Benzos 10mg Ambien not doing it

[Pokerfish]

Hi,
I recently got prescribed Ambien.
Took 10mg and nothing happend.
At 15mgs it worked well for a week, but I think my tolerance is higher now as the last couple nights it took me hours to fall asleep after taking 15mg.
I just talked to my Dr and he said he can’t write me a script over 10mgs, so if I keep taking 15 I’ll run out early.
Although even if he could and he upped it to 20mgs, I’m sure after a couple weeks i would need even more, which isn’t good.

He recommended trying zalerian (sp?) tea in combination with 10mg ambien.
I will try that but am kind of skeptical that it will actually work.

if it doesn’t work I’m not sure what to do.
afaik ambien is the strongest sleeping pill available but it seems like if it doesn’t work at 10mg I’m shit out of luck and nothing can really be done to help my insomnia, which sucks.

I work from home and when my sleep schedule is messed up I generally feel like shit, no appetite, less energy, and I’m a lot less productive. Feel ‘cloudy’ and a lot of the time don’t even work at all.

if I could just get myself into a routine and regular sleep schedule, a lot of my problems would go away. I thought ambien would help me with this.

Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[MsDiz]

Yeah listen, the issue with ambien etc for sleep is that your tolerance goes up and it becomes useless. That’s why it’s only really recommended to take for a few weeks to get back on track. You also don’t want to be running out because you’re risking a horrible time with withdrawing.

I would suggest you work on your bed time routine. I’d advise not looking at your phone or computer for at least an hour before bed, have a nice hot shower or bath and unwind. Read a book or listen to a podcast, something that’s easy listening. If you can find some lavender spray it’s amazing for the senses. It’ll help calm and relax you, you can spray it on your pillow.

What you really want to do though is get yourself ready for bed properly at night, wind down so your body prepares for sleep. It might take a few weeks but it should get easier.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Zolpidem is just a quick fix, it doesn't work long term. Listen to the Diz...

 

[Coffeeshroom]

I dislike z-drugs so if a benzo is available try and get flurazepam as i rate it the best for sleeping but not to be used long as tolerance builds up quickly and you making or learning your body to be use to a med to sleep. Otherwise try and exhaust your body before sleep and read a lot. I have found reading a lot tires my brain and so on, maybe it will help

 

[Jabberwocky]

I would just add that you have to be very careful with Ambien. Reason why it is prescribed at max 10mg is that it is a potent deliriant. Taking higher doses can lead to noctabulism to such an extent that you could get up but not wake up and go to the pub while sleepwalking. There are many cases of people taking Ambien and sleep driving, having sleep sex, or doing some bizzare things. On several occasions, after taking more than 20mg of Ambien (30-40mg) I woke up in the morning and couldn't believe what I did during the night, while "sleeping". I would find my shoe in the refrigerator and it would be filled with food that I have left in my "shoe plate". Or waking up and seeing stuff all around the apartment like I organized a bizzare party.

Zolpidem is very powerful anti inhibitor coupled with being very potent deliriant. That combination can lead to very dangerous behaviour if one takes too much. To complicate things even further "too much" isn't a constant even for same person. One night you will just sleep after taking 40mg and it can happen that the night after that 20mg triggers some bizarre behaviour.

I will not give any other advice/opinion, just had to warn you if you didn't knew about sleep walking, sleep driving sleep sex and other bizzar behaviour Ambien can trigger.

Take care.