fibromomof5
06-04-2005, 11:33 PM
Any luck with ambien for those of you that have tried it? I have such a hard time falling asleep at night and am sooo exhausted. dr prescribed flexeril and it didn't help..Thanks, jennifer
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bluelakelady
06-05-2005, 02:10 AM
hi jennifer,
i have been on 10mg of ambien for a few years now. it works well for me. i did not build any tolerance. occasionally i have a night that is restless. no pill can fix every night so i just get cool with it and look at the stars. i also take 50mg of benadryl at 8 pm. they also make me sleepy and keep my nose breathing.
be careful tho. i have had a couple of bad falls because when the ambien hits it really grogs you out. be sure you are within an hour of your sleepy time. and stay down after you take it. i have woken up to the light on and my book on the floor. me? i love that little white pill. i sleep deeply and awaken as rested as any person with fibromyalgia can.
please let me know what you think of it. i seem to remember being on it for a week or so before it really started working. one note. the rheumy who prescribed it said for some unknown reason people with fms do not build a tolerance to ambien. i have also been told and i agree that people with fibromyalgia are less prone to becomming addicted to the drugs they take. he said he did not know why. i do. we don't because we don't want to. we want relief, not a high. different approach, different results.
sweet dreams,
bluelakelady
i have been on 10mg of ambien for a few years now. it works well for me. i did not build any tolerance. occasionally i have a night that is restless. no pill can fix every night so i just get cool with it and look at the stars. i also take 50mg of benadryl at 8 pm. they also make me sleepy and keep my nose breathing.
be careful tho. i have had a couple of bad falls because when the ambien hits it really grogs you out. be sure you are within an hour of your sleepy time. and stay down after you take it. i have woken up to the light on and my book on the floor. me? i love that little white pill. i sleep deeply and awaken as rested as any person with fibromyalgia can.
please let me know what you think of it. i seem to remember being on it for a week or so before it really started working. one note. the rheumy who prescribed it said for some unknown reason people with fms do not build a tolerance to ambien. i have also been told and i agree that people with fibromyalgia are less prone to becomming addicted to the drugs they take. he said he did not know why. i do. we don't because we don't want to. we want relief, not a high. different approach, different results.
sweet dreams,
bluelakelady
Glojer
06-05-2005, 02:25 PM
I have used ambien for a couple years now. I take 10mg every night plus 6mg of zanaflex (muscle relaxer). The ambien is great, I go straight to bed after I take it and I am ususally asleep within minutes. I have had to get up after taking it, when it didn't work as fast and I definitly had to hold on it will cause some dizziness. There have been times when I can't get the sleep I need, when fibro and lupus are flaring, and I do add benadryl to my nightime concoction. Got that tip from bll and ask my doc and she said go for it. I only use a 25mg at first then if I still have problems I take the other 25mg when I wake up at 2am and cannot fall back to sleep. As I said I don't need the benadryl when not flaring and I don't use it every night. Without sleep meds I could not make it, not sleeping is the worst for me. Without sleep I can't fight the day to day junk we have to deal with. If you need sleep meds take them and don't worry about addiction, it took my drs. a while to convince me of that but I'm glad they did.
hangin
06-05-2005, 06:04 PM
Hey Jennifer,
I have also been taking Ambien for 6 years. It works as well as the first night I started using it. I also started taking Melatonin, a natural substance that helps your sleep cycles. I started taking it about 6 months ago. Now because of the melatonin there are times when I sleep more than 4 hours at a time without waking, that is a miracle for me. I know the feeling of waking up with the light on and the book fallen on the floor, that is pretty much my what I do every night. I have to read, even if it is just one page, it is a ritual.
Yes, I do think that Ambien is an excellent sleep aid especially for fibro people since we need our sleep so desperately. It is the only way we can rejuvenate and deal with the new day. I remember trying flexeril which is a muscle relaxer and it knocked me out. If would have been a good thing if I didn't wake up the next morning extremely groggy, hardly able to put one foot in front of the other. That is how it affects me, it could affect you differently.
Good luck, sweet dreams.
Peace and love, Janet
I have also been taking Ambien for 6 years. It works as well as the first night I started using it. I also started taking Melatonin, a natural substance that helps your sleep cycles. I started taking it about 6 months ago. Now because of the melatonin there are times when I sleep more than 4 hours at a time without waking, that is a miracle for me. I know the feeling of waking up with the light on and the book fallen on the floor, that is pretty much my what I do every night. I have to read, even if it is just one page, it is a ritual.
Yes, I do think that Ambien is an excellent sleep aid especially for fibro people since we need our sleep so desperately. It is the only way we can rejuvenate and deal with the new day. I remember trying flexeril which is a muscle relaxer and it knocked me out. If would have been a good thing if I didn't wake up the next morning extremely groggy, hardly able to put one foot in front of the other. That is how it affects me, it could affect you differently.
Good luck, sweet dreams.
Peace and love, Janet
girl75
06-05-2005, 06:50 PM
i have taken ambiem before but sometimes i would take it and then wake up in the middle of the night and do things that i don't remember doing the next day. i have done things like laundry and eaten and don't remember doing it. my husband would remind me in the morning. the worst thing that i did was get up and i guess i was cold and i turned on the stove to warm down the house and when i woke up i realized how hot it was and went to check why it was so hot and saw that the stove was on. that was pretty freaky. i stopped taking them and am now taking resteril which dosn't do that to me. sometimes i take some tylenol pm with it and that helps. i told my husband if i take ambien again he would have to tie me to the bed so i won't get up. LOL!!!!
overall it does help you sleep thats for sure.
your friend,
robin
overall it does help you sleep thats for sure.
your friend,
robin
Glojer
06-05-2005, 09:37 PM
Hangin, I know what you mean about just 4hrs. of sleep, I deal with that a lot myself. Don't you just LOVE those mornings when you wake up and realize you have slept 6 or 7 hrs. I realize they are few and far between but I get excited about them. Isn't that a shame, doesn't take much to excite me LOL!!!
hangin
06-05-2005, 11:29 PM
Glojer,
Oh, the little things in life LOL!!!!!!!
Peace and Love,
Hangin aka Janet
Oh, the little things in life LOL!!!!!!!
Peace and Love,
Hangin aka Janet
fibromomof5
06-07-2005, 12:37 AM
i think I am going to talk to my dr about a prescription for ambien. Any relief it brings will be welcomed..I just hope I don't end up doing odd things in the middle of the night<but hey if it helps get a jumpstart on my cleaning for the day...then it's worth it> :) lol
Glojer
06-07-2005, 01:04 PM
fibromomof5 If you have not taken sleep meds before you may only need 5mg to start of with, that may just do the trick. Be sure and get the prescription for 10mg pills, that way you can cut them in half which makes it less expensive and/or if the 5mg doesn't work you always have the higher dose to try and to continue with and not run out of pills. Did any of this make any sense?? That was a little trick my doc suggested when I was only taking the 5mg.
Glojer
Glojer
Lost Robin
06-07-2005, 03:43 PM
Hi,
I didn't have such a good experience with ambien. If I remember correctly (yeah, right!), it seemed to help for a week or so and after that I was back to my sleepless nights. One thing I wanted to mention to you, if you are paying for your meds with a prescrption plan, be aware that many insurance companies will not reimburse you for more than 2 weeks worth of ambien since it is classified as a sleep aid. However, if it turns out that ambien works for you, your doctor can submit a justification to the insurance company as to why you need it on a prolonged basis. When my doctor did that, my insurance company came back with a letter certifying that they would pay for the ambien for one year. Like I said though, turns out it didn't really help me anyway. I'm sure if you and your doc needed to extend your script beyond that, the doc could get it extended. Go figure, insurance doesn't want to pay for something like ambien yet they seem to have no problem with keeping us on narcotics! (not that I'm complaining. I'd sure want to be able to take THOSE as long as I needed too!). I take trazadone now for sleep and I can get as much as I want/need of that! Don't quite understand the reasoning there.
Best of luck to you!
Robin
I didn't have such a good experience with ambien. If I remember correctly (yeah, right!), it seemed to help for a week or so and after that I was back to my sleepless nights. One thing I wanted to mention to you, if you are paying for your meds with a prescrption plan, be aware that many insurance companies will not reimburse you for more than 2 weeks worth of ambien since it is classified as a sleep aid. However, if it turns out that ambien works for you, your doctor can submit a justification to the insurance company as to why you need it on a prolonged basis. When my doctor did that, my insurance company came back with a letter certifying that they would pay for the ambien for one year. Like I said though, turns out it didn't really help me anyway. I'm sure if you and your doc needed to extend your script beyond that, the doc could get it extended. Go figure, insurance doesn't want to pay for something like ambien yet they seem to have no problem with keeping us on narcotics! (not that I'm complaining. I'd sure want to be able to take THOSE as long as I needed too!). I take trazadone now for sleep and I can get as much as I want/need of that! Don't quite understand the reasoning there.
Best of luck to you!
Robin
Lyn in Michigan
06-07-2005, 06:30 PM
Hi all
I also have taken Ambien (10mg) for about 4 years now. The stories I could tell you (and also my family could tell you)!!!! It used to take minutes to make me absolutely stoned and now it takes sometimes an hour to kick in. I cannot take my Ambien and go to bed because I just toss and turn and so I fall asleep on the couch every night and then when I wake up in the middle of the night I get up and go to bed and then I can usually fall back asleep within a few minutes. If I go to the computer or watch something on TV then I am awake for the rest of the night. If my son is still up watching TV and he stops me to talk I have to tell him that I can't or that will be the end of my sleep, I have to go straight from the couch to my bed. I have been doing this for years. I went to a sleep clinic years ago to have a sleep study done and they told me that I didn't need one done that if the Ambien works then I can take it for the rest of my life that it wouldn't hurt me. That didn't make sense to me but my family doctor keeps on refilling it so I don't argue. I know my family does not like me taking it but if it gets me through this then I don't care what anyone thinks. They are not living daily with "fibromyalgia" and "insomnia" and chronic myofasical pain!!!! One of my major complaints on Ambien is that when it starts to kick in (because I am watching TV not in bed) is that I get the munchies big time and I need for my family to lock the cupboards because I eat all kinds of goodies!!!! I used to fall asleep with food in my mouth and wake up covered in chocolate or have a mouth full of peanuts or chips or whatever I was snacking on!!! I am surprised that I haven't choked to death. At times my family really worries about me so I am very careful now to try not to start eating after I take my sleeping pill. The stories I could tell you (actually a lot of funny ones)!!!!
Take care everyone
Lyn in Michigan :angel:
I also have taken Ambien (10mg) for about 4 years now. The stories I could tell you (and also my family could tell you)!!!! It used to take minutes to make me absolutely stoned and now it takes sometimes an hour to kick in. I cannot take my Ambien and go to bed because I just toss and turn and so I fall asleep on the couch every night and then when I wake up in the middle of the night I get up and go to bed and then I can usually fall back asleep within a few minutes. If I go to the computer or watch something on TV then I am awake for the rest of the night. If my son is still up watching TV and he stops me to talk I have to tell him that I can't or that will be the end of my sleep, I have to go straight from the couch to my bed. I have been doing this for years. I went to a sleep clinic years ago to have a sleep study done and they told me that I didn't need one done that if the Ambien works then I can take it for the rest of my life that it wouldn't hurt me. That didn't make sense to me but my family doctor keeps on refilling it so I don't argue. I know my family does not like me taking it but if it gets me through this then I don't care what anyone thinks. They are not living daily with "fibromyalgia" and "insomnia" and chronic myofasical pain!!!! One of my major complaints on Ambien is that when it starts to kick in (because I am watching TV not in bed) is that I get the munchies big time and I need for my family to lock the cupboards because I eat all kinds of goodies!!!! I used to fall asleep with food in my mouth and wake up covered in chocolate or have a mouth full of peanuts or chips or whatever I was snacking on!!! I am surprised that I haven't choked to death. At times my family really worries about me so I am very careful now to try not to start eating after I take my sleeping pill. The stories I could tell you (actually a lot of funny ones)!!!!
Take care everyone
Lyn in Michigan :angel:
bluelakelady
06-08-2005, 01:01 AM
hi robin,
i had a sleep study done when i first went on ambien. the drug did not work initally. after the sleep study other contributing factors were found, meds prescribed and then the ambien did work. seems i have alpha intrusion, restless leg syndrome thruout my body and something else i can't remember right now. i swear i have more letters after my name than any doctor i know, giggle!
trying to understand the insurance company is like trying to understand politics. pointless. save your energy. giggle.
sweet dreams ladies and gents,
peace,
bluelakelady
i had a sleep study done when i first went on ambien. the drug did not work initally. after the sleep study other contributing factors were found, meds prescribed and then the ambien did work. seems i have alpha intrusion, restless leg syndrome thruout my body and something else i can't remember right now. i swear i have more letters after my name than any doctor i know, giggle!
trying to understand the insurance company is like trying to understand politics. pointless. save your energy. giggle.
sweet dreams ladies and gents,
peace,
bluelakelady
Lost Robin
06-08-2005, 01:42 PM
Hi Lyn - You made me laugh so hard when I read about your experiences with eating goodies at night! Sister, can I relate to that! :) Expecially the past couple of months. Some nights it seems as though all I want to do is cram sweets into my mouth, the more the better! I have a few funny stories of my own, especially about waking up with smears and crumbs of chocolate turning up in very strange and funny places! Isn't it always nice when you find out you're not alone?
Hi BL - Regarding the ambien, I'm really not a great case study for meds as I tend to be very treatment resistant. Yeah, that REALLY helps with FM/CFS! And I totally agree with you about the insurance companies, etc. I realize that there are just some things in life we will never truly understand but I can't seem to keep myself from trying! :eek:
Have a wonderful day!
Robin
Hi BL - Regarding the ambien, I'm really not a great case study for meds as I tend to be very treatment resistant. Yeah, that REALLY helps with FM/CFS! And I totally agree with you about the insurance companies, etc. I realize that there are just some things in life we will never truly understand but I can't seem to keep myself from trying! :eek:
Have a wonderful day!
Robin
Glojer
06-08-2005, 01:45 PM
Lyn in Mi. thanks for the laugh, and I'm not laughing at you but with you. I get right in bed with my ambien, it usually works right away. I have learned though not to answer the phone and talk to anyone after taking it. I had just gotten in bed the phone rang and my husband said it was our son, I thought what could it hurt a short conversation he probably just needs to ask me something. I provided him and his wife with quite a laugh and to this day I don't know what we talked about. So no more phone conversations after the ambien.
Glojer
Glojer
Lyn in Michigan
06-20-2005, 01:05 AM
Hi
Has anyone ever taken more than 10mg of Ambien at one time. Sometimes 2 hours after I have taken it I am still not tired and then at times I have been desperate and taken another 1/2. (15mg). Has anyone else ever done this.
Thanks
Lyn in Michigan :)
Has anyone ever taken more than 10mg of Ambien at one time. Sometimes 2 hours after I have taken it I am still not tired and then at times I have been desperate and taken another 1/2. (15mg). Has anyone else ever done this.
Thanks
Lyn in Michigan :)
Glojer
06-20-2005, 12:06 PM
Yes Lyn I have. I do the same thing, I take the 10mg and I usually fall asleep, but sometimes I wake up in just a few hrs. and I then take another half to get back to sleep. When that doesn't keep me asleep long enough I try the benadryl. I'm pretty shamless when I have those horrible nights where nothing I take will let me sleep more than two hours at a time and then I'm awake until I take something else.
Lately since I got the official OK from the doc to take the benadryl with the ambien I try to take enough the first time around. Of course I'm not flaring right now so the sleep meds work a little better.
Lately since I got the official OK from the doc to take the benadryl with the ambien I try to take enough the first time around. Of course I'm not flaring right now so the sleep meds work a little better.
Lyn in Michigan
06-20-2005, 06:32 PM
Glojer
Thanks for the info on the ambien. I must try the benadryl too!!! I am going to the doc's this week and I will just check with him first. Another problem with this insomnia is (and tell me if this happens to you). I can feel so exhausted during the day and I just wish that I could have a nap. I will doze off and wake back up minutes later with my heart racing. It feels like I am having a panick attack and it happens for no reason other than my system will just not let me fall asleep. I am not sure if this makes sense but it is absolutely terrible!!!
Lyn in Michigan :confused:
Thanks for the info on the ambien. I must try the benadryl too!!! I am going to the doc's this week and I will just check with him first. Another problem with this insomnia is (and tell me if this happens to you). I can feel so exhausted during the day and I just wish that I could have a nap. I will doze off and wake back up minutes later with my heart racing. It feels like I am having a panick attack and it happens for no reason other than my system will just not let me fall asleep. I am not sure if this makes sense but it is absolutely terrible!!!
Lyn in Michigan :confused:
Glojer
06-20-2005, 08:48 PM
Lyn, I am the same way, get so exhausted during the day sometimes. I try to lay down for a nap but all I do is BARELY doze for a few minutes(feels like seconds) and then wake up. I don't have the heart racing thing though. Sleep is not a close relative of mine, I am always in some degree of tired all the way to exhaustion but I think that goes with the territory. I am fortunate, my children are grown and when I couldn't hack it anymore I was able to quite my job. That doesn't eliminate the tired but it does help to cope.
countrygal
06-21-2005, 03:41 PM
Lyn, just wanted to add my two cents. LOL I have been on ambien for some years now. I started taking it 5 mg , and now i take 10-15mg nightly. On flairs i have to take the 15mg, other wise i take 10 and sometimes i too wake during the nite and have to take the other 5mg. Flexaril is also one of my night time meds. Together i find some relief.
I too have funny happenings after that magical ambien. I am going to try to video record some of my night time adventures. Just gotta see for myself ,how i end up enjoying my sleep! LOL I just hate waking up and wondering," how that happened feelin." I have had some funny phone conversations too. LOL
I too have funny happenings after that magical ambien. I am going to try to video record some of my night time adventures. Just gotta see for myself ,how i end up enjoying my sleep! LOL I just hate waking up and wondering," how that happened feelin." I have had some funny phone conversations too. LOL
Glojer
06-21-2005, 07:02 PM
So far I stay asleep or I know I'm up taking more meds. You guys are making me nervous about your nightime escapades after ambien he!he! By the way I also take 6mg of zanaflex at bedtime with the ambien (10mg) and when flaring and when I know I need it 25mg of benadryl and if I still wake up 25mg more of benadryl and zanaflex and whatever. Told you I was shameless, when you need sleep you need sleep.
hangin
06-21-2005, 09:36 PM
when you need sleep you need sleep.
I swear it feels like that has been my motto my whole life. There are times that I will do whatever it takes to get sleep (of course within reason).
One thing that has helped me a lot in the past year is Melatonin. I tried it years ago and it didn't seem to do anything. Now I take it nightly with my Ambien and sometimes get a few hours in. I know the Ambien helps me stay asleep and go back to sleep when I awake.
I am the type that gets up at least 5 times a night to go to the bathroom. Always have, even as a little girl so I don't worry about it. I am also a water junkie so that could have something to do with it.
Sweet dreams everyone!!
Peace and love, Janet
I swear it feels like that has been my motto my whole life. There are times that I will do whatever it takes to get sleep (of course within reason).
One thing that has helped me a lot in the past year is Melatonin. I tried it years ago and it didn't seem to do anything. Now I take it nightly with my Ambien and sometimes get a few hours in. I know the Ambien helps me stay asleep and go back to sleep when I awake.
I am the type that gets up at least 5 times a night to go to the bathroom. Always have, even as a little girl so I don't worry about it. I am also a water junkie so that could have something to do with it.
Sweet dreams everyone!!
Peace and love, Janet