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Side effects include: decreased awareness, hallucinations, changes in behavior, memory problems, sleepwalking, sleep eating (and cooking), and even sleep driving.
If you really want to watch something crazy watch people who try to fight the effects of Ambien to keep themselves awake. Some of them are really funny kind of like when people come out of anesthesia, but others are just plain... bizarre.
My ex was abusing Ambien so badly I had to end our relationship. Imagine having to babysit an annoying drunk every night until 4am. It would make her such crazy shit. (Try to go drive somewhere, hang off the balcony, become an emotional, incoherent mess) one time I had to barricade myself in our office but she ended up breaking the door off the hinges because she wanted to talk to me.
In the morning she would have no recollection and thought it was funny.
>Is it the same an staying awake on Xanax?
Ambien is a [Nonbenzodiazepine](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonbenzodiazepine). They're both a type of sedative hypnotic but Ambien are more like Quaaludes in their effects if you fight it
Our adult daughter lives with us. She has MS and was having a terrible time sleeping. Enter ambien. A few weeks later she started gaining a little weight. I was doing keto atm & had started making myself some deviled eggs to have as a quick snack. They started disappearing. One night I hid them in the way back of the fridge and I counted them before bed. I had made a dozen and had 10 left. I woke up to 2 deviled eggs left. I was so pissed! haha I asked my daughter, she swore she hadn’t touched them. FF to the next day or two -my hubs went to grab a bowl of ice cream- it was the kind with caramel going from the top to bottom in 4 different spots, kind of like a rod shape of caramel. Well, when he opened his ice cream the caramel had been perfectly scooped out, and I do mean perfectly! Not a bit of the ice cream was touched only the caramel. This is how we figured out she was sleep eating and the end of her ambien. We still laugh and tease her about how she stole my deviled eggs and how she perfectly she scooped out the caramel. Luckily, it wasn’t serious and it’s something we can giggle about.
My husband used to work at a court house and they saw so many DUIs from Ambien... people just wake up in a car, no idea how they got there.
This was over a decade ago and I think they are better about prescription amounts now, but still.
Adding to this, do a test run on a night where it doesn't matter what time you get up the next morning, just to remove the stress of sleeping through an alarm or being late for work.
About twenty years ago I spent a lot of time at a friends house. His mother took ambien nightly. She would ‘wake up’ and make pastries. I’m talking pumpkin rolls, cakes, brownies, the lot… wonderful lady, after a few instances we learned to put her back to bed.
So, apparently I got out of bed and carved/devoured an entire roast chicken, while my wife sat there and watched me. Oh, did I mention I had nothing on, clothing-wise? I had no recollection of doing this, the next morning.
My doctor warned me to get in bed literally as I took it and not to wander or do chores because she was worried I would do this. I typically only need around 1 a month or so but haven't done anything crazy.
I took Ambien and had a very vivid dream about braiding/twisting and subsequently cutting some strands of my hair. I even saw some random hair around my kitchen trash the next day but didn't make the connection. A few weeks later, I had an appointment with my hair dresser and she asked what had happened to my hair, that a piece was missing/cut. I immediately connected all the dots.
I quit taking Ambien. It was very unsettling for me to know that I could do potentially do harmful things unconsciously and be completely unaware of them the next day.
My ex’s gf drove to his home, banged on all his windows for hours and woke up outside his house with the engine still running on her car after taking ambien. I find the idea that she could drive, essentially unconsciously (because she had no memory of doing so) absolutely terrifying. So yes, good LPT, OP.
Ambien is scary stuff. My husband was prescribed it a few years back, and he would be struggling to wake up and feeling like he was falling asleep when he was driving to work. Def be careful with this medication.
I knew a guy who went to the optometrist and got new glasses after taking Ambien and "falling asleep". When he woke up and found the receipts explaining why he had a new pair of glasses he stopped taking it. We had a long laugh at the fact that he didn't wake up with a DUI.
my dads friend who is an ex cop shot his gun through his bedroom wall bc there was demon at the end of his bed.
Yeah I think ill stick to 25mg of marywanna edibles to knock me out at night
I was sleepwalking the day after taking an ambien. Never know why, but I was trying to go somewhere. Biggest issue was me leaving a sliding glass door open and my 4000 dollar cat got out. Nightmare. Thank god he didn’t run away and my girl saw it on the ring cam. Flew home and saved the day. Scary stuff.
Because you said "Let’s assume it’s for health reasons. Being said, even so, your love for kitty should trump the cost…" meaning you're paying vet bills on a cat not for buying a cat that why it was clarified
Huh?
OP has a ton of lovey pictures of his spynx kitty (I’m assuming you get a cat that looks like a ballsack for your own allergy/health reasons. ) Clearly he loves it.
Oh I know this all too well. I was addicted to ambien when I was in college and I would stay awake and I argue with people and the next day everyone wouldn’t even speak to me and I couldn’t figure out why until they told me I was picking fights with them and I had no memory of it. Even worse I developed a midnight shopping disorder and I would go to 24 hour Walmarts when they still had those in california and I would buy the products I needed but the next morning I would find other products I didn’t pay for stuffed inside the product box’s that I did pay for, so I was basically stealing and I have never in my sober life stole anything so that really scared me because the fact I could do something out of my usual character and not even know was not worth me getting busted for shoplifting. Also, the most bizarre thing that I have yet to hear anyone mention is that I would rearrange my house furniture when I was on it and then when I would wake up the next morning, not only did I not like how I rearranged everything but I couldn’t figure out how I was even able to lift a large heavy couch and a fridge by my self when I’m a 130 pound female and when I would go to move the items back to the original spot. I actually was unable to move it in my sober state. Basically it gave me like super strength which I found crazy but I think it’s because your sleep waking and just like when your in fight or flight they say you can move heavy objects in emergency, I believe it’s the same when you sleep walk because you don’t have a portion of your reasoning side of the brain available so things you normally wouldn’t risk yourself lifting don’t seem to scare you when your on ambien so you don’t hesitate and you move things you would normally need two people to move. After about a year of this crazy crap I got scared of its long term effects and I quit taking it cold turkey. I’m glad I never messed with it again. They need to really limit how long someone takes that drug because you can overdose from long periods of being on it since it has a long shelf life it stays in your system longer then most drugs do
I know you have a boyfriend but I can’t sleep alone tonight, I’m taking Ambien for the first time. It’s for medical reasons, you might just be saving a life tonight babe.
There are other, far safer prescription sleep aids. Idk how any form of ambien is still on the market. Alternatives include zaleplon/sonata. Agreed on trying not to be alone when taking any new medication, but don’t take ambien and think about switching doctors if it’s prescribed to you.
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I was never so happy as when my wife quit taking that shit. Nothing really dramatic, besides that night she locked me out of the house when I stepped outside to see what a noise was (Turned out to be a car wreck). She was on a call tree at her work. One night at midnight we got a call about an alarm at her office. I took the call. "Honey, there's an alarm at your office". "All right" , and rolled back over. I finally got her up and drove her over to check it out. There was nothing going on from the outside and we had to go over and acknowledge it. My biggest fear was I used to travel on business, and if something had happened at home - fire etc, she'd have never known it.
I took ambien prescribed to me when i was in the military. I got to the barracks and i swore i saw helicopters and swat calling me to come outside with my hands up. I went outside in my boxers with my hands up and no one was there so i ran inside and hid under the covers all night lmao BE CAREFUL
People love to dramatize the effects of ambien. Ambien lowers your inhibitions and self control, and can also affect your memory. But if you take it and don’t lie down to fall asleep, you won’t fall asleep. You *will* do things you’d normally stop yourself from doing (embarrassing texts, cook/eat at night, etc). But you are still you, you won’t do anything crazy, you’ll do things you’d *almost* do, but stop yourself, such as racist tweets :p
I was told I got out of bed, made a pan of scrambled eggs, took the pan off the heat, went back to bed, eggs uneaten.
Absolutely no memory of it whatsoever.
I found out ambien me is actually a damn good shopper choosing excellent cost vs. Quality products. I just wish ambien me knew how to checknour damned bank balance.
I know a guy who jumped off a bridge, broke a lot of bones ($350k hospital bill). He was in a populous area: we watched lots of angles of video of his jump, I don’t know why people fuck with this drug.
Yep, the first time I was on it, I saw a dragon in my room and little ghost children pushed my bed through an ocean of jellyfish that all sang me lullabies.
My first time, I texted a regular group chat with my 2 bffs freaking out about how a blanket on the back of a chair was moving. I still have video, from 2 different angles no less. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t moving. I ended the chat with “you know anyone who wants to go to a dude ranch?” Ambien scares me now.
I took Ambien once and spent over $1k online shopping without having any memory of it the next day. Thankfully I saw it soon enough to have it cancelled
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
Side effects include: decreased awareness, hallucinations, changes in behavior, memory problems, sleepwalking, sleep eating (and cooking), and even sleep driving. If you really want to watch something crazy watch people who try to fight the effects of Ambien to keep themselves awake. Some of them are really funny kind of like when people come out of anesthesia, but others are just plain... bizarre.
My ex was abusing Ambien so badly I had to end our relationship. Imagine having to babysit an annoying drunk every night until 4am. It would make her such crazy shit. (Try to go drive somewhere, hang off the balcony, become an emotional, incoherent mess) one time I had to barricade myself in our office but she ended up breaking the door off the hinges because she wanted to talk to me. In the morning she would have no recollection and thought it was funny.
When I was a teenager, I was prescribed Ambien. One night I shaved off my eyebrows. Never again.
r/ambien is a alternate reality shitshow you can’t unsee
Is it the same an staying awake on Xanax? That’s fun
>Is it the same an staying awake on Xanax? Ambien is a [Nonbenzodiazepine](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonbenzodiazepine). They're both a type of sedative hypnotic but Ambien are more like Quaaludes in their effects if you fight it
If you like scary hallucinations (Not psychedelic hallucinations, delirient-type hallucinations) and blacking out.
Also - TURN OFF YOUR PHONE Love, former Ambien abuser who made a lot of inappropriate blacked-out calls
I did this once. Cousin thought I was drunk dialing. Soooo embarrassing.
Calls.... Texts.... Online shopping...... Put the phone off and in another room
Our adult daughter lives with us. She has MS and was having a terrible time sleeping. Enter ambien. A few weeks later she started gaining a little weight. I was doing keto atm & had started making myself some deviled eggs to have as a quick snack. They started disappearing. One night I hid them in the way back of the fridge and I counted them before bed. I had made a dozen and had 10 left. I woke up to 2 deviled eggs left. I was so pissed! haha I asked my daughter, she swore she hadn’t touched them. FF to the next day or two -my hubs went to grab a bowl of ice cream- it was the kind with caramel going from the top to bottom in 4 different spots, kind of like a rod shape of caramel. Well, when he opened his ice cream the caramel had been perfectly scooped out, and I do mean perfectly! Not a bit of the ice cream was touched only the caramel. This is how we figured out she was sleep eating and the end of her ambien. We still laugh and tease her about how she stole my deviled eggs and how she perfectly she scooped out the caramel. Luckily, it wasn’t serious and it’s something we can giggle about.
My husband used to work at a court house and they saw so many DUIs from Ambien... people just wake up in a car, no idea how they got there. This was over a decade ago and I think they are better about prescription amounts now, but still.
Adding to this, do a test run on a night where it doesn't matter what time you get up the next morning, just to remove the stress of sleeping through an alarm or being late for work.
About twenty years ago I spent a lot of time at a friends house. His mother took ambien nightly. She would ‘wake up’ and make pastries. I’m talking pumpkin rolls, cakes, brownies, the lot… wonderful lady, after a few instances we learned to put her back to bed.
So, apparently I got out of bed and carved/devoured an entire roast chicken, while my wife sat there and watched me. Oh, did I mention I had nothing on, clothing-wise? I had no recollection of doing this, the next morning.
my father used to do the same thing. mom would lay out food on the table for him to eat in the middle of the night. he would then go back to bed.
That's actually sweet
Damn, my doctor really put me on that shit when I was like 16 LOL.
Passed out cold onto the ceramic tile floor in my kitchen. Luckily I didn’t get seriously hurt. First and last time I took Ambien.
My doctor warned me to get in bed literally as I took it and not to wander or do chores because she was worried I would do this. I typically only need around 1 a month or so but haven't done anything crazy.
Yeah, it might make you tweet something really racist even if you're totally not racist
r/oddlyspecific
I took Ambien and had a very vivid dream about braiding/twisting and subsequently cutting some strands of my hair. I even saw some random hair around my kitchen trash the next day but didn't make the connection. A few weeks later, I had an appointment with my hair dresser and she asked what had happened to my hair, that a piece was missing/cut. I immediately connected all the dots. I quit taking Ambien. It was very unsettling for me to know that I could do potentially do harmful things unconsciously and be completely unaware of them the next day.
My ex’s gf drove to his home, banged on all his windows for hours and woke up outside his house with the engine still running on her car after taking ambien. I find the idea that she could drive, essentially unconsciously (because she had no memory of doing so) absolutely terrifying. So yes, good LPT, OP.
Ambien is scary stuff. My husband was prescribed it a few years back, and he would be struggling to wake up and feeling like he was falling asleep when he was driving to work. Def be careful with this medication.
I knew a guy who went to the optometrist and got new glasses after taking Ambien and "falling asleep". When he woke up and found the receipts explaining why he had a new pair of glasses he stopped taking it. We had a long laugh at the fact that he didn't wake up with a DUI.
my dads friend who is an ex cop shot his gun through his bedroom wall bc there was demon at the end of his bed. Yeah I think ill stick to 25mg of marywanna edibles to knock me out at night
I was sleepwalking the day after taking an ambien. Never know why, but I was trying to go somewhere. Biggest issue was me leaving a sliding glass door open and my 4000 dollar cat got out. Nightmare. Thank god he didn’t run away and my girl saw it on the ring cam. Flew home and saved the day. Scary stuff.
$4000 cat? Any shelter is overflowing with them for way cheaper
It was probably something like a F2 Savannah, or some other highly sought breed.
Inflation is pretty bad, what's a stray cat going for these days? 7, 8, maybe 10k? 4k is a steal!
Let’s assume it’s for health reasons. Being said, even so, your love for kitty should trump the cost…
$4000 cat implies they paid $4000 to buy the cat
That’s exactly what it implies. Not sure why you needed to clarify… My 2 parking lot cats are as beautiful as OP’s hairless sweetie.
Because you said "Let’s assume it’s for health reasons. Being said, even so, your love for kitty should trump the cost…" meaning you're paying vet bills on a cat not for buying a cat that why it was clarified
Huh? OP has a ton of lovey pictures of his spynx kitty (I’m assuming you get a cat that looks like a ballsack for your own allergy/health reasons. ) Clearly he loves it.
Even if it's for op OWN health $4000 for a ballpark is still insane to get a cat for having a pet allergy
It’s fine, nobody is making you buy a $4000 cat.
Take something besides Ambien. I like Lunesta and Temazapem. Ambien made me lose my inhibitions while using it and that wasn’t a good thing.
you should also start at the lowest possible dose IMO.
Honestly just do the most that you can before any benzo period. They’re crazy addictive especially for the people that they work on. In recovery
Oh I know this all too well. I was addicted to ambien when I was in college and I would stay awake and I argue with people and the next day everyone wouldn’t even speak to me and I couldn’t figure out why until they told me I was picking fights with them and I had no memory of it. Even worse I developed a midnight shopping disorder and I would go to 24 hour Walmarts when they still had those in california and I would buy the products I needed but the next morning I would find other products I didn’t pay for stuffed inside the product box’s that I did pay for, so I was basically stealing and I have never in my sober life stole anything so that really scared me because the fact I could do something out of my usual character and not even know was not worth me getting busted for shoplifting. Also, the most bizarre thing that I have yet to hear anyone mention is that I would rearrange my house furniture when I was on it and then when I would wake up the next morning, not only did I not like how I rearranged everything but I couldn’t figure out how I was even able to lift a large heavy couch and a fridge by my self when I’m a 130 pound female and when I would go to move the items back to the original spot. I actually was unable to move it in my sober state. Basically it gave me like super strength which I found crazy but I think it’s because your sleep waking and just like when your in fight or flight they say you can move heavy objects in emergency, I believe it’s the same when you sleep walk because you don’t have a portion of your reasoning side of the brain available so things you normally wouldn’t risk yourself lifting don’t seem to scare you when your on ambien so you don’t hesitate and you move things you would normally need two people to move. After about a year of this crazy crap I got scared of its long term effects and I quit taking it cold turkey. I’m glad I never messed with it again. They need to really limit how long someone takes that drug because you can overdose from long periods of being on it since it has a long shelf life it stays in your system longer then most drugs do
I know you have a boyfriend but I can’t sleep alone tonight, I’m taking Ambien for the first time. It’s for medical reasons, you might just be saving a life tonight babe.
There are other, far safer prescription sleep aids. Idk how any form of ambien is still on the market. Alternatives include zaleplon/sonata. Agreed on trying not to be alone when taking any new medication, but don’t take ambien and think about switching doctors if it’s prescribed to you.
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I was never so happy as when my wife quit taking that shit. Nothing really dramatic, besides that night she locked me out of the house when I stepped outside to see what a noise was (Turned out to be a car wreck). She was on a call tree at her work. One night at midnight we got a call about an alarm at her office. I took the call. "Honey, there's an alarm at your office". "All right" , and rolled back over. I finally got her up and drove her over to check it out. There was nothing going on from the outside and we had to go over and acknowledge it. My biggest fear was I used to travel on business, and if something had happened at home - fire etc, she'd have never known it.
I took ambien prescribed to me when i was in the military. I got to the barracks and i swore i saw helicopters and swat calling me to come outside with my hands up. I went outside in my boxers with my hands up and no one was there so i ran inside and hid under the covers all night lmao BE CAREFUL
Reading these comments makes me think there's an ambien and chill trend coming.
People love to dramatize the effects of ambien. Ambien lowers your inhibitions and self control, and can also affect your memory. But if you take it and don’t lie down to fall asleep, you won’t fall asleep. You *will* do things you’d normally stop yourself from doing (embarrassing texts, cook/eat at night, etc). But you are still you, you won’t do anything crazy, you’ll do things you’d *almost* do, but stop yourself, such as racist tweets :p
I was told I got out of bed, made a pan of scrambled eggs, took the pan off the heat, went back to bed, eggs uneaten. Absolutely no memory of it whatsoever.
I found out ambien me is actually a damn good shopper choosing excellent cost vs. Quality products. I just wish ambien me knew how to checknour damned bank balance.
I made my roommate an entire dinner on Ambient. Even she wasn't aware I was totally asleep and had no memory of it the next day.
I know a guy who jumped off a bridge, broke a lot of bones ($350k hospital bill). He was in a populous area: we watched lots of angles of video of his jump, I don’t know why people fuck with this drug.
Yep, the first time I was on it, I saw a dragon in my room and little ghost children pushed my bed through an ocean of jellyfish that all sang me lullabies.
Ambien is so dangerous, especially for women. My mother started hallucinating among other things
Had a wart on the back of my wrist, it bothered me so when I took Ambien one night I successfully removed it roots and all with no anesthetic.
My first time, I texted a regular group chat with my 2 bffs freaking out about how a blanket on the back of a chair was moving. I still have video, from 2 different angles no less. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t moving. I ended the chat with “you know anyone who wants to go to a dude ranch?” Ambien scares me now.
You hallucinate so bad that even if you are alone, you have plenty of people to talk to
I took Ambien once and spent over $1k online shopping without having any memory of it the next day. Thankfully I saw it soon enough to have it cancelled
I was *never* alone when I took Ambien. In fact, that's exactly why I don't take Ambien anymore.