02-12-2017, 07:54 PM
Dent-
I feel you on the whole not wanting to need Ambien anymore thing. I've been taking it since approximately 2001, almost every single night. Fortunately, they know a little bit more about it now.
One of the MAJOR things to remember is that pretty much the biggest side effect of Ambien withdrawal is something called "rebound insomnia". Basically, if your body is used to taking a dose of Ambien with any sort of regularity, your brain starts to expect it, and you no longer become capable of getting the rest you need without it. It can last AGES- literally, months- and you can go days without sleeping a wink. Without knowing how often you take your Ambien, it's impossible to say for sure, but from your post plus my personal experience and research, it sounds very much like you're going through something similar.
I don't know what to tell you to do to go from taking 5 mg to taking nothing- I take between 20 and 30 mg a night, and I know that whenever my doctor and I discuss me coming off of it we reduce the dose by 5mg every 2 weeks until it's gone... so if you're at 5, then I think the next step would be total reduction? Or, if you take it nightly, maybe you could try cutting it down to one night with, one without- realizing that you may not get any sleep the night without- and pressing forward with that routine for a few weeks. Then add an extra med-less night for a few weeks, and another.. until you can comfortably sleep when you need to. (Let me be clear, though: I am NOT a professional sleep specialist, nor am I a practicing physician- and even if I were, I haven't seen your total file and history, so this is NOT a diagnosis or even an official suggestion, just something I'm surmising based on logic. You may, with this method, run the risk of adjusting your circadian rhythm, so BE CAREFUL.)
tl;dr- "rebound insomnia", where you lay wide awake feeling like you don't even need to sleep, is a COMMON side effect after the discontinuation of regular zolpidem. This does not necessarily indicate a permanent need for the drug to sleep, it's just a (sometimes very long and always very uncomfortable) phase to get through. You can do it!
I feel you on the whole not wanting to need Ambien anymore thing. I've been taking it since approximately 2001, almost every single night. Fortunately, they know a little bit more about it now.
One of the MAJOR things to remember is that pretty much the biggest side effect of Ambien withdrawal is something called "rebound insomnia". Basically, if your body is used to taking a dose of Ambien with any sort of regularity, your brain starts to expect it, and you no longer become capable of getting the rest you need without it. It can last AGES- literally, months- and you can go days without sleeping a wink. Without knowing how often you take your Ambien, it's impossible to say for sure, but from your post plus my personal experience and research, it sounds very much like you're going through something similar.
I don't know what to tell you to do to go from taking 5 mg to taking nothing- I take between 20 and 30 mg a night, and I know that whenever my doctor and I discuss me coming off of it we reduce the dose by 5mg every 2 weeks until it's gone... so if you're at 5, then I think the next step would be total reduction? Or, if you take it nightly, maybe you could try cutting it down to one night with, one without- realizing that you may not get any sleep the night without- and pressing forward with that routine for a few weeks. Then add an extra med-less night for a few weeks, and another.. until you can comfortably sleep when you need to. (Let me be clear, though: I am NOT a professional sleep specialist, nor am I a practicing physician- and even if I were, I haven't seen your total file and history, so this is NOT a diagnosis or even an official suggestion, just something I'm surmising based on logic. You may, with this method, run the risk of adjusting your circadian rhythm, so BE CAREFUL.)
tl;dr- "rebound insomnia", where you lay wide awake feeling like you don't even need to sleep, is a COMMON side effect after the discontinuation of regular zolpidem. This does not necessarily indicate a permanent need for the drug to sleep, it's just a (sometimes very long and always very uncomfortable) phase to get through. You can do it!