Ambien side effects, danger, benefit for sleep, Zolpidem medication dosage
April 24 2016 by Ray Sahelian, M.D.

Ambien pill is a sleep medication chemically unrelated to classical benzodiazepines but has demonstrated relatively high affinity binding to the alpha (1) GABA (A) receptor. Ambien pill is indicated for the treatment of insomnia. Until you know how it will affect you, you shouldn't drive or operate machinery. If you have problems sleeping and wish to try natural options, read more ways to sleep naturally and you can learn about ways to avoid prescription drugs and find a natural Insomnia Cure.

Ambien side effects, danger, cause for concern

Side effects from Ambien pill may include next day drowsiness, dizziness and headache. You shouldn't take Ambien with alcohol. All sleep medicines carry some risk of dependency or addiction. Do not use it or other sleep medicines for extended periods. Memory problems are a potential side effects of Ambien pill, but not very common and can usually be avoided by not using it on a regular basis. Ambien pill should only be used on a limited basis because it causes temporary amnesia.

Sanofi-Aventis says sleepwalking is a rare Ambien side effect. Strange behavior by insomniacs taking prescription drugs, ranging from binge eating to having sex while asleep, have raised safety questions about anti- insomnia medications such as Sanofi-Aventis’ Ambien. It appears that insomniacs taking an Ambien pill get up in the middle of the night, binge uncontrollably, then remembered nothing of their actions. Such sleep-induced side effects while on the Ambien medication have been around for years, but the incidence is rising because of an explosion in the drugs’ use. Something in Ambien causes binge eating in susceptible people. It appears that patients who take other, older sleep medications don't experience the eating disorder.
 

Car accidents, automobile crashes

About 30 million people in the United States take sleep medications, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. By some counts that is a 50 percent jump since the beginning of the decade. Ambien, manufactured by Sanofi-Aventis, boasts 12 billion nights of patient use. Other insomnia medications are Lunesta from Sepracor Inc. and Sonata made by King Pharmaceuticals Inc. Some of the most serious Ambien side effects are short-term memory loss, and accidents involving patients who drive the next day while still feeling drugged. The daytime sleepiness — that drugged feeling that people may have — is probably the most worrisome because of the (vehicular) accidents that can occur.

   Ambien, the nation's best-selling prescription pill for insomnia, is regularly showing up as a factor in traffic arrests, sometimes involving drivers who don't remember getting in the car.  In some state toxicology laboratories Ambien is in the top 10 list of drugs found in impaired drivers. Reports of Ambien pill -related traffic arrests include driving in the wrong direction, slamming into light poles or parked vehicles as well as seeming oblivious to the arresting officers.

Ambien Lawsuit

Two women who claimed they became sleep-eaters while taking Ambien pill were among four former Ambien users who filed suit against Sanofi-Aventis in United States District Court in Manhattan, charging they were harmed by the drug.

CPAP

Sleep apnea patients who have trouble sticking with their treatment are unlikely to find help in a bottle of sleeping pills. Researchers had hoped sleep medication might help patients better tolerate treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) -- an effective but cumbersome overnight therapy for sleep apnea. They found, however, that treatment with Ambien before bedtime made no difference for the 72 men the study followed. Obstructive sleep apnea is a breathing disorder in which tissues in the throat temporarily collapse as a person sleeps, causing repeated stops and starts in breathing during the night. One of the most effective treatments is CPAP, which delivers pressurized air through a face mask into the airways to keep them open. For many people, however, the CPAP device is difficult to use, and full compliance with the therapy is low.

Stroke risk
Prim Care Companion CNS Disord. 2014. Association of hypnotics with stroke risk: a population-based case-control study. The aim of this study was to determine what association, if any, hypnotics have on the risk of stroke events. This study shows that, in a case-control study matched for age, gender, and comorbidities using multiple logistic regression and sensitivity tests, zolpidem and estazolam were slightly associated with an increased risk of stroke.
 

Additional Prescription Sleep Meds

Lunesta pill for sleep
Restoril pill for sleep is an effective drug that is cheap since it comes in a generic form.
Sonata pill for sleep

Questions
Q. My husband is waiting to get hip replacement surgery. He will have it in a month or so. In the meantime he is in pain and is having trouble sleeping he is on 2 prescription medications, one for pain and another as a muscle relaxer. He does not sleep well at all. He is very stressed and tired and often in pain. He tried Ambien but he just felt tired all day. I was wondering if the more natural Good Night Rx formula would be of help to him.
   A. Sorry, but we have to refer his doctor to the page on this product since we cannot make that decision for your husband.

What could happen if someone had taken a modest amount of yohimbe bark extract and later took an Ambien?
   Much depends on the health of the person, the dosage of the yohimbe, the extract potency, the number of hours in between, whether taken with or without food, etc, etc. Plus, we don't have any feedback from anyone who has taken yohimbe and then later taken Ambien, so we don't know for sure.

I used to use Ambien either 2 or 4 mg on retiring. Let me tell you that 4mg of Ambien will stun a rutting musk ox into submission. 2mg works pretty well, although the periodic "ambien-over" can make it a little too hard to get out of bed. It just feels sooooooo good to lay there. Solution found. 5mg or 6mg of Melatonin depending on whether 5s or 3s are on sale. I drift off, can actually wake up and get to use the rest room at 3:00 and drift right back off, and awaken at 08:00 to rise and shine.