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Ambien stopped working
Hi everyone. I’m hoping to get some advice as I feel a little lost and the doctors I’ve spoken to so far haven’t been able to come up with a solution to my problem.
I’ve had insomnia and also wake up a lot for year. It started with noisy neighbours and construction work (before then I had no issues). During this time I also developed chronic pain that made it even harder to sleep.
My dr prescribed “light” sleep medications to begin with. Some didn’t work, some gave side effects, and some did work for some time. But since I had no control over the noise in the area, eventually I had to move on to Ambien (and gigantic ear plugs).
So, I was on Ambien for a few months, started at 5mg but then noticed I had to take 10mg as my body was getting used to them. Eventually I moved and got rid of the noisy neighbours, but my body was so used to my crazy sleeping habits that I couldn’t go back to my regular hours. I would still wake up the hours my neighbours used to wake me up.
I tried my very best to stay at 10mg of Ambien but eventually I found myself waking up every second hour or so, having to take more to fall back to sleep. I got scared and called my dr, who gave me diazepam (5mg) and told me it should help me break this vicious cycle.
It did. The very first night I slept all night and only needed one Ambien. It stayed like this for a few months and my plan was to taper off everything, but then bad things happened in my life and it didn’t feel like a good time. I was too afraid to not get any sleep while going through so many struggles.
And now I’m kinda back to where I started. My body is so used to Ambien that sometimes I can’t even fall asleep on 10mg (even tho I’m still on diazepam as well). If I do fall asleep, I wake up after 4 hours, sometimes after only 1-2 hours, and it’s impossible to go back to sleep (my chronic pain isn’t helping).
Since I’m already on Diazepam I can’t use this to control the issue this time. My dr told me to try 7,5mg Diazepam and even 10mg but for some reason it’s not working. Quite the opposite. So I’m staying on 5mg.
What can I do? Has anyone been in a similar situation? I really want to get off both Diazepam and Ambien, but at the momemt my goal is to just find a safe way to sleep through the night because I haven’t slept in months!
Could I maybe slowly taper off Diazepam and add something else so that 10mg Ambien will be enough to sleep through the night?
Sorry this got so long. I’d be so grateful for any ideas or advice.
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FYI, Flexeril is not tizanidine, it's cyclobenzaprine. Tizanidine is also known as Zanaflex.
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1 ReactionSorry, my mistake!
Ambien stopped working well for me after a year or so. My dr switched me to Lunesta which worked well for a short time then stopped working as well. I went back to ambien and it works again - go figure - guess my body just needed a break from it for awhile. I’m keeping the Lunesta around in case I have to do this again.
My pain Dr also added 10 mg of amitryptaline (sp?) and that’s helped as well.
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1 ReactionCan you offer more info on your experiences with Ambien and Lunesta, such as your dose, length of time taking them, etc. Also do they make you tired the next day? I am most worried about the side effect of sleep walking without knowing it. My sleep issues are related to an auto-immune disease I have.
Sure. I have had insomnia for years and have taken several medications for it. I took Klonipin for a few years but had to keep increasing the dosage until it just quit working at an acceptable dose. That’s when I was put on Ambien. It worked well for a couple of years at 10mg a night. I never experienced sleep walking or any of the things that people supposedly do when taking it. Eventually though I had trouble staying asleep all night. When I switched to the 15 mg extended release, I had trouble getting to sleep but could stay asleep once I got there. I was still working and getting up at 6 every morning so that was a problem, so I went back to the 10 mg. Then my dr suggested trying Lunesta - same family of med as Ambien. It work well for a couple of months then nor so much, so I started taking the ambien I had left and it worked again. So now, the plan is take one until it doesn’t work then switch to the other for awhile. Neither make me feel bad in the morning. Not sleeping does!
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2 ReactionsNice to see your post. I’ve taken some level of Ambien for a number of years. Still seems to work although I wonder how much is psychological?
I keep thinking about cold turkey and wonder how that would be.
Dr doesn’t seem to have any reservations about continuing my prescription.
I do you sleep music at night. Trying to stop that constant monkey mind that occurs as soon as o get into bed.
Maybe I’ll ask about Lunesta.
Best to you.
Cah
I have heard from several people that CBD gummies with low amount of THC in the as well...work extremely well for them. You can buy them from The Healthy Place store online or The Cornbread Hemp store online. Legitimate places for sure. I have an actual Healthy Place store near where I live. But you may not. Also, I have found that it makes a HUGE difference in the effectiveness of a medication. I had read that...and then it happened to me. The manufacturer Aurobindo who makes Ambien, Does NOT WORK AT ALL. You must be sure to use either Brand name Ambien or generic brand (manufacturer) TEVA
Just wanted to say to you, cainrox1, you are exactly Right! Everything you said....NAILED IT
It's pretty common for some medications, sleep medications included to stop working at some point or need higher dosages. The only thing you can really do is go off of them an extended period of time. This is why many are not recommended long term. There are other medications prescribed off-label for their sedative side effects that work well. Trazodone and Quetiapine are two of the more commonly prescribed for sleep difficulties that work fairly well and non-addictive. 200 mg of Quetiapine knocks me out a good 8-10 hours. I have very fragmented sleep otherwise. I can't stay asleep more than 30-45 minutes at a time without it.
I have been an insomniac for over 25 years. I think I’ve tried all the RXs. 10 mg Ambien worked the best for the last 10 years but after some years, I found myself waking up in the middle of the night after 3 hours sleep and couldn’t get back to sleep. I finally took 2 and it worked for awhile. Then I started getting less and less sleep. I would make little cocktails of other drugs that have soporific effects after I’d get my 3 hours of sleep but then that stopped working. My doctor recently put me on 50 mg. Quviviq. I noted when reading the directions that it said it might take time for the full effects to be felt. It has been 3 weeks now and it is definitely not working. I started taking it with some other RXs and I’ll get 3 hours sleep and then be up watching TV for 3 hours and then have to take more of some of the other RXs to knock myself out for another few hours. (I know you’re not supposed to watch TV but if I don’t I just worry about all the things one worries about.). I never had any of the nightmares that some people reported with Quviviq but I’m definitely not getting the 7 hours sleep that I need. I don’t know what to do other than not get a refill for that drug.
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