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Ambien, sleep drug. Makes you crazy.

cbsnews.com — Mahowald, who's medical director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center in Minneapolis, tells Blackstone, "We've had people eat very inappropriate things that they would never eat while awake. Some example would be buttered cigarettes, salt sandwiches, raw bacon."

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  • mwace, on 10/12/2007, -17/+43Whoa, dude, thats pretty ***** up right there!
  • captn_insano, on 10/12/2007, -4/+35My wife works in a doctors office and this drugs seriously screws with you. Not only does it have a high occurrence of sleep-walking and the above mentioned sleep-eating but their have been reports of Sleep-driving and sleep-sex!
    • mikoslav, on 10/12/2007, -5/+52I don't think it's fair to attribute sleep sex to this drug. Maybe your partner just isn't that aroused by you :)
    • mcbesq, on 10/12/2007, -129/+6thanks for sharing her patients' histories with the internet. where does she work? I ask so that i can avoid that office, knowing that my health information is not being kept confidential

      (also, please learn the difference between "their" and "there." it's quite elementary; hence, it is taught in elementary school)
    • yonbeastie, on 10/12/2007, -5/+44@mcbesq: Are you serious? I don't see any personal information whatsoever. What are you even talking about?

      (Also, you should work on your capitalization. I'm positive it was taught in first grade.)
    • blugu64, on 10/12/2007, -3/+34Huh, that's funny because I didn't see any names, SSN's, or any other identifable information in his post. Heck even a region of the country/world for that matter. All he said was that this is what his wife has told him. That's just what a generic *people* are suffering from, not a person....I think your overreacting a bit
    • mcbesq, on 10/12/2007, -90/+4And yet, she is discussing patient histories with her husband, already a breach of the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. I'm sorry, but health information is not gossip fodder for the nurses.

      And yon, the last sentence was an aside and was not intended to be formal. I used the drop caps so as not to divert attention away from my main point. Analytical reading: What is the writer trying to convey?
    • jhuebel, on 10/12/2007, -4/+44@mcbesq: As someone who works in Information Management for a healthcare organization and has been through extensive formal HIPAA-compliance training, I can authoritatively say that you're a moron. captn_insano didn't provide personally identifiable information (called PHI in HIPAA terminology) nor did he give you the name of the doctor's office.

      Troll.
    • mcbesq, on 10/12/2007, -88/+2You missed the point.
    • bnoble, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13This thread is giving me a rash.
    • Jubaju, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16I took ambien for a while, and my roommate said that I would do all this crazy stuff before I finally went to bed, like walking around all goofy, drunk-like and such (I don't drink). I only remember some of it, but it freaked me out enough to wonder what control I had over myself while on the drug. So, I stopped.
    • DFchoke, on 10/12/2007, -3/+25@mcbesq
      no, you missed the point, I work under HIPAA constraints. He didn't mention any names, or that his wife had mentioned any information to him other than the side effects of a drug that is commonly prescribed. There is no need to spout off about confidentiality just to feel good about yourself.
    • SashaNein, on 10/12/2007, -2/+25"And yon, the last sentence was an aside and was not intended to be formal."

      --trying to bolser faulty argument with grammatical irks
      --lacks common sense

      D-, see me after class.
    • Zonkzor, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11If people only knew about the natural alternative to sleep medication called Valerian Root. You can buy it at any store for around $6 for a months supply. It's non addictive, safe, virtually no side effects, and used for hundreds if not thousands of years. You will find higher quality stuff at a natural foods or herbal store. I highly recommend this stuff for everyone.
    • cwedl, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Sleep Sex! Maybe I should be on these! Maybe I'd get laid more!
    • andreo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@ cwedl

      Yeah, but you'll be sleep when it happens. So what's the point.

      I did see a story about this on some news magazine program. Some lady said that she would take the pills. Go to sleep. And end up doing strange stuff that she didn't remember. Her husband said that she ripped into a loaf of bread making strange sandwiches, eating butter by itself, and walking around the house while sleep.

      I wonder when the first Ambien murder defense will happen?
    • jjallday, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Being in the health industry, I have to agree. If you actually knew anything about HIPAA, you'd know it regulates personally identifiable information, not broad generalizations or even nameless examples.
    • xgravix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6@zonkzor

      Valerian is also about as likely to make you go to sleep as a cup of coffee. I took ten of them (recommended dose: 2) and still didn't feel a thing. Worthless.
    • coheedcollapse, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Sleep-sex is the best sex!
    • ehrichweiss, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@mcbesq: The poster never said that his wife reveals these patients' names, just that she talks about how some are affected. Sheeesh. My mother-in-law is a nurse practitioner and she talks about her patients all the time...but she never mentions anything about them specifically, not even first names. That's not a problem or even remotely a violation of HIPAA. So stop blabbering like we're missing some esoteric point that you're trying to make...your point is already cliche to us, we're well aware of what HIPAA is and what the guidlines are concerning it.
    • JohnboiWaltune, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Melatonin for me! That stuff puts me out like a light. Also helps with jet lag.
    • anenokoji, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@mcbesq

      They list side effects with drugs. These are things that OTHER people experienced. They do this with EVERY drug. But, nothing specific.
    • daza, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You're full of assumptions. The "HIPAA" means absolutely nothing to me as not everyone lives in America. Who's to say she discussed a specific patient with him? In my country at least, you can speak of patients if the person you make it generic, much like she seems to of done.
  • en3r0, on 10/12/2007, -49/+4Sounds like someone put some crack in those pills.
    __________
    -en3r0
    http://virtneu.com
  • dtfinch, on 10/12/2007, -25/+8That is pretty messed up. Someone, somewhere might wake up to find they've been walking around like a zombie and eating brains in their sleep.
  • VadimKatchkakov, on 10/12/2007, -24/+7Numberous of other worst drugs of the benzodiazapine for example of Versed and Rohypnol are be used in the illegal kidnappings and worse for because of the forgetting of victim of what is happened. These drugs are being controlled substantive but Ambien is not under such strong controlling and is fearful of what can be used for in the illegal.
    • bristolz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+36Let me try a better translation for you:

      Other drugs, especially those of the benzodiazepine family, including Versed and Rohypnol (also Xanax and Valium) are used in illegal kidnappings and, often, the victims retain no memories of the incident or instigator. Benzodiazepines, however, are Schedule IV (and Sched One) drugs, heavily controlled, whereas Ambien is not but perhaps should be.
    • dogdoodoo, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4Nice Bristolz :)
  • Seumas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6This was on the news over a week ago and from what they stated, the number of people this happened to is extremely few.
    • SkeletaLlama, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This happened to me several years ago. I experienced symptoms similar to being very drunk. I had a loss of motor control (comparable to being really sleep deprived or having just woken up), loss of inhibitions, and occassionally even memory loss where I would not remember several hours of being awake after taking the pill. I told my doctor about this and he said that it wasn't possible, such things didn't happen on Ambien. I talked with a few other people who had used Ambien and several others had experienced similar things, especially the loss of inhibitions and memory. I can see how that would manifest as sleep eating in some people.
    • ksgant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9It's happening to me now. I'm on Ambien and the weird thing is, I'm asleep right now. I only write to Digg or Slashdot while asleep, and when I'm awake, I have no idea that I've done these things.

      Lol, my waking self is such an clueless moron. I'm thinking of getting rid of him. Long live the Ambien me!
    • GrinningFool, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, but what's with the ridiculous Fark headline?

      Oh, wait. It's digg.

      /me gets buried.
  • dclowd9901, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5What's making me crazy is that horribly written headline.
  • Shazam999, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16Raw bacon is inappropriate? Erm, better stop eating it.
    • mikoslav, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5You have to differentiate between true raw bacon and smoked raw bacon here. I eat smoked bacon all the time without cooking/frying it.
    • SnapETom, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4I hear ya. I love salt, so salt sandwiches sounds yummy. And butter on anything must be delicious, right?
  • dep01, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I've had a friend on ambien sleep walk and do all sorts of weird things... Like prepare a full-course meal! She woke up, cooked, set the table, put everything out... All while asleep. Freaking weird!
    • mikoslav, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14She woke up while asleep? Interesting concept.
    • daigakuinsei, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think until I've had my coffee that's actually a pretty accurate description.
  • ramsinks.com, on 10/12/2007, -6/+40You mean man made pills for all these "new diseases" are bad for you!!??

    No WAY!

    Sheeple watch infomercial.. sheeple must ... buy... pill... mmm pills.....
    • jhuebel, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I wish I could digg your comment twice. "Sheeple" is the most appropriate term I've heard for people who want a pill for everything that ails them.
    • chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Coma White is a good pill...

      "A pill to make you numb
      A pill to make you dumb
      A pill to make you anybody else
      But all the drugs in this world
      Won’t save her from herself"
    • Destinatus, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6All pills are man-made
    • ronintetsuro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2These are the kind of reasons I avoid prescription and over the counter stuff if at all possible. Doctors are prescribing acccording to the latest pharmacutical fads and not based on in-depth patient analysis:

      Patient: I feel funny and I heard about X, gimme gimme.
      Doctor: Whatever, I've got a tee-time to attend *writes scrip*

      Also, I have yet to hear of a single person that's only on one(1) of these 'designer cures' at a time. It's always a littany of 'I take X to balance out the effects from Y which is there to keep Z from triggering'. People never saw this coming because they liked the idea of taking a magic pill that would make all their problems go away. And the Pharma-Industrial Complex ate it up.
    • tweaQslug, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2If you suffer from severe insomnia, ambien is one of the more effective short term treatments. But that's the only time it should be used. The sheeple are only half the equation though. Too many doctors are too quick to prescribe unnecessary medications, and sheeple are too eager to relinquish control of their health and well-being to someone they see once a month at best.
  • cannibal, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12Man I got to get my hands on this stuff! I have insomnia and this would be a fun fix for it. I'm just afraid I'll go do something stupid like take my computer apart.
  • mcbesq, on 10/12/2007, -24/+12Before everyone starts getting all out of hand with this, keep in mind, many of the reported instances of "sleep behavior" arise out of people not following the medications directions. Ambien is supposed to be taken immediately before sleep. In other words, take the dose and then immediately go to bed. This story has been percolating for a couple of weeks now. with all this bad news, it might be time to invest in aventis.

    http:://www.hipster-union.com
    • ahhell, on 10/12/2007, -16/+7Sounds like someone is drug company plant.
    • mcbesq, on 10/12/2007, -26/+9Actually, I'm a personal injury lawyer. And my comment on buying Aventis comes from the practice of buying on bad news (which leads to lower stock prices)
    • mcbesq, on 10/12/2007, -26/+9Ahhh. The eternal question. Why was I demoted?

      Because I'm a lawyer? A personal injury lawyer? Or because I'm not a drug company plant (thereby disputing the knee-jerk ad hominem attack)? Or because I tried to downplay the hyped up headline?

      Nevertheless, the Simpsons reference below got 2 diggs. Invitation for a fact-based argument: demoted. Dumb Simpsons reference: promoted. Truly a mystery.
    • chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19"Invitation for a fact-based argument: demoted. Dumb Simpsons reference: promoted. Truly a mystery."

      You must be new here.
    • mcbesq, on 10/12/2007, -23/+12No. Just naively hopeful for intellectual discussion and dense enough to actually expect it.
    • chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6"Invitation for a fact-based argument: demoted. Dumb Simpsons reference: promoted. Truly a mystery."

      You must be new here.

      "No. Just naively hopeful for intellectual discussion and dense enough to actually expect it."

      Heh - You're funny : )
      That convinced me to mod up your comments.
    • chiller2002, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7"Ahhh. The eternal question. Why was I demoted?

      Because I'm a lawyer? A personal injury lawyer? Or because I'm not a drug company plant (thereby disputing the knee-jerk ad hominem attack)? Or because I tried to downplay the hyped up headline?"

      Possible reasons someone demoted your comment:
      1) You spammed a non-relevant website, and did so poorly with your double colons.
      2) People recalled your previous comment on privacy, and figured you were just commenting for the hell of it.
      3) If you would like to start a fact-based discussion, please site your references, otherwise people will rightly assume that it is a matter of opinion. Opinion is obviously welcomed here, but opinion is not "fact based". I'm not saying that you are lying, just that you didn't provide any relevant information/sources to justify your comments.
      4) This story is probably being hyped, but then again, what major media outlet doesn't hype this type of story? In other words, your comment may have been stating the obvious.
      5) Any other reason, up to and including, someone doing it for "the hell of it".

      I imagine that #1 is most likely.
    • mcbesq, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Chiller

      Per your request, http://www.ambiencr.com/default.aspx?s=about&c=safe_use is Synofis Aventis' guidlines for safe use. Please see item 11.

      Additionally, NPR had a piece last week on Morning Edition (I did a quick search of their online archives) about the class action suit started. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5280950

      I don't disagree with any of your explanations. I do find it disturbing though that diggers tend to be more receptive to jokes and namecalling than actual discussion. It may be an age thing. I suspect this site skews young, though that is speculation.

      The "you must be a drug company plant" was an especially dumb retort which is what I don't like about digg.
  • blackf0rk, on 10/12/2007, -3/+36Uhh, what's wrong with a salt sandwich here and there? Jeese, and what a bunch of winers. "Waaa, I can't sleep", "Waa, I just ate raw bacon", "Waaa, I'm eating buttered cigarettes, waaa, waaa, waaa!"

    Well, there are plenty of people around the world who would kill for a buttered cigarette.... :P
    • mcbesq, on 10/12/2007, -12/+24Homer: Butter up that bacon, boy
      Bart: But my heart hurts!
      Homer: I don't care. Bacon up that sausage.
    • Jams, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well, there are plenty of people around the world who would kill for a buttered cigarette.... :P

      Thank you, that comment has made my day.:)
  • damonic, on 10/12/2007, -7/+6Apparently there has been a drastic increase in SLEEP DRIVING after taking this drug.
  • jmdajr, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11when I take that drug.... I sleep thats it
    • jhuebel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Or so you think. Wake up with a weird taste in your mouth? That's not morning breath. ;-)
  • vdubski, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16This has been all over the news for the past couple weeks. One of the reports said that a man had been having sleep-sex with his wife, but he didn't know that she was sleeping. He said she would perform things he only dreamed of. (no pun intended)
    • jhuebel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Sounds like the perfect compliment to Viagra. ;-)
  • xLiKx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2go use lunesta, no crazy side effects like ambien
  • swissdietcoke, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Good article...but gaming related?
    • xLiKx, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5yea, i think the submitter messed up
    • GeneHACKman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16Um, I dunno, I see a possible game here.

      Give someone some Ambien, then put some bad food mixtures out, such as a peanut butter, ham, and dry pasta sandwich, and see if they eat it.

      Sounds like fun to me.
  • Digital.Totem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2All of these drugs can have very bad side effects, I recently used a drug called Rozerum in the lunesta family. Intense paranoid hallucinations occurred on the first use, the best I've been able to do as of yet is Restorill, it isn't the most effective or longest lasting drug, but it seems to have very few unpleasant side-effects.
  • liquidjill, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"Ambien is a safe and effective treatment for insomnia"

    I love these statements. Safe how exactly? Most of the people I know that complain about not being able to sleep are sucking down 3 or 4 cups of coffee a day and getting little to no exercise.

    Habit changes will do wonders for sleep ailments, and you don't have to worry about the salt sandwiches, you know, unless you're into that sort of thing.
  • FamilyPants, on 10/12/2007, -14/+24One of the stranger Ambien side effects was that of Sleep Voting where scores of voters found themselves unintentionally voting for George Bush
    • GeneHACKman, on 10/12/2007, -13/+11Even as an anti-Conservative I have to admit that is one of the worst jokes i've ever read.
    • jhuebel, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Lame.
  • madholepunch, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5buttered cigarettes are inappropriate?
  • michael.calfee, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14The reason for sleep disorders seems obvious to me. People aren't active enough to tire the body. Sitting around all day, occasionally walking to the bathroom or parking lot, will not wear down the body enough to induce a deep, rejuvenating sleep. But that's the way society has evolved. Work in a field all day, and then see if you have a problem going to sleep at night.
    • cmiller1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2This may be true to some extent but I have honestly suffered from insomnia my whole life, regardless of my activity level. What makes matters worse is I've NEVER found a sleep medication that has helped me, I have bad reactions to some, others I've found to actually make it harder for me to sleep (they made me DROWSY but not SLEEPY) and the few I've found that work tend to give me horrible lucid nightmares.
    • Jubaju, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Or how about factoring in depression, traumatic experiences, stress? Sorry, not everyone has a life boring enough to sit around and not get enough exercise. Quit making such blanket statements about how everyone's life should be just like yours.
    • michael.calfee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I don't work in a field all day. I sit around, occasionally walking to the bathroom or parking lot. But I'm saying when I did get more physical activity (in past employment), sleep was something that literally overcame me. I didn't have to will myself to sleep, or sleep just for the sake of sleeping because its dark outside. I don't mean to offend anyone who has had traumatic experiences or suffers from mental debilitation. I'm making a general statement about society's evolution to a point where a large majority of the population does not have to do physical work.
    • coheedcollapse, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I worked in the field all day in summer and still stayed up till 5 or 6 am easily. I mean I wasn't insomniatic, but sleep schedules don't often have much to do with how physically tired you are when it comes to people with that problem.

      I have a friend who has to take Ambien to get to sleep, she works out often, like a few hours a day, and gets up early for a job, but still stays up for a majority of the night. It's a chemical thing.

      Saying people are insomniacs because they're lazy is like saying people are mentally retarded because they don't study enough.
  • dreadsword, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Perhaps the lady that gained 100 lbs could keep less crap in her kitchen. Aventis could market Ambien as a sleep disorder drug and a weight loss program if they solid it with a treadmill and frozen broccoli...
    • CiXeL, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2yeah but with 24 hour convenience stores she could sleep shop too
  • vertinox, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1"We've had people eat very inappropriate things that they would never eat while awake."

    Hrm... So you mean they were asleep and eating things. So were they just putting things in their mouth or were the up and about like they were awake. Like not sleeping?
  • jhub908, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I say we put Ambien zombies vs. Zombie Dogs Vs. Nintendo 64 kids all together for an all out creepy battle royale!
  • quietk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Mind Control!
  • TheKillDoctor, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13Try pot before having your doctor prescribe some strange new drug on you. It's been tested by millions for thousands of years. Side effects include euphoria, lethargy, and munchies (during waking hours). Not recommended for children or habitual drug addicts. ;-)
    • rabiddogma, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1It's true and good for migraines as well. But there can be bad side effects like paranoia and panic attacks.
    • TheKillDoctor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3True, forgot about those effects (no pun intended). I know a few women who use it to sooth their monthly cramps when they get really severe.
  • IKbot, on 10/12/2007, -3/+23-step guide to seeing two heads on your friend:

    1) Take ambien
    2) Try to stay awake
    3) Enjoy believing your double vision.

    Option #4: enjoy a good night's rest.
    • Pennemu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12This happened to my girlfriend, who's a nurse. She put her Zyrtec and Ambien in the same bottle, thinking that because she's a nurse, she'd be fine. So in the morning she went to take her Zyrtec and accidently took an Ambien instead. Of course I didn't find out what had actually went on much later. So we're sitting in bed watching TV and she starts speaking in a some what slow manner. As this continued, I started to become worried. As I turned to talk to her the bed moved a little, and she yelled at me to stop shaking the boat. Then she started crying because she thought I was a gorilla. And her eyes would close periodically for short amounts of time. After she go over the crying she started telling me about how my left eye hated her and wanted to kill her. While my right happened to be friendly and like her a lot. I believe there was also something about alligators and some chipmunks hanging out in the room to. I was very worried. But all the strange symptoms seemed to subside after about an hour and a half.
    • tehJR, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Pennemu:

      haha your comment wins. The left eye / right eye thing should be a movie.

      I'm in no way laughing at your wife or your experience mind you.
  • SkippyDoorknob, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10My wife had a very bad reaction to Ambien awhile back. It was basically an all-night panic attack. She couldn't hold still, was crying constantly, was freaked out by everything around her, rolling around on the floor throughout the house. I couldn't talk to her coherently at all. She got in the spa completely clothed and put the cover on her head. It was the scariest thing I have ever experienced in my life. If I had not been there, she could have easily done something inadvertently that could have caused serious or fatal injury. By the next day, after she had finally fallen asleep, she had absolutely no memory of anything that had happened. I envy her for the lack of memory of that night because I'm still traumatized by it.

    Stay away from Ambien.
  • Migalicious, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3If you take Ambien and stay awake, you'll start to trip.
    • fleetskeet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Not so much trip, but have really nonsensical thoughts and blurred vision.
  • aurifex, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4A drug that makes someone have sex with you while they're asleep?

    Oh hooooney! I have a new pill for you to try!
  • smackjack, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3One time I took a piss in my garbage can while sleep walking. I walked out of my room, walked by the bathroom and went downstairs to pee in the garbage can.
    • jhuebel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7And this was Ambien? Or you got hammered that night and pissed in a trash can like every other drunk has done at one time or another? :-)
    • Inthraller, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3One of my friends pissed in a guy's fridge. He was really really drunk. I was awake at the time and I saw him walk over to the fridge and pull out the meat drawer and then I he messing around with his pants for a second and then it hit what he was about to do.... I ran to the kitchen and tried to tell him that wasn't the bathroom, but by the time I got "that's not the bath- " he was already pissing. When he finished, he half-assed closed the door to the fridge and sat in chair passed out. The next day he had no memory of it happening.

      Oh yeah, one of the guys who lived in that house wasn't at the party that night and had a pitcher of tea sitting on the bottom shelf of the fridge and drank some the next day. He was sooooooo pissed (no pun intended) when found out what happened.
  • elroy, on 10/12/2007, -25/+3I ***** IN MY WIFE'S MOUTH AFTER TAKING AMBIEN. ONE MINUTE AFTER. IT IS FAST-ACTING MEDECINE.
    • GeneHACKman, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Apparently, shouting and the urge to become a troll spewing horrible jokes are also a side effect of Ambien
    • Jubaju, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1You're a sick f***.
  • BasouKazuma, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Another reason why people shouldnt rely on drugs for simple ailments. I don't even remember the last time i took an asprin.

    News flash, 99% of the time you don't truely need these drugs.
  • rabiddogma, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10I digg really bad stories on digg when I'm on Ambian.
  • CoSMoSYS, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The hospital gave my mom this to help her sleep when she had Guillain-Barre syndrome. She would call people in the middle of the night from the hospital and have no recollection of it when people asked her why she called. It all makes sense now.
  • MuffinMan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3My roomate ate raw pie filling straight out of the can. No utensils, no comprehension at all that it was weird. However, he did comprehend that he might get messy - so he took his shirt off.
    • nicepants, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7That's not a side effect of Ambien, that's just a side effect of college.
  • Braamer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I was prescribed ambien for 3 years straight, In addition to making you do the strangest things, its a complete amnesiac, leaving you with no recolection of what you have done. I have awoken in strange places, with inline skates on, behind the wheel of my truck, in my pool... It all came to a head while in one of these insane periods, I crushed up the rest of the bottle and snorted it. My parents found me seizing on the floor of my room babbling incoherently, again with no recollection in the morning... the exact thing that happened to SkippyDoorknobs wife.

    I agree... stay away from ambien
    • GeneHACKman, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3So you woke up with inline skates on behind the wheel of a truck in your pool. Wow. How did the wheel of your truck end up in the pool? And how did you manage to stay afloat with inline skates on?
    • tehJR, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Maybe he took Ambien while on Ambien and had some sort of double-freak attack
  • teleporter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I was prescribed Ambien by my doctor a while back. Not knowing what to expect, I took my first pill while watching TV in the family room. The only thing I remember after taking the pill is that I *literally* had to crawl to my bed. According to my wife, I was rambling incoherent nonsense for about 10 minutes after getting in bed. The next night I decided to get into bed first. I took the pill while watching Conan, all I can remember from that point is seeing Conan in stereo while the room span. The next night, I took the pill, got into bed, and closed my eyes. Thus ended my experiment with Ambien.
  • zululord, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Creepy !!!
    What if some really twisted person starts taking these pills and in her / his semi-subconscious sleep goes on a killing spree or something equally heinous ?
  • mwace, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Hey man, its a quote from South Park.

    To be perfectly honest, I don't know anything but the obvious about the subject of sleeping pills, or the described insanity. All I know is that, from this article, the described drug is _wrong_ and I would not employ it, nor would I endorse it to anyone else (unless I didn't like them or something). I don't think anything could describe it better then what I posted.
  • roderashe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This story is spot on! My wife took an Ambien the other night. She lay in bed for about 15 minutes with the TV on. She then went downstairs, made some nachos and came back up. She proceeded to tell our daughter and me that we should never let her go downstairs or even walk while on the drug. I could she that she was weaving a bit so I had our daughter help her into bed. When she was done with the nachos she asked my daughter to bring her an apple (cored). After a few minutes she asked me "Wasn't Jill going to bring me something?" So, I called down to my daughter who then brought up the apple, which my wife then ate. She then fell asleep after another 5 or 10 minutes.

    Here's the kicker: She doesn't remember any of this! This is scary!!
    • popfrogs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5You missed a perfect opportunity to feed her some man meat.
    • Duggy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1and some man fat
  • areeves, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I have a feeling that these insane things are caused by not following the directions for Ambien. You are supposed to take it, and go lay down to sleep, not turn on the tv, do the dishes/taxes. I think a lot of the people who "need" Ambien are the type of people who have a hard time doing that. I know for a fact that I fall in to the second category. Laying in bed for 30 minutes waiting to feel sleepy seems like a complete waste of time. I've taken Ambien a few times to try and compensate for time zone shifts while traveling. When I've used it properly, I've gotten *amazing* sleep. When I've popped the pill, and said to myself "I'll go do something else until I feel sleepy and THEN go to bed." I've definitely felt strange/drugged. I remember once on a trip, I took an ambien and then popped on the tv, it was enough to keep me awake and I tried to pick a pillow fight with my roommate, which was just strange as hell.
  • john117, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Ambien + Ritalin + Prozac + Vioxx: Easier than regular exercise, and almost as effective! (tm)
  • mandarin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Can't sleep? Try exercising.
    • jmazzi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You are assuming they dont have a medical condition that causes them not to sleep. Although, im sure there is a lot of people on this drug that don't need to be.
  • ikarma, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I took two of those blue Ambien xtended release pills and woke up to find my Xbox fixed (I soldered a spot where the power jack was arcing on the motherboard). My computer was also taken apart and the hard drive removed and put in the xbox and another hard drive installed back in it.
    I don't remember doing any of this.
    • DFchoke, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2If you don't remember doing it intentionally, should your warranty really be voided?
      Maybe I'll take some ambien and print out the directions to flash the xbox 360 dvd rom chip and put all the supplies i need on my bedside table.
  • kmain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2In a newsweek article on this, couldnt find it. Some man boarded a plane, and shouted profanities at the stewardess and threatened to kill everyone. Then proceeded to headbutt someone who tried to control him. Funny thing he doesnt remember it. He wason Ambien.
  • debtman7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4In addition to the comments about taking it when you are ready to go to sleep (i.e. not watching tv, or doing a few last minute tasks), another important factor is dosage. These people who have been taking it for years are almost certainly taking more than the 10 mg prescriped dose. You build up a tolerance, and you can find many reviews online from people who take 20-30 mg after a few years to get to sleep. At that dosage, the odds of you having amnesia, hallucinations and sleep walking are MUCH greater.

    Myself, I've taken ambien several times when I was on other drugs that kept me awake (prozac for anxiety, didn't sleep for a week, and prednisone for sinus/bronchitis issues keeps me up all night). Never had any problems, other than the relatively short half life (2.2 hours) meant 2 am wakeups at times. I always took it laying in bed ready to go to sleep. A few times I watched TV for a bit, but shut it off after 20 minutes or so when the people on TV began to look unusually realistic...
  • raina, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4the literature from ambien warns about memory loss when you don't go to bed after taking. it's a great idea to read the information about your medication before taking it.

    also, ambien describes itself as a "hypnotic sedative." of course it's going to be trippy!
    • popfrogs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Hypnotics are really freaky, but only when you have witnesses. Even Nyquil used to have a weird hypnotic in it.

      I was sick with a nasty head cold and drank a shot of Nyquil then watched tv while my wife was Ebay'ing. I started feeling really drowsy eventually and took a nap, still kinda sitting up on the couch. What I *didn't* know was that my eyes were still open. My wife came over and said my name twice, then said, 'Hey, what are you doing!?'. It was then that I snapped out of it and realized that I hadn't been sleeping at all. That kind of stuff freaks you out..but if she hadn't been there, I never would have known. I would have snapped out of the trance or fallen asleep and never had any awareness of it.
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