Misc Ambien tolerance

[Pinkpuff]

I took ambien about 3 nights in a row (the last night i took double my regular dose), skipped a night, and took it the next night. Starting the third night I only felt the effects because I took the second pill (first one didn't help), so I felt like my tolerance went up. And the last night (fifth one) I didn't even really feel much of the effects.

I don't take it often, just once in a while if I can't sleep.

How much time should I wait to take ambien again and have my tolerance lowered again?

 

[woamotive]

From what I have read and from my conversations with people who have taken Ambien (I have an ambien script but have never taken it) tolerance goes up VERY quickly. I would definitely suggest taking some time off to lower your tolerance. Take maybe a week off of you can. Do you have real sincere sleep issues and need an aid? If so, do you have anything else that can help you sleep-you can always TRY natural options like valerian root or even warm milk with honey (placebo!?) or even over the counter aids, or tylenol pm, etc.

You said you don't take it very often ('only once in a while') but you took it 5 nights in a row ?

 

[Pinkpuff]

That was an exception because I was completely jet lagged and I needed it so I could go back to my regular sleeping times.

Other than that, I only take it if I really can't sleep, which isn't often.

My sleeping issues aren't too bad, it's just that I have annoying phases. Like one week I will be able to go to sleep easily without taking anything, but the next week it will be all rocky. I usually just tough it out and wait to fall asleep, but sometimes I start getting night anxiety BECAUSE i cant fall asleep, so I take the ambien which helps a lot.

Melatonin (don't know if you're familiar with it, it's a natural supplement) helps me a lot some of the times, but not always.

So a lot of ups and downs, but I could definitely go a week without ambien. Will my tolerance be low after a few weeks?

 

[Cyb]

Hard to say if your tolerance will be down after just a few weeks. I recently used some Ambien to no great success, ~50mg over ~4 hours - Can say I felt a hint of an effect about 30 minutes after my first pill, but from there I went straight back down to baseline and stayed there, even after IVing / snorting / swallowing more of the drug.

I was a regular benzo user for a few years, and stopped a couple years ago. Since then, I have used drugs that work on the GABA system only a few times, but can honestly say my tolerance (to drugs that work on the GABA system) has never felt like it did before I was ever prescribed benzos.

 

[thelung]

Yep tolerance to Ambien develops very quickly , which is why it isn't typically used for more than a week or two or three

 

[BlueberryfishY]

Yep tolerance to Ambien develops very quickly , which is why it isn't typically used for more than a week or two or three

This is true, by the 3rd day of taking them (oraly) i could hardly notice anything from them.

 

[barnstable84]

Tolerance definately does creep up quickly.. I started on 1 10mg tab then got as high as 4.5 tabs. I slowed right down on it, but my tolerance scared me a bit. Taking a break is a good thing to lower your tolerance but I think the length of time you break for depends on the person and can also depend on your state of mind, health (it affects me more if i'm ill for example) and also what other medications you may be using.

Another way of lowering your dosage with the same effects is plugging. It works wonders for me and am now on 2 x 10mg tabs instead of 4.5 of them! I'm not saying to abuse them, but if sleep issues persist, a lower dosage is worth trying if you can bear plugging for the same affect as oral.

 

[PhillyPsychonaut]

I pretty much just asked for Ambien to abuse them, because I knew I couldn't get a real benzo script because I have a history of benzo abuse (I need to move out of my parents house...), and I snorted 10 mgs a day. I certainly felt it my first few times, then the tolerance did creep up, but I still felt an effect from snorting 10 mgs about a month later after taking it daily. I did use it for sleep too, but I mixed in about 8-10 mgs of melatonin a night to help with that, which worked extremely well.

I did use to take 20-40 mgs with no tolerance, and blacking out like that scared the shit out of me. I'd come out of it, then keep going back and forth from the blackout, and finally just wake up and forget everything that happened. Be careful with it!

 

[barnstable84]

Be careful with it!

This is key.. The drug can really make you do shit you wouldn't normally do. There are stories about what people do on zolipidem. A woman took some in a motel room to get to sleep and ended up sleepwalking to the room next door and let a bunch of guys gang up on her and have their way with her. Another person plunged a knife into their stomach and moved it in and out in a slicing motion.

I myself have stupidly (VERY stupidly) driven on them. Not just once either. They knock most people out and they don't know what they are doing and often re-dose or o.d. If you start using it often, keep that in mind and keep them hidden somewhere you cant get to them while you're mooky (affected) and keep taking them or do something regrettable.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Yep tolerance to Ambien develops very quickly , which is why it isn't typically used for more than a week or two or three

I am glad I never tried it then. There's other hypnotics which develop a tolerance slower than 2-3 days.

This is the main reason why I don't necessarily like alprazolam in comparison to other more favorable benzodiazepines; it builds up tolerance too quickly (at the rate you all are describing for ambien).

 

[Volcano]

I was scripted Ambien about 3 or 4 years ago:

Night 1: AWESOME SLEEP.
Night 2: AWESOME SLEEP.
Night 3: Took a while to get to sleep but it was GOOD SLEEP.
Night 4: Does this shit even work anymore?

 

[WARDMAN3]

Ambien is the only drug that I have developed a tolerance to. It is ineffective for me after 3-4 days of use. Doubling up does not even help. I take it very rarely these days as I find the drug to be extremely toxic to my system.

 

[NoCatharsis]

I've been taking Ambien almost every night for about 2 years now. I was on Lunesta before that, but wow Ambien was a huge upgrade in my opinion, in terms of side effects (Lunesta causes an excruciating after-taste with everything for about 16 hours afterwards) and pure effectiveness.

After 2 years, I definitely no longer get the "high" after taking it. I certainly have built up a tolerance to the point that I can't even tell when it has kicked in most nights. Usually I just know that it has because when I lay down, my mind does not wander aimlessly, and I can go straight to sleep.

I take 10mg each night, but for those rare occasions where I'm just too wide awake to sleep, I will take another 5 or 10mg. I've found this barely helps, though. It seems to me that once the first dose has kicked in, adding more really doesn't do anything (I'm sure it would if you were too take too much, but I'm not trying to OD here). Anyone have similar experience with this?

On a second note, you might try supplementing with Melatonin. This is a totally natural over-the-counter vitamin you can get at any drugstore. I used this for years before finding Ambien, and I think it helps a lot. It gives you that natural sort of sleepy feeling, not the medicine-head type that Ambien gives. So if I'm just too wired to sleep on Ambien alone, I'll add another 5mg tab of Melatonin. Plus my doc says Melatonin has shown some anti-carcinogenic qualities in recent research.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

On a second note, you might try supplementing with Melatonin. This is a totally natural over-the-counter vitamin you can get at any drugstore. I used this for years before finding Ambien, and I think it helps a lot. It gives you that natural sort of sleepy feeling, not the medicine-head type that Ambien gives. So if I'm just too wired to sleep on Ambien alone, I'll add another 5mg tab of Melatonin. Plus my doc says Melatonin has shown some anti-carcinogenic qualities in recent research.

A hormone is not a vitamin.

 

[NoCatharsis]

A hormone is not a vitamin.

My mistake. I'm a Mechanical Engineer by profession, not Chemical or Biomedical

 

[Captain.Heroin]

welcome

My mistake. I'm a Mechanical Engineer by profession, not Chemical or Biomedical

That's OK! I have 0% knowledge about engineering in comparison. So if I said something about engineering you'd likely have to correct me in the next post.

Welcome to Bluelight!

 

[Queens]

Some people here seem to be talking about it in a recreational aspect as others need it for sleep?

Because if you need it for sleep you should try and sleep (lay down eyes closed) and you shouldnt feel much.

Recreationally you can stay up and feel the slight buzz, which i do. I've taken it twice a week usually, over like a two year period. I take about 20mg - 2 pills
and barely feel much anymore.

I dont know how anyone can take anymore than that because if i do i black out and do some really weird stuff in the process.

Another way of lowering your dosage with the same effects is plugging. It works wonders for me and am now on 2 x 10mg tabs instead of 4.5 of them! I'm not saying to abuse them, but if sleep issues persist, a lower dosage is worth trying if you can bear plugging for the same affect as oral.

This is an interesting idea....has anyone else ever had any luck getting the recreational affects doing it this way? And is there any hazards involved?

I take 10mg each night, but for those rare occasions where I'm just too wide awake to sleep, I will take another 5 or 10mg. I've found this barely helps, though. It seems to me that once the first dose has kicked in, adding more really doesn't do anything (I'm sure it would if you were too take too much, but I'm not trying to OD here). Anyone have similar experience with this?
.

Yea after the initial dose, re-dosing can't produce the high again...for me anyway

 

[artaxerxes]

I've been taking Ambien off and on for 6 or 7 years, never for for than a month in a row. I never really had to go past 10mg and I would usually just bite off a little piece to go to sleep. But I have a weird system that seems to be pretty sensitive to benzos, and I guess, Z-drugs. I've kept at .5 - 1mg Xanax a night for almost 10 years. So I'm an anomaly based on most other people's experiences.

But with that in mind, one thing I've noticed since my pharmacy was bought out by another chain is that the generic Ambien I'm getting is different from the one I was getting previously. I'm having tolerance problems for the first time. Seems weird that if everything else in my life is exactly the same, all of a sudden my Ambien tolerance would go up.

I'm going to look into getting a different generic next time and do a test. I know that all pills are supposed to be formulated exactly the same, but I've never had this issue before. The new generic I'm getting is made by Teva and I've definitely gotten some dodgy Tevas in the past.

It was a different drug made by them but in every batch of, say, 120 pills, there were at least 2 pills composed of mostly sugar. I used to toast all of my pills for 10-15 seconds and the ones with sugar would start burning, then bubble, leaving burnt sugar residue. On tasting the burnt pill, I could taste burnt sugar and very little of the bitter flavor or filler flavor I was very familiar with. So this experience made me a bit suspicious about TEVA quality control.

---> Back to the sleep issue, I have had great results with Melatonin, even when taken in combo with my nighttime Xanax dose. When I take Melatonin, I get a deeper sleep with better REM and wake up more refreshed.

 

[NoCatharsis]

I'm going to look into getting a different generic next time and do a test. I know that all pills are supposed to be formulated exactly the same, but I've never had this issue before. The new generic I'm getting is made by Teva and I've definitely gotten some dodgy Tevas in the past.

I recently started getting my generic Ambien from a different pharmacy, which provides Torrent Pharmaceuticals brand. Instead of the usual white circular pill I was used to, this one is peach and oblong. As far as I can tell, the effects are exactly the same.

Also, I tried name-brand Ambien XR 12.5mg tabs one time with a free coupon my doc had given me. I personally saw no difference in effectiveness. Then again, I don't think I need the extended release because my sleep issues involve falling asleep and not staying asleep.

---> Back to the sleep issue, I have had great results with Melatonin, even when taken in combo with my nighttime Xanax dose. When I take Melatonin, I get a deeper sleep with better REM and wake up more refreshed.

I have a prescription for Clonazepam which I use for muscle tensity and spasms, which I know is similar to Xanax, but I am unsure how they are different. Is Xanax more effective for sleep than Clonazepam?

 

[Shambles]

even warm milk with honey (placebo!?)

Nup. No placebo - really does work. Some effect that milk has that I forget but it definitely works. Even after over a decade on benzos for insomnia (amongst other things) if I'm really struggling a mug of something warm and milky rarely fails

No idea about zolpidem (Ambien) cos I rarely use it but Z-drugs in general definitely produce a very rapid tolerance, in my experience.