What Is It Like to Take Ambien for Insomnia?
Key takeaways:
Ambien (zolpidem) is a medication used to treat certain sleep problems, like insomnia.
It’s a controlled substance, meaning it has a risk of abuse and dependence. Some people can experience withdrawal symptoms if they stop taking it too quickly.
Some people who have taken Ambien tell GoodRx they’ve done things that they have no recollection of the next morning.
Ambien is the brand name for zolpidem, a prescription sedative for treating insomnia.
Approved by the FDA in 1992, Ambien has entered popular culture in the form of “Ambien stories,” or tales of people doing things while on the medication that they don’t remember and often regret, such as driving, getting into arguments, or eating an entire cake.
Many people who take Ambien say it does help break the cycle of insomnia. But it doesn’t always produce a restful sleep.
Grogginess and lack of focus
Every night, Morgan Adams would lie awake. She was getting out of a bad relationship, and her mind would just churn. “I would lie there for like 2 hours on average, waiting to fall asleep,” she says.
Morgan talked to her family doctor, who prescribed Ambien. That was in 2005, and Morgan took it virtually every night for 8 years. It did help her fall asleep, but the sleep wasn’t refreshing.
“I was frequently groggy the next day, and I’d have trouble focusing,” says Morgan, who is now 52 and a sleep consultant in Richmond, Virginia. “I didn’t become fully awake and alert until lunchtime.”
The grogginess was worse if she combined the sedative with an evening drink or two. She also had episodes of binge-eating while on Ambien, which she sometimes remembered and sometimes didn’t.
But she didn’t stop taking the medication until the man who became her husband said he didn’t like the medication’s effect on her.
“I wasn’t violent or mean,” she says. “But he said when I took the pill, I became like a zombie and not myself.”
She weaned herself off the medication by cutting her pills in half and then into quarters. But she recommends medical supervision for people getting off Ambien or other sedatives.
Morgan also says she believes her dose was too high, and that she should have been advised to use Ambien only to get through a difficult period, not regularly.
She now sleeps pretty well, she says, although she often wakes up in the night, as is typical for perimenopausal women. The key is that she doesn’t lie awake worrying about it.
“When I wake up in the middle of the night, at 2 or 3, I’m generally able to get back to sleep after a few minutes,” she says. “But if I’m up at 4 or 4:30, I might just kind of lie in bed. On occasion, I will have that night where I feel like I didn’t get quality sleep or enough sleep. That’s just the human experience, nothing to be worried about.”
‘It just got to be too much’
Elijah Meason, now 33, struggled with insomnia for close to 15 years, starting when he was 15. “There have been times where I’ve been awake for like 2 days, just trying to get to sleep,” says Elijah, a certified peer sobriety counselor who lives in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
“I’d sleep for 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there. Most of the time, I’d just be up until three in the morning, and then I’d wake up at 4:30 and not be able to go back to sleep.”
When he was 22, a doctor prescribed Ambien, and he began taking it every night. The medication succeeded in putting him to sleep. He’d close his eyes, and open them hours later, feeling refreshed.
But he soon learned of a troubling side effect.
Elijah’s brother, who was living with him, said Elijah would go into the kitchen and begin digging through the trash, pulling out seemingly random items. And Elijah’s friends reported that he had “called them at like 3 in the morning, talking gibberish,” Elijah says.
After about 6 months, Elijah decided to stop taking Ambien. “I just kept hearing stories of me wandering around the house, or calling people on the phone, and it just got to be too much,” he says.
He quit all at once, and it was rough. His insomnia returned, and he found that he was more irritable than usual.
Over time, however, he was able to resolve his sleeping issues. He still sometimes wakes up in the night, but now he’s able to grab a snack and go back to sleep. He credits his success with meditation, getting physically fit, and cutting alcohol out of his life.
“I’ve heard that Ambien works great for some people, and that’s cool,” Elijah says. “But it was just too much for me.”
‘You just get knocked out’
Alexia Hogan, 36, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, says she has battled depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues for most of her life.
She took Ambien for her insomnia for about a month in 2014, during a time of intense stress. She was transitioning from a teaching job to a completely different gig in finance. She was nervous about the job, and also about moving away from her parents and living alone.
“I went over 48 hours without sleep, and I was afraid of having another episode where I would spend time in a mental ward, so I took myself to the ER,” says Alexia, who is now a quality control coordinator for the Washington, D.C. government, as well as CEO and founder of Mental Health Over Everything, a company that sells shirts, candles, mugs, and other items.
In the Florida emergency room, doctors prescribed Ambien, and Alexia began taking it every night.
“With Ambien, one minute you’re awake, and then the next minute you’re asleep, without any dozing in between,” Alexia says. She also didn’t find the sleep particularly restful.
She doesn’t remember how much it cost, but she doesn’t think it was expensive. Her parents may have helped her pay for it before the insurance from her new job kicked in, she says.
As it happens, she didn’t stick with it for long.
After she moved, her father came and stayed with her for a few days to help her adjust to living alone. One morning, he told her that she had gotten up in the night and was standing in front of a photograph of dancers, insisting that they were moving.
“I have no memory of walking around. I have no memory of talking. And that's what really scared me,” she says.
Alexia stopped taking the Ambien. She says taking it helped her break the cycle of insomnia, but she wouldn’t take it again.
“It worked in the sense that it put my body out and stopped me from worrying,” she says. “I'm just blessed to be in a place now where I am healthy and I can sleep and I’m not burdened by my mental illness.”
What does the pharmacist say?
Alyssa Billingsley, PharmD
Director, Pharmacy Content
Ambien is a medication that’s sometimes prescribed for people who have difficulty falling or staying asleep. It belongs to a class of sedative medications known as “Z-drugs” that work by slowing down brain activity to make you feel sleepy.
Drowsiness is a common Ambien side effect — which can sometimes carry over into the next day. This may be more likely if you take the controlled-release version, or if you take it when you’re not expecting to get at least 7 or 8 hours of sleep. It’s important to see how you respond to Ambien before doing activities the next day that require you to be alert, like driving.
There’s also a risk of becoming too drowsy with Ambien. This can happen if you drink alcohol while taking it, or if you combine it with other sedating medications. These combinations can be dangerous and result in slowed breathing. It’s best to avoid alcohol if you’re taking Ambien. To manage other interactions, make sure your provider has your current medication list.
Sleepwalking, sleep eating, and even sleep driving have been reported by people taking medications like Ambien. These are known as complex sleep behaviors, and they may involve doing things that you don’t remember while not fully awake — or awake at all. This can happen at any point during treatment, even after your first dose. Contact your provider right away if you experience these behaviors.
Ambien is also a controlled substance, meaning that it has a risk of abuse and dependence. So, it’s recommended that you take the lowest dose for the shortest amount of time. And if you stop taking it abruptly, you could experience withdrawal symptoms. Your healthcare provider can help you stop taking it safely.
Why trust our experts?
Was this page helpful?
Related Articles
Browse medications
View AllResearch prescriptions and over-the-counter medications from A to Z, compare drug prices, and start saving.