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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Why is zolpidem so trippy?

M

Mycotheologist

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 8, 2012
Messages
141
Its the only benzodiazepine receptor agonist I've come across that causes hallucinations. I've experienced true hallucinations on it, seeing the poster on my wall come to life with 3 dimensional moving objects coming out of it etc. It has all kinds of other trippy aspects. I tried zopiclone and I don't remember it being trippy at all. Its as if zolpidem causes you to start dreaming while you're still awake. Its much more pronounced when you're sleep deprived. One I'd stayed up 48 hours or so on amps and decided to take some zolpidem to get to sleep and only 10mg of it made me start having all kinds of visual hallucinations. Very pleasant ones too, kind of like trippy cartoon style hallucinations.

Is it just its property as a BZ receptor ligand or does this compound have other mechanisms of action responsible for the trippy aspects? Its a very interesting hypnotic to say the least.
 
Yeah, that's good question. I have also had very vivid hallucinations with it ex. once when I was younger (about 5 years ago) and haven't got much tolerance I was in submarine with Pamela Anderson and we were heading to British coast. It was World War going on if I remember correctly.

Nowdays I can't use much zolpidem anymore because I'm withdrawing from multiple GABAergics and my nervous system is in very sensible state. Once I took 20mg zolpidem and by the next night I was hearing voices and was very anxious. Feared also I would seize. So that's very sad. Maybe someday in future after withdrawal hazzle I can enjoy again trips with Pamela Anderson.
 
My hallucinations have been nowhere near as insane as your ones. You were actually in a submarine with Pamela Anderson and were heading to the British Coast? What dose did you take? The most extreme I got was taking 20mg when I sleep deprived after amps, all the inanimate objects around by room became animate and I felt like lampshade was looking at me to me and all the inanimate objects were related to each other and to me in various ways.

I'm recovering from various GABAergics too, zolpidem seems to be interacting with me fine though. Your symptoms must be more intense than mine. I can't do phenibut at the moment because it causes me anxiety and insomnia so I'm not gonna touch it for a year or so. Just give it a few months of taking no drugs at all and let your neurochemistry recalibrate itself then you can get back in the boat with Pamela Anderson :) If there are bothersome w/d symptoms to deal with, you could try temporarily counteracting them with Gabapentin, trazodone, clonidiine or other non GABAergic drugs.
 
This is a good question and there is no easy/known answer as to why exactly this happens.

But one theory is that it is in some way due to zolpidem's selective action at the GABA-A receptor subunits. There are a bunch of different receptor subunits and subtypes and it affects them with different affinities, and doesn't affect all of them, and the ways it affects them and it's affinity (preference) for them are slightly different from that of benzodiazepines. One example is that zolpidem prefers receptors in the brain to receptors in the body.

The theory is that by basically switching off certain areas of the brain yet not others, zolpidem, especially in higher doses, can create a situation similar to being mostly asleep yet being awake, like your brain is dreaming while you are conscious and can still move, or it can also cause sleepwalking, where your mind is unconscious but your body is awake.

A different theory (that does not conflict with the previous theory, they could both be true) is that effects like hallucinations associated with zolpidem use might be due to it rapidly causing changes in receptors it affects. I guess in part because infrequent/higher dose use seems more likely to cause it.

Some of the side effects (like amnesia) are common to other strong GABA-ergics, but some - like hallucinations - seem pretty unique to zolpidem, or at least far more common with zolpidem or occuring in much lower relative doses. Zolpidem's effects/side effects will also vary depending on your unique brain chemistry/neurotransmitters and whether you take any other drugs.
 
I also can take heroic doses of zolpidem with little effect... and it sucks. I remember when i was in my early 20s, about 10 years ago, i was able to take 20-30 and fight the drowsiness for about 20 mins, then get an excellent but short lived buzz. It was truly fantastic. I'm not exactly sure what ive done to myself in the past decade(i wont venture to guess at the moment) but i can take 90-100mgs with little effect and still not be able to sleep. I can eat or insufflate my whole script of 30 x 10mg in a day with minimal effects. Awe shucks!
 
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