Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with ambien

Better living through chemistry

prunes — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:23:08 -0800

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.

How do I refill without you? I want to know.

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:20:07 -0800

I had a prescription for zolpidem (Ambien), to be taken on an as-needed basis. I have taken all of them. Can I attempt to refill the prescription through my drugstore's website, requiring permission from the prescribing doctor, or would that be considered drug-seeking and weird and I need to actually go in for an appointment (or possibly just call) if I actually want to get a refill? I do have fairly unpleasant social anxiety, which makes me incredibly reluctant to make an actual telephone call to my PCP unless this is a really standard situation that everyone is accustomed to which would follow a predictable script, in which case I can handle with a little bit of preparation. I honestly don't know how this sort of situation is handled; thus, the confusion. If I had thought of it, I would have asked when said PCP wrote me a new zopidem script, but naturally, I didn't!

Bringing legally prescribed controlled substances through customs in Asia?

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:01:33 -0800

Advice on bringing a small quantity of legally prescribed Ritalin (methylphenidate) and other prescriptions for personal use into Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, and the Philippines? I'm traveling to a number of Asian countries in the next three weeks, and I would like to bring my prescriptions with me. The drugs are 30x20mg Ritalin (methylphenidate), 6x200mg Provigil (modafinil), and 30x10mg Ambien (zolpidem). These are legally prescribed by a U.S. doctor, and I will carry the pills in the original, labeled bottle and will have an official-looking letter from the doctor.

But Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, according to their customs Web sites, either ban these drugs outright or require preapproval through a bureaucratic process. I wasn't able to find info on the other countries, but it's those three places that I'm most concerned about anyway (Japan and Singapore especially).

In those countries, since they require preapproval, if I indicate on my customs forms that I have controlled substances, then I'll almost certainly have them confiscated and could face other penalties (right?). If I play stupid and just state I have no items to declare, I'd most likely get through OK. But if they pull me aside and search my bags, then I'd be in big trouble, right? I will have entered and exited different countries ~13 times by the end of this trip, so at least on that I'd look suspicious.

So: what actually happens if Japan/Singapore/Hong Kong customs finds undeclared, un-preapproved but legally prescribed controlled substances in your bags? Is it something I can plead ignorance on and just get a warning, or are there serious consequences? I'm not sure if these laws are actually enforced in the case of small quantities and legal personal use. Should I just not bring the drugs?

Difference between ambien, alcohol, and xanax?

CliffDiving44 — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:47:05 -0800

I'm wondering the differences between alcohol, xanax, and ambien. Hello, I'm wondering if anyone could fill me in on this question that has been in my head for the past couple of days. You see, I take xanax for anxiety, and it works great, but it *feels* like I drake some alcohol, but without the "losing control" part. Also, xanax is similar to ambien in that it makes me sleepy, and I sleep like a baby the night that I take it. It also has the same cottonmouth side-effect as ambien. So, I was wondering the differences between the three. Maybe this question can't be answered in layman's terms, but I am just curious. :)

PS: I do not mix these drugs.

How do I refill my prescriptions while abroad?

c_griffin — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:53:26 -0800

What do I do about getting my prescription medications while I'm staying in another country? I'm a student studying abroad in Wellington, New Zealand for a semester. I've had a pretty terrible time getting any sleep since I was about 14, but recently my doctor prescribed Ambien CR to me and it works like a dream (sorry about the cheesy pun).

Without it, I'm basically up until 4-5am. I've never spent this amount of time in a foreign country before, so I've never had to worry about filling prescriptions abroad. What do I do in this situation? Will this even be an issue? Anything is helpful, I'm completely in the dark right now and my doctor didn't seem to have much advice.

Thanks!

Where did my lunesta butterfly go?

mostlymartha — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:23:49 -0800

Why does lunesta sometimes work beautifully and sometimes do nothing at all? Yes, I'll be asking my doctor, but it's going to be a few weeks before I can see him so I thought I'd see if could get a little info before then.

Probably too much background: I am a 27 and have had serious insomnia since I was 14 or 15. Even younger, at 11 or 12, I thought it was normal for it to take 3 hours to fall asleep. Most of my family suffers from insomnia to one degree or another. I have anxiety problems, but so far, nothing I've done to treat (rather successfully) my anxiety has had any effect on my insomnia at all. My insomnia is characterized by a brain that just will not turn off. It's like a treadmill of negative thoughts, snippets of songs, and just general brain static.

I took ambien on and off for a couple of years. Whenever I was off it, the only way I'd sleep at all was to have a rigid, almost OCD schedule. I had to be home by 6PM, eat dinner at a specific time, bath at a certain time, watch a certain amount of TV, dim the lights at a certain time, do deep breathing, etc, etc. and it still took me at least two hours to fall asleep. My life basically revolved around bedtime.

Melatonin did nothing and benedryl (i.e. sominex) actually makes me a little wired. Rozeram was useless.

Ambien generally worked quite well. Some nights I could break a 5 mg tablet in half and that would do it. Sometimes I needed a full 5 mg and during periods of stress I needed 10 mg. Toward the end, the ambien was not quite as effective as it had been (not a surprise). That combined with the fact that doctors generally aren't nuts on long term ambien use got me switched to 3 mg of lunesta in February.

At first, it was the best sleep of my life. I could even cut the pill in half on nights when I was very relaxed. After a while, it stopped working so well. Then it kicked back in. Now, once again, I take it and have no effect at all. Even a full pill leaves me on the mental treadmill, tossing and turning all night.

Any ideas why lunesta sometimes feels like a gift from god and sometimes leaves me in the lurch?

How do I get drugs cheaper?

bigmusic — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 09:01:41 -0800

I need to find a cheaper way to get proscriptions for Lexapro and Ambien filled. Basically there are 3 options A) Drive to Mexico and hope I can get them across the border there B) Try to get it from one of those online Canadian Pharmacies C) Get Another Job and buy them here in the US. I'm asking this for a friend.

The problem with

A) is that I don't know if a pharmacy down there could fill it and if I could bring it back -- if customs took it I'd be out both the prescription, the money and the trip. Ideally I would like to talk to a pharmacy in Nuevo Lardeo before I drove down there and see if their prices are even worth it.

B) Customs and shipping time... I would need it in 48 hrs -- How do you find a reputable online pharamcy in the first place? They all seem to be from the same company.

C) ... Like I have time for this right now.

My university insurance (I'm a student) doesn't cover drug costs, so I have to pay them entirely out of pocket.
Any suggestions?

May Cause Drowsiness. Then Again, May Not.

bibliowench — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 08:35:40 -0800

Has anyone had any problems switching from Ambien to Ambien CR? My doctor made the switch a few days ago because even though Ambien was putting me to sleep nicely, I was still waking up around 4 am. I've been on the CR version for 2 days, and besides making me insanly dizzy, it also makes me hyper. So now I'm stumbling around the house in the early hours of the morning - not the ideal situation. Why such a different reaction? I figured it was just the drug company tweaking the formula a little bit to hold onto their patent. Will my body get used to it?

I've been a lifelong insomniac (seriously - my parents used to drug my formula), and I've tried almost everything to sleep. I know living drug-free is a fun, productive lifestyle, but it doesn't work for me, so please, no lectures on the evils of drugs.

Zzzz....

Mossy — Fri, 17 Dec 2004 21:27:51 -0800

Sleep tips? Ambien doesn't work, melatonin levels fine. Individual in question has a mind that constantly thinks about stuff.