I have had serious insomnia problems for years. My problem is getting to sleep, not staying asleep. Once I get my brain turned off, I can sleep forever. My docs have tried just about everything, and finally we're on Ambien-CR, which has worked for me so far (about a year).
The first time I ever took regular Ambien, my Pdoc told me, take it no more than 20 minutes before you want to go to sleep, and be by the bed, if not in it. Don't have anything else you need to do, cause when it hits, it hits. So, 1st nite comes, hubby is upstairs on computer, I figured I'd play on the computer in our room for a while. When he came down, it was obviously more than 20 minutes later, and I was telling him to come look at my computer, it had dancing blue and pink lights on it. He was sooooo confused, and kept telling me no, honey, it doesn't. Oh come on, can't you see 'em, they're right there, and if I push this button, they dance in time to music. "no honey, I think you've had enought tonite". Finally, I told him if he took one of my pills, he'd see it too !! He has never let me forget it, and my kids are always wanting to watch me take my ambien.
I am very careful with it now, and do stay in my room after I take it. I did not like the hallucinations, and then not remembering it in the morning,. AWFUL !!! But, it did give me a bit of a "high" feeling there for a bit. I don't get that any more.
One think that works for others in my family is melatonin. Buy it over the counter, it's natural, and works well for them.
I have to be very careful with things like Benadryl, etc., because I have epilepsy and many of the OTC drugs decrease the threshold for sz. So, I'm stuck on my Ambien-CR for now. Luckily, I haven't driven in 4 years, so doubt I'll take off driving one nite.
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