Insomnia Forum Posting

Posted by Paul on July 18, 2002 at 21:52:09:

In Reply to: Ambien Side Effects/Memory Loss posted by Wyoman64 on July 18, 2002 at 20:36:20:

Hello-

Ah, yes...his brings back many fond memories of my Ambien Days. (:

I had the same side effect...the key with Ambien is to take it at the time you get in bed, and not to do other stuff while you're waiting for the medication to hit. As you found out, if the Ambien hits and you are still up and about, you will do all kinds of crazy things all night long and not remember them the next day. I have a list a mile long of dumb things I did on Ambien when I took it and didn't go to bed right away.

A few of the tamer ones:

1. I thought that I was writing the loveliest poetry one night (well, it turned out to be complete nonsense and was barely legible) I had written 3 pages of complete garbage that had something to do with a scarecrow. It was pretty bad!

2. I piled every knick-knack in my apartment in one corner of my bedroom (I thought it was a great idea at the time, until I discovered the pile the next day and had to clean it up)

3. I dumped out all of my drawers in one pile because I had been meaning to clean them out. Well, I ended up not having time to clean up the mess for several weeks (it took three hours to sort out the piles) and so whenever I needed something from the pile, I had to dig through it to find whatever I was looking for! Once again, this seemed like a really good idea when I was on Ambien!

4. I once called a collegue I had just met at three in the morning to tell him that I was wearing pajamas. I didn't remember doing it until the next day when he asked me, "So, um, what was up with the phone call last night??" Luckily, he had a sense of humor about it.

And many, many more stories...some much worse and much more dangerous.

So, the key is...take the Ambien when you get into bed, not before. I eventually learned to keep it at the nightstand so I wouldn't keep making the same mistake over and over.

If you take it while you're getting into bed, you will just fall asleep and not remember falling asleep...it worked really well on me while I was taking it.

I'm surprised your doctor hadn't had patients tell him of these side effects before...I have several friends who take Ambien and who have all had the same reaction to the medication. We used to share "Ambien stories" to see who did the dumbest things while on Ambien.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that those side effects are definitely not unheard of...

Paul

Follow Ups:

• Re: Re: Ambien Side Effects/Memory Loss Joanna 08:20 7/19/02 (1)
  • Re: Re: Re: Ambien Side Effects/Memory Loss Paul 21:49 7/19/02 (0)

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