supplements. I had a really good couple of days this week. It's given me a lot of hope. It is still tough, but getting better. I have to admit that my sleep maintenance insomnia wasn't really that much better on the drugs than it is now having abandoned them. But I do feel (hope) that eventually I will fall asleep again naturally and it will have been worth the effort.

Of course, each to their own but my two cents worth is recommending that we find other ways to treat insomnia other than prescription drugs.

[SewTired]

I think Ambien is a problem for some people and as other's have mentioned, it apparently can be addictive. I'm one of those people who can't take Ambien. I used it twice. The second time, I arrived at work with absolutely no memory of how I got there. Fortunately, I was in a carpool and wasn't driving. They all said I was kindof out of it, but they just thought I was really tired. Haven't touched the stuff since. It's on my allergy list due to that effect.

[jonny515]

I have what is called a Medicare C, D plan. I pay one premium but it covers both. It does have a limit, but I'm not sure what exactly it is. I haven't reached it 3 years in a row.

As for other ways of falling asleep, I get that it's not ideal. But I have done a lot of things and nothing actually has worked.
Things I have done include only sleep and sex in the bedroom, no electronics an hour or so before I go to bed. I also have a program called f.lux that makes the screen yellowish after a certain time of day, regular bedtime, and regular rise time, no naps, trying different bed time snacks (low protein, high carb, low carb, etc.), no caffeine after noon, restricting liquids after 9 PM, etc. etc, bedroom cooler or warmer, getting up if you can't sleep, etc etc. Some things are helpful but nothing has really cured it. The sleep clinic recommended these things as well. Some of these I still do and others I stopped due to being ineffective.


I was told the sleep apnea can cause insomnia, even the falling asleep kind. What happens is that your sleep is unpleasant enough that you have sort of a feedback loop that makes you dislike going to bed and makes it harder to fall asleep. I'm not sure if this applies to me, but I think it is possible I have had sleep apnea a long time.

[Jeannh]

I think there is no doubt that Zolpidem is habit-forming and has nasty rebound effects.

My problem is usually staying asleep, not falling asleep. I have had good success with a special (and expensive) formulation of Zolpidem branded Intermezzo. You take when you awaken in the middle of the night and have at least 4 hours to go before you need to awaken. It is a single, ridiculously over-packaged sublingual tablet. 1.75 mg for women, 3.5 mg for men. It works for me, and I used to take the 10 mg regular Zolpidem tab. Insurance covers it at the highest-we-wish-wouldn't-buy-this Rx tier. After 4 hours, it's wwaaayyyy more "gone" than the 10 mg was after 10 hours.

YMMV. Talk to your doc.

[jonny515]

I have problems both falling asleep and staying asleep. THough I wonder re: the staying asleep if this is sleep apnea. If I wake up and go to the bathroom, say, I will go back to sleep no problem or perhaps I wake up and change position, also no problem. But at times I wake up with sort of an adrenaline rush. It's usually about 3 in the morning. I'm pretty sure that I have had a fairly severe apnea incident, though I recall nothing. It's very hard to go back to sleep if that happens. So hoping perhaps that CPAP will help with this problem. It's more vexing than the falling sleep thing imo, because usually eventually I do fall asleep. The waking up with adrenaline rush is hard to handle, and sometimes I just get up regardless of time.

[Slartybartfast]

What you describe, waking up with an adrenaline rush, is sort of my problem. 0400 -0500 seems to be about my time, so I just get up with the chickens. On nights that I really want to stay asleep, I take half a Benadryl (diphenhydramine) tablet, that's 12.5 mg, and it seems to keep me asleep past 0500 pretty well. I don't like to take anything every night, so some times I trade off with a few milligrams of melatonin, and that works well, too.

Re: Ambien, be careful. The pianist at my church was taking it, and she awoke one night in the back of a patrol car. It seems she got up, went downstairs, made lunches for her kids then left them on the kitchen counter. Then she got in her minivan and backed out of the garage and right into a fire hydrant across the street. The police arrested her for DUI, and the DA prosecuted her. The jury hung, so he persecuted her again, but again, the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. He then tried to bring her up on slightly different charges but someone higher up in the legal food chain reigned him in and allowed the second acquittal to stand.

My wife is an RN, and cannot seem to stay asleep. If the cat farts in the next room, it awakens her. She takes, or has taken, everything EXCEPT Ambien; she refuses to take it because she says she has seen too many patients who have had problems like our church pianist. So whatever you do, again, be careful.

[PEF]

This is sort of funny. I have been taking Ambien for almost 10 years. After taking it for 5 years, it dawned on me that most nights it probably did not help much - only if I was really tired. So now I take a quarter of a pill per night and sometimes will add another quarter if I am having a really bad night. However, I really think it does not help at least half the time. The quarter of a pill helps about as much as the whole pill. Then about a year ago, I started getting up when I couldn't sleep at around 1 or 2 AM and eating a brownie. When I went back to bed, I would usually fall asleep immediately. I never before got up and ATE. It is not a problem because I don't do it that often and I am thin and could use more weight. It is just a problem for my teeth because I have to brush and floss again before going back to bed. So the Ambien did sort of change my behavior from never getting hungry in the middle of the night to craving a brownie - and it has to be a brownie!!

[GettingBetter]

"A case series showed zolpidem [generic Ambien] reduced central apneas, and the overall apnea-hypopnea index, without worsening obstructive events."

Quadri S, Drake C, Hudgel DW. Improvement of idiopathic central sleep apnea with zolpidem. J Clin Sleep Med. 2009 Apr 15. 5(2):122-9.
Read Study HERE ==> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2670330/

[jonny515]

I have never had any weird events. But I have heard of them. Benadryl does nothing for me but completely dry me out. Not so good here in the desert. (Doesn't look very deserty today with 4 inches of snow!) Also Melatonin does nothing for me. It seems like I have tried all the sleep inducing tricks that there are... so I will hope that CPAP helps.

You should be congratulated in being able to cut a Zolpidem into quarters, much less halves. They are the smallest thing I have ever been prescribed. But oddly 10 mg works as well as 20.

I am also hungry if I wake up with adrenaline rush. I haven't tried brownies. I'm going to have to try this.

[sewsleepy]

It's not just to OSA but Ambien can be dangerous in general.

I had a bad experience on Ambien back when it was new on the market and will never take it again. I thought I took it and went right to sleep but in actuality I remained up, acting strange. I would not have known this had I been alone. It was very weird to be told things I had done and said and have no memory of them whatsoever.

There are now many reports of this happening to people so doctors are more concerned about prescribing it. If you google dangers of Ambien you will come up with lots of results. People get up and fix snacks and eat during the night with no memory of it and wonder why they are putting on weight. Some people have even gotten into their cars and driven, completely unaware of what they are doing. Kerry Kennedy did this and crashed her car.

The most horrifying thing happened to my mother's friend, though, who lived alone. She woke in the morning and realized her hand was badly burned. All they could figure out is that she got up during the night to make a snack and turned on the stove with her hand resting on the burner, unaware of what she was doing. She had no memory of anything, but there were things out in the kitchen as though she had been making a snack.

So, if you take Ambien, please be careful, especially if you live alone!

[hojoos]

I notice that in recent time