ambien - cumulative effects?

For the last month or so I've been on Ambien to help me sleep through the night.
No, its not the mask nor leaks that disturb my sleep. I've had that sorted out for a long time. I was just waking up after 5 hours and I couldn't get back to sleep. That really messed me up for my job.

Ambien certainly helped sort out the 5 hour nights and I've had some great days where I didn't feel _exhausted_. Now things have swung the other way, and even though I get 8-10 hours of sleep I'm still really tired and rather mentally in a fog. FYI, My AHI looks great. Thursday and Friday I skipped the Ambien and I'll do the same tonight. The tired feeling and mental fog seem to be clearing, though I can't claim (yet) that its a result of taking a break from the Ambien.

Thoughts? I know there isn't enough data to draw any conclusion. I'm curious about what others have experienced.

I'm thinking I'll try a Sun-Thur schedule on Ambien followed by clearing it out of my system by skipping it on Fri & Sat nights.

Are you taking the Ambien at the beginning of the night, or after you wake up at the 5 hour mark? Is it Continuous Release or regular?

Ordinarily, Ambien does not accumulate. Its half-life is around 3 hours; IOW, after 3 hours, 50% of the dose is left, after 6 hours, 25%, after 9 hours, 12.5%, and after 12 hours, 6.25%.

There are factors that can prolong the half-life, such as age, physical illnesses, and combining Ambien with other drugs and/or alcohol, your liver function, and, as OutaSync mentioned, using slow-release forms.

If, you aren't elderly or sick, and you are still tired and mentally foggy 48 hours after the last dose of Ambien, I'd start to suspect the problem lies elsewhere.

My wife took ambien for a while, but discontinued it because of the side effects. While it helped her sleep all night, she started sleep walking in the middle of the night and raiding the refrigerator, she gained ten pounds in two months. In the morning she had no knowledge that she was doing this. She also discovered that if she didn't get a full eight hours of sleep after taking ambien she was totally "wiped out" and in a mental fog all day long. She discontinued it's use and won't touch it again even though she still suffers from insomnia

OutaSync wrote:Are you taking the Ambien at the beginning of the night, or after you wake up at the 5 hour mark? Is it Continuous Release or regular?

For what its worth...

I take the regular Ambien at the beginning of the night, usually around 10.
I don't have any odd health problems, liver dysfunctions, etc.
I haven't, as yet, been sleep walking.

Mike, I complained to my sleep dr after the first 8 nights that I have what feels like cumulative mask-induced nasal congestion. I also stressed to him that I have no anxiety, no other disorders, that the reaction to the mask is physiological.
Still his "quick and dirty" solution was the Ambien "hypnotic pill", plus Veramyst corticosteroid spray. In other words a phsychiatric + a pain relief solution.

M.D.Hosehead wrote:Ordinarily, Ambien does not accumulate. Its half-life is around 3 hours; IOW, after 3 hours, 50% of the dose is left, after 6 hours, 25%, after 9 hours, 12.5%, and after 12 hours, 6.25%.

In my case Ambien got me over the sleep onset difficulty, but adjourned the problem to 4 hrs later, when its effect dissipated. I gave up on it as soon as I read about side effects.
If you search the forum for Ambien, you'll find opinions all over the spectrum.
BTW, when one can't go back to sleep, I've seen the advice to get up for 15-30 minutes ... in my case it helped drain the nasal passages.

I have not used Ambien, but I have used Restoril (temazepam). It definitely has a cumulative effect for me and causes a relapse of depression if I take it for more than a week. These kinds of drugs affect the neurotransmitters. I suspect that repeated meddling with the neurotransmitters is bound to have a cumulative effect, although some sleep meds may do so more than others.

I took Ambien for three months to help me get on a regular sleep schedule when I started the BiPap. My sleep schedule was incredibly fragmented. The Ambien really helped. Then I started having extreme depressions. I got ridiculously weepy and my thinking was extremely distorted. I stopped taking Ambien and four days later my depression was gone. My AHI went down as well. I did some web searches,and it appears that Ambien can have terrifying side effects, including suicidal ideation and attempts. It's a dangerous medication to be used sparingly.

I followed Tony Cog example about quiting taking 10 mg of Zolpidem (generic Ambien) daily:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=60835&p=570869

Instead, I take Xanax which is anti- depressant.

If you take more than 10 mg of Zolpidem daily then there is another withdrawal method:

http://www.non-benzodiazepines.org.uk/zolpidem.html

Ambien worked great for me. I was taking 40mg before bed and felt great in the morning. I also was on xanax for anxiety. Regardless, I was sleepwalking and even getting into my car unknowingly. I told my psychiatrist this and she immediately took me off. I've never even seen this listed as a side effect. I also had some groggyness and it was hard to find a right dose. I switched over to seroquel .25mg, which isnt commonly used for sleep.

beverly1 wrote:Ambien worked great for me. I was taking 40mg before bed and felt great in the morning. I also was on xanax for anxiety. Regardless, I was sleepwalking and even getting into my car unknowingly. I told my psychiatrist this and she immediately took me off. I've never even seen this listed as a side effect. I also had some groggyness and it was hard to find a right dose. I switched over to seroquel .25mg, which isnt commonly used for sleep.

Was it your shrink who prescribed the megadose of 40 mg of Ambien daily? If yes how have you withdrawn from it?


Have you seen this withdrawal procedure:

http://www.non-benzodiazepines.org.uk/zolpidem.html

40mg Ambien certainly is a megadose, 10mg is the usual prescribed dose. How are you doing on the Seroquel?

lcosborn wrote:I took Ambien for three months to help me get on a regular sleep schedule when I started the BiPap. My sleep schedule was incredibly fragmented. The Ambien really helped. Then I started having extreme depressions. I got ridiculously weepy and my thinking was extremely distorted. I stopped taking Ambien and four days later my depression was gone. My AHI went down as well. I did some web searches,and it appears that Ambien can have terrifying side effects, including suicidal ideation and attempts. It's a dangerous medication to be used sparingly.

I had pretty much the same experience. I was on it for months. Showed up in my doctor's office, crying. I was crying all the time. Finally, the doctor who prescribed it told me to go off of it. I thought she was crazy: it was the only thing that helped me sleep! I went off it, and stopped crying. I found out later on from someone else that it can trigger depression.