Sleeping 24 hours on zolpidem

[CrimpJiggler]

Zolpidem induced sleep

Plenty of people take zolpidem every night as a sleep aid and seem to function fine every day. I take it the odd time when restless leg syndrome (something I get sometimes after taking amphetamines) makes it impossible for me to sleep. It lets me go to sleep very easily but when I wake up the next day after sleeping for 12 hours straight, I barely feel rested at all. I'm able to stay up for the day and don't hallucinate so I do get some of the benefits of sleeping but its as if there is some fundamental aspect of sleep missing from the kind of deep, dreamful sleep that zolpidem induces. I know nothing about the pharmacology behind this drug. I heard that various types of sleeping pills deprive you of one of the stages of sleep so my experiences with zolpidem seem to back that theory up. Anyone here know more about this? How does zolpidem induce deep dreamful sleep like that? What is missing from the type of sleep it induces?

Also I was wondering how zolpidem induces prolonged sleep when its half life is only 2-3 hours. Last night I woke up at around 12AM after getting 5 hours sleep. I knew I needed another 3 hours sleep but I restless leg syndrome had kicked in so I decided to take 5mg of zolpidem to get that extra 3 hours sleep but I ended up getting an extra 12 hours sleep. I was still tired when I woke up.

 

[Vaya]

Zolpidem, like its benzodiazepine chemical cousins, has a negative effect on sleep architecture. Although it induces sleep and maintains someone under its influence sleeping, the sleep quality is poorer than if one were able to achieve sleep without pharmacological means.

I took zolpidem for about two and a half years; residual daytime sleepiness was always a pronounced side effect of the medication, and one that proved rather troublesome for me. It reduced my daytime alertness to such an extent that I significantly damaged my car by failing to sufficiently round a turn, raking the right side of my car up against a jagged stone underpass wall.

Although it increases the amount of time spent in stage 2 NREM sleep, this likely leads to less time afforded to stage 3 NREM sleep which is characterized as "slow-wave sleep," with more delta brain waves occurring. I have read several studies that assert that zolpidem prolongs SLS, but this does not follow my personal experience with the hypnotic. I have found that if a sedative-hypnotic is required for me to fall asleep on a particular night, slightly reducing the dosage and supplementing the hypnotic with 3-6mg of melatonin affords me the beneficial effect of sleep-onset associated with the hypnotic with the added "restfulness" the next day associated with melatonin supporting sleep architecture one might term more "normal," and thus less drowsy. In a nutshell, the hypnotic affects my falling asleep and melatonin supports my being able to properly arouse from sleep the next day.

Be aware that a side effect of prolonged use of zolpidem can be alterations in vision quality, and I can beyond a shadow of a doubt verify that this is so. My uncorrected and corrected vision is markedly fuzzier and less acute than it was prior to using the drug; visits to the eye doctor have confirmed that my general eyesight has not deviated from pre-zolpidem treatment measurements.

Again, I really recommend supplementing your sleeping medication with melatonin to reduce its negativistic impact on sleep architecture, even though zolpidem's disruption of the "normal" sleep cycle is less pronounced than with traditional benzodiazepine hypnotics - especially temazepam (Restoril).

~ vaya

 

[CrimpJiggler]

I just woke up after sleeping 12 hours (that was normal sleep, no zolpidem) but I realised that I have to be up real early tomorrow morning and work for the whole day so I just snorted 5mg of zolpidem and plan on sleeping for another 12 hours. Does this work? Have any of you tried sleeping excessively like this?

 

[mgrady3]

ermm
first off - you shouldn't snort zolpidem; just take it orally
secondly - next time try posting before you decide tyo take a drug rather than taking it first then asking what the consequences are

I'd not recommend doing what you did too frequently as you don't want your tolerance to benzos (zolpidem counts) to go up too quickly, which it will.
Its hard to say if it will do what you need it. everyone reacts differently to the z-drugs. Zolpidem barely knocked me out but if you already slept 12 hours form ti it seems it works fine for you.

make sure you get some food and water - sleeping 24 hrs straight is rarely a good idea

 

[flippinhippies]

Ive used zopiclone for sleep and I dont know the conversion rate between the two, but 5mg is probably one pill.
One probably wouldnt get me to sleep if I was just sleeping, and snorting them will make it work a little faster but its not something you want acting too fast because it will wear off faster too and you may not get to sleep.

even If you just TRIED to sleep with the sleep aid.. aiding.. then you will probably feel rested because you havent been up and about living, regardless of how much actual sleep you get

 

[CrimpJiggler]

Next time I do zolpidem to get to sleep, I'm going to try taking a low dose supplemented with melotonin and see if I feel better the next day. Thanks for the info.

 

[CrimpJiggler]

It worked. This is a powerful hypnotic, I could hibernate for the rest of the winter on this drug. I find that the trick is to not get up for too long. I woke up to take a piss twice since I fell asleep and just went right back to sleep, but a few hours later, I went downstairs and ate a bowl of serial and then I was up for good. I slept about 6 hours which is perfect because it gives me plenty of time to prepare for the day.

flippinhippies: 5mg is only half a pill. 10mg is the lowest dose pill you can get too, I was prescribed 20mg pills for a month. I got a couple of these 10mg ones from a friend. This drug seems to work exceptionally well on me. It doesn't make me feel like sleeping, I can easily stay awake until the drug wears off but the second I lie down I start sinking into dreamful sleep. Thats one thing I've noticed, it greatly amplifies my tendency to start dreaming.

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

Please do not cross-post across both Basic Drug Discussion and Advanced Drug Discussion forums. I'm going to merge your threads together. Please read the rules and refrain from this practice in the future.

 

[Allein]

I'm amazed people have success with either Zopliclone or Zolpidem, both will put me to sleep but after a week or so of use I wake after about 3 hours and am unable to get back to sleep.I'm better off just waiting it out and sleeping from 3am to 6-7am normally.

At the moment because I'm on a Benzo taper and don't want my insomia to return I'm taking Valerian root and Diphenhydramine and sleeping has been OK.

I have also abused Zolpidem in the past and tolerance increases at an astounding rate, I guess as always YMMV

 

[RobotRipping]

^i think with benzo users, we're just too tolerant to the hypnotic effects that a normal dose won't put us out. While i was addicted to benzos, 30mg of zopliclone wouldn't do anything to me but give me weird effects. Now that i'm not addicted/dependent on benzos (yet still have some tolerance) i find 15mg will knock me out, but my gf who doesnt have a benzo tolerance takes half a 7.5mg pill and can fall asleep no problem.

i think the changes in sleep patterns (not getting deep sleep) is something that is not stressed enough with benzos and z drugs, use them sparingly if you have problems sleeping, if you end up dependent on them it will only create greater problems in the end.

 

[Vaya]

i think the changes in sleep patterns (not getting deep sleep) is something that is not stressed enough with benzos and z drugs, use them sparingly if you have problems sleeping, if you end up dependent on them it will only create greater problems in the end.

A-men. This is precisely why I recently returned to supplementing my sleeping medication with melatonin - Even sleeping meds with *extremely* short half-lives (i.e. triazolam, 2-4hrs) that would allow me to initialize sleep would leave me feeling distressed the next morning because of the deleterious impact on sleep architecture they have with long term use. And my personal conception of long-term use of any benzo or z-drug has become more acute as time goes on... from six months to four months to 4 weeks to anything over 1 week. The brain adapts to these chemicals with surprising speed.

I have also abused Zolpidem in the past and tolerance increases at an astounding rate

The whole tolerance issue with the hypnotics is so disgustingly exacerbated when abusing them, I agree with this statement. Hell, I think I only ever abused zolpidem when I was prescribed it (yeaaarrrs ago when it was new). Since that time, though, I haven't reacted to other hypnotics as well (even with appreciable abstinence) so, OP, you *might* want to rethink this statement:

I could hibernate for the rest of the winter on this drug.

...if you're snorting it, you won't even make it to February, bro

~ vaya

 

[mgrady3]

^^ this
don't snort benzos - or z-drugs for that matter.

 

[Allein]

^i think with benzo users, we're just too tolerant to the hypnotic effects that a normal dose won't put us out. While i was addicted to benzos, 30mg of zopliclone wouldn't do anything to me but give me weird effects. Now that i'm not addicted/dependent on benzos (yet still have some tolerance) i find 15mg will knock me out, but my gf who doesnt have a benzo tolerance takes half a 7.5mg pill and can fall asleep no problem.

i think the changes in sleep patterns (not getting deep sleep) is something that is not stressed enough with benzos and z drugs, use them sparingly if you have problems sleeping, if you end up dependent on them it will only create greater problems in the end.

I'd definitely agree with all you said but when I was on both Zopiclone and then Zolpidem I didn't have and hadn't had a problem with Benzo's, was drinking like a fish though

 

[Vaya]

Facilitation of Benzodiazepine Discontinuation by Melatonin

~ vaya