I’m wondering, those of you who have woken the next day to find you’ve taken a whole bunch of your ambiens….how do you feel that next day? Overly tired or drowsy or nothing different? I ask this question because I had a whole bottle of ambien go missing and found the chewed lid to it and empty botttle under my bed. I assumed my dog- a chihuahua that chews up everything had gotten to it, ingested the pills and puked them up (since he didn’t die). But I wonder now, If I was the one that took the pills then dropped the bottle on the floor by my bed and the dog just chewed up the bottle and lid? I don’t remember feeling overly drowsy or tired the next day, sooo. just wondering about that part of it.
PS: I’ve had lots of lost memories that will come back to me in full after a reminder. Like a phone conversation where I made plans with someone and didn’t remember talking to them until they called to ask why I wasn’t ‘there’. At that moment the memory of the conversation and making the plans came flooding back to me in full. Anyone experience that? I also did that with driving to the store for cigs after taking my ambien. Didn’t remember until I was going to go get cigs the next day and saw a brand new pack sitting there. How did those get there? Then all of a sudden I could remember as clear as a bell that I’d gotten in the car and drove down to the store and back. Curious if that’s the extent of peoples’ memory loss, or do they lose their memory and it never comes back?
My mom had did similar actions as you. I dont think it’s memory loss. It’s almost like sleep walking. My moms body was moving and functioning. she would carry on conversations but the next day when we asked what was going on or why she made that online order or if she remembered talking to me she had no recollection of anything. I’m glad that you are remembering what you are doing for she did not. I’m no MD by no means nor have I taken ambien… just wanted to share what I have learned from my mothers expiernce from ambien.
The memory capacity will come back once the drug is out of your system. Check out what Jack Nicholson did while on Ambien–it’s in the news even now, a year or so later.
Here’s the trouble–losing your memory on “little things” is not just inconvenient–it can and does wreck relationships. It appears that you aren’t listening, that you don’t care, etc, when actually your short-term memory is completely shot due to Ambien still being in your system.
It’s a great drug for sleep when you can’t otherwise–but I do wonder, how many people really use it for short periods of time, and “occasionally”, etc. Everyone I know who uses Ambien does so on a regular nightly basis. Your brain relies on it, forgetting how to fall asleep without it.
This means pure torture when you run out. And yes, you can take lots of pills without knowing it; after all, your memory is gone, especially overnight, and when you wake up more pills are ingested without your knowledge or consent. It’s like your body takes over your brain. Which would be okay, if it had any kind of self-control or foresight, which it does not.
We need our frontal cortex, which is exactly what gets shut down (executive decision making, judgment, etc) by the Ambien. Such a catch-22: it works so well, but it makes us so very stupid.