Yeah, with zolpidem, you better either be in bed, or at the most, munching a quick snack for supper or a quick drink (nonalcoholic) etc. Otherwise, since it kicks in fairly fast, and you run the risk of going stark raving bat shit for the next several hours and potentially acting out and doing some fucked up shit.
As for ambien being way better....I can't say as I rate the Z-drugs that greatly. Zolpidem at least is effective, not long acting enough for my tastes though, and there is the potential for things to go south and you to go ape waste in a hurry. Zolpidem is again too short acting, I don't find it very reliable, can leave a funny taste in the mouth, and I get weird auditory hallucinations trying to get to sleep, sudden boinging, pinging, plinking, snapping noises etc. The sort of thing you'd get in a looney tunes cartoon with a gigantic spring twanging.
And zaleplon? don't even get me started. No use, what.so.ever. Might as well be powdered sugar, I've tried an entire box, meant to last a month, in one go. What happened? nothing. Nothing whatsoever. I couldn't even sleep.No recreational effects, no sedative effects, no anxiolytic effects. I might as well have swallowed a fart in a jar.
Last night, couldn't sleep for the fuck of me. A tab of nitrazepam plus a chlormethiazole capsule worked wonders, had taken the last dose of my pain meds earlier in the day, feeling a bit rough, was awaiting a 'special delivery' of several hundred methadone tablets (which arrived with perfect timing, just seconds after I awoke), and at that from a nice, long, relaxing sleep, vegetating on the sofa.