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my experience w/ ambien

Posted by sapphiredragon on April 18, 2003, at 9:41:16

In reply to Insomina with Ambien, HELP!, posted by Nala on April 18, 2003, at 6:17:43

Last year, I began having sleeping problems connected with menopausal hormone flux, my doctor prescribed estrogen/progesterone & this was extremely helpful.

Recently, though, in connection with severe stress (my son's suicidal depression & emergency hospitalization), I began having problems with waking in the middle of the night & being unable to get back to sleep. My doctor prescribed ambien. I have been using it on most nights during the last month and initially it really helped in getting a solid night of sleep.

Recently, however, I've been noting some side effects that I do not like.

For one, my dreaming patterns seemed to be changing: I would keep having the same dream motif or theme repeat over and over again during the entire night. Sort of obsessive-compulsive dreaming, you might say. Since I've never had this experience before, I think it might be from the ambien.

I also was finding that 10 mg of ambien was less effective and I was waking up again in the middle of the night. My doctor said it was okay to up the dosage to 15 or 20 mg, so I tried 15 mg and I was able to sleep through the night.

But, like you, I do not want to keep upping the dosage and create further drug dependency. I asked my doctor if it was okay to use melatonin along with the ambien. He said that was fine.

So, last night, I tried a combination of 1 mg fast-dissolving melatonin, 3 mg sustained-release melatonin, and 5 mg ambien. It worked well; I woke up feeling alert and refreshed. I am going to try and wean myself from the ambien gradually by using melatonin to induce (and sustain) sleep.

I'll post my continuing experience....


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URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030417/msgs/220351.html