Better living through chemistry

October 31, 2009 10:23 AM

I need to get up at 3:00 am. Can ambien help?

Next week I have a 6:00 am plane flight followed immediately by a job interview. I'll need to get up sometime around 3:00 am. Would taking ambien at 6:00 or 7:00 pm enable me to get the full eight or nine hours I need? I did a test run of ambien the other day, taking it at 9:45 pm when my normal bed time is 11:00 pm, and I woke up feeling great. Your experiences are appreciated.

posted by prunes to health & fitness (21 comments total)

No. Ambien is supposed to regulate a sleep schedule, not create a completely false sleep schedule. Don't do it, it'll screw up your sleep-clock for a few days minimum. I suggest taking a hefty nap earlier that day and try to calm your body around 9PM (no computer, no TV, no phone - just read a calming book/listen to chill music) and if you fall asleep around 9:30PM or so, go with it.

Better to be slightly tired when you wake up then to completely screw up your internal clock for a week.
posted by banannafish at 11:01 AM on October 31, 2009

banannafish: Honestly, I don't see why using a sleep aid such as zolpidem would "screw up his sleep clock" any more than simply going to bed at his normal time would and not getting enough sleep. Either way he's either going to be off a few hours negative from sleeping too early, or off a few hours the other way from not getting the necessary sleep. Since he wants to be alert for his interview, I don't see the problem.

From personal experience, I highly doubt this is going to screw anything up for an entire week. Most people can have do crazy things to their sleep schedules over the weekend and be fine for Monday.
posted by floam at 11:15 AM on October 31, 2009

How long is your flight? Can you sleep during that?
posted by floam at 11:19 AM on October 31, 2009

Zolpidem reversal (i.e. waking you back up after you take ambien) is one of the holy grails of the military human factors research community right now. If you find this stuff interesting, the articles may make for some fun reading.

If your trouble is with falling asleep, not staying asleep, it would probably be far safer to take the plain old ordinary Ambien, rather than the newer Ambien CR (controlled release). The original stuff doesn't stay in your system as long, so you're less likely to sleep through your flight. Personally, I would try to naturally move my sleep cycle backwards as much as possible before I considered using a drug for this purpose. If you work on shifting an hour or so a day, you'll be pretty close to your desired time by the time your trip comes around. Good luck on your interview!

Also, a friendly tip for you: once you take Ambien, go to sleep immediately. Some have reported hallucinations from trying to stay awake for a while after taking the drug. In fact, one thing you should not do is take the pill and then go ask your friends downstairs if they want a quick slice of pizza, with the intent of being in bed in 15 minutes or so before the drug kicked in. Should you do this, said friends will never let you live it down. This will especially be the case if the aforementioned cartoon is published on the very next day following said incident. So just remember: pizza before ambien, never the other way around. This tip has been sponsored by the letter 'z.'
posted by zachlipton at 11:24 AM on October 31, 2009 [2 favorites]

Just go to bed at your regular time and get up at 3. As long as you are leaving yourself enough time to do your normal wake-up thing, and not trying to rush yourself out of the house before you are ready, you'll be fine.

You might even catch a few winks on the plane, too. I've found that not messing around with my sleep schedule too much tends to work best. Go to bed in the normal way and time you usually do, and then get up when the alarm goes off.

Sure it's early and you didn't get quite as much sleep as you'd like, but that seems to be more manageable to the ol' internal clock than trying to shift the whole cycle around, with or without drugs.
posted by Aquaman at 11:42 AM on October 31, 2009

The thing is though, for the past few nights I've had a lot of difficulty falling asleep because of anxiety due to this interview. I'm willing to mess my sleep schedule up for a few days as long as it means I have a better change of doing well.
posted by prunes at 11:47 AM on October 31, 2009

I'd just do it then. It is important that you're on regular Ambien and not CR, as the poster above stated. I wouldn't be hugely worried about it magically setting your sleep schedule forever so that you magically need to sleep at 7PM every night and wake up at 3AM. If it worked that well people would take Ambien once and be done, not taking it every evening. If you do get tired earlier the next day, I'd probably want to fight it and go to sleep at your regular bed time, so things work themselves out sooner.
posted by floam at 11:57 AM on October 31, 2009 [1 favorite]

I do pretty much exactly that once a week. It works well.
posted by bac at 12:15 PM on October 31, 2009

I think this is a great idea. I've taken ambien to go induce sleep in the afternoon when I needed to wake up at midnight, and it works like a charm.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 12:28 PM on October 31, 2009

Seems like a dumb and pointless risk. Presumably, whoever you're interviewing with knows you just got off an early-morning airplane to meet with them. They'll expect and understand a bit of natural grogginess.

Now explain to them that your head is confused because you messed up your Ambien, and imagine how that works out.

Aquaman's suggestion seems a lot more sane to me. Just get up already. You'll be dead tired by evening, but so what? Your important day is over already.
posted by rokusan at 12:38 PM on October 31, 2009 [1 favorite]

I see no problem with this and am honestly a little surprised at all of these negative responses. This is precisely the kind of situation that ambien (not ambien CR) is for in my opinion.
posted by sickinthehead at 12:56 PM on October 31, 2009

Could you fly in a day earlier and sleep in a hotel?
posted by Sys Rq at 1:58 PM on October 31, 2009

(I only ask because choosing a last-minute redeye flight seems like one of those things that might not impress your interviewer.)
posted by Sys Rq at 2:01 PM on October 31, 2009

It may be too late, but a 16-hour starvation period may reset your inner clock.

I tried it once (as a 12-hour starvation period; I misremembered the details) on a flight from NYC to Amsterdam (6 hrs difference, at that time of year). My first day was tough, but I stayed up until 10pm (usual bedtime: midnight). Second day was a breeze.
posted by IAmBroom at 2:01 PM on October 31, 2009

It sounds like you're anxious about the interview, and that this is keeping you from sleeping now, as well as making you anxious about your ability to sleep the night before the interview.

I think limited use of medication is a great way to short-circuit this kind of circular anxiety (anxiety about anxiety itself, really, in that it will keep you from sleeping and thus performing well).

If I were you, I'd use a combination approach: move your sleeping schedule back a bit each day, and also plan on using the ambien.

And good luck with the interview!
posted by palliser at 5:30 PM on October 31, 2009

Lots of weird advice here. Go ahead and take it. If you are concerned you should as your doctor.
posted by chairface at 6:47 PM on October 31, 2009

I get up at 3am pretty regularly for work. To prep for Monday, I go to bed earlier on Saturday night, knowing that I won't necessarily be able to fall asleep. I find that just being in bed, however, can be restful. I set my alarm to wake up earlier than I would like on Sunday, to make sure that I'll be tired earlier. Generally I can fall asleep at 8pm on Sunday, getting up at 3am with relative ease.
posted by nevercalm at 7:06 PM on October 31, 2009

Go for it. You did the test run and it seems to agree with your body pretty well.
I would recommend some nice exercise to work off the anxiety about the interview, know that the Ambien will get you the rest you'll need, plan on a nice splash of water on the face and a coffee after the plane ride, and chill.
posted by BillBishop at 10:34 PM on October 31, 2009

My boss likes to refert to ambien as the $10 upgrade whenever there is an International flight. I once asked if I could use some extra miles to upgrade to business because I had a presentation to do the day I arrived from Denver to Amsterdam and he suggested the ambien. I never did it, but he really does swear by it.
posted by FlamingBore at 11:15 PM on October 31, 2009

I've had Zambien, and maybe it was just me but I felt extra groggy in the morning. It sent me to sleep, but it didn't feel like "real" sleep, more like a blackout accompanied by a headache. The next day I still felt like I was half-asleep, in a weird trance-like state.

If you've taken it before without side effects then go for it. But I personally wouldn't.
posted by hnnrs at 3:58 AM on November 1, 2009

Get some 3mg non-timed release melatonin and give yourself a couple of test runs during the week to reset yourself.

Or book a different flight.
posted by gjc at 6:08 AM on November 1, 2009