lunesta vs. ambien - Sleep Disorders Message Board

jwf222 · 04-27-2005, 08:40 PM

i have been on ambien for quite sometime, and it works okay, but the longer im on it, the less it works. id like to try lunesta, and im sure my doc would give it to me with just a phone call b/c he is familiar with my situation, but im curious to know how it works, before i switch. has anyone tried it and how has it worked for you. even if you havent taken ambien let me know, but if you have please compare the two. does lunesta casue the memory loss and vision problems and stuff if you stay awkake like ambien does? i know it is a non-narcotic, but i was curious about how the side effects compare, along with other info. thanks for any help.

ricrokrol · 04-28-2005, 08:00 AM

ambien just gave me a goofy type of buzz, and i stayed awake. I have taken Lunesta several days. The first few days started at2mgthe usualadult starting dose and it took 3-4hrs before I feel asleep and I got about 4-5 hrs sleep. The other night I took the max dosage 3mg of lunesta and fell asleep in about 1 hr and got close to 6 hrs sleep. I also should let you know , that sometimes i think a elephant tranquilizer wouldnt put me asleep. I was just recently diagnosed with Bipolar and 15mg of valium didnt put me asleep,restoril put me asleep (new benzo) but only for about 2 hrs and it knocks the sht out ofmost people. I will say that overall lunesta has worken better for me. Their are 2 new drugs coming out and one looks like its going to be the shi-dizzle my fizzle. It is called indiplon. You should run the name through a search engine and rad up on it. Oneplace I read says its 10 times stronger than ambien and lunesta is also worried about it. Suppose to be less side effects and better results.

mgray · 04-30-2005, 06:09 PM

I have taken both Ambien and Lunesta. Lunesta at the 3 mg dosage will only keep me asleep for two to four hours. It has a long half-life, 6 to 9 hours, so waking in two or three hours is an unpleasant experience. I sit in a chair reading and feel as though I have ingested two Excedrin PM (78 mg of Benedryl).

Ambien was a wonder drug af first. I slept great and had no side effects. Unfortunately, I developed a tolerance for the 5 mg dosage. My doctor increased the strength to 10 mg and, again, I slept great for several weeks. Eventually, tolerance caught up to me again. Now, 10 mg of Ambien will give me two to four hours of sleep or about the same as the Lunesta. One big difference, though. Ambien has a relatively short half life (2.2 hours or so) so when I do wake, I do not feel as terribly drugged as I did with the Lunesta.

I have read that Ambien is working on a timed release version of their medication. I am not sure that the timed release version will necessarily work better, though, due to my developed tolerance.

Kaitrin · 05-03-2005, 06:21 AM

I have had some success with both Lunesta and Ambien. However, for me, it takes a lot longer to start working than it is supposed to. I take either one 90 minutes before I go to bed. But I would not recommend taking it so early to anyone else unless they've already tried taking it right at bedtime and found it didn't work - because it is supposed to work much more quickly than that. It seems like they are about the same in effectiveness when I use them.