Follow-Up:
Hi My name is Myles and I live in London, England. I have just read the various comments regarding Ambien (known as Stllnoct over here, but Zolpidem all the same). I have been a chronic insomniac for many years and was prescribed Zolpidem some years ago. I found it the only medication to actually allow me to sleep. Unfortunately I also suffer from the bizarre side effects. Over the years I have seen and done some things which only another user of the medication would understand, or at least relate to. I often wake while under the influence of the drug, and on many occasions have also freaked my girlfriend out, having conversations (two way conversations at that) with all manner of people who obviously were not actually there. Sometimes they are straight forward human beings but my girlfriend tells me that I’ve also been known to converse with little green men. At the time it all seems quite normal and incredibly real, but my memory of such events the next day is usually zero. I could write a book about the many bizarre hallucinations I have had but what with the above and trying to grab floating cheese out of thin air and talking to characters on the TV etc, I think you get the point. Earlier this year the seemingly harmless, even amusing night time activities took a darker turn. I had been out for a few drinks with some friends and went home and took my 10mg tablet and went to sleep. At some point I awoke and took another 6 tablets (another regular effect with me, getting up and taking more with no recollection of doing so). On this occasion I unfortunately went out and got into my car. I have no idea where I was going at 2 O’clock in the morning, and have no memory of the whole night, but suffice to say I had an accident, during which my car was written off, but thankfully no one, including myself, was hurt. I was arrested and charged with drink driving, yet remember nothing at all of the event or my time at the police station. Getting to the point, the case has been in court on several occasions since January when the incident occurred. I am pleading not guilty because I had gone to bed with absolutely no intention of driving anywhere. I am entirely against drink driving and simply wouldn’t do it. The problem I have however is that when you try and tell people who have never taken Zolpidem (Ambien), the extent of the side effects, it just sounds incredibly far fetched. The leaflet given with the tablets doesn’t even come close to the mark, simply mentioning possible memory problems and confusion; a bit like calling a major hurricane a light breeze. I am now desperately trying to find anyone who will allow me to use their experiences in court, to add weight to my plea of innocence. Unfortunately I cannot find anyone in the UK, but have seen dozens of examples on this site of people like you and I, in the States. Unfortunately I cannot use the information directly from the internet, as it is third party evidence and is apparently inadmissible in court. My lawyer has asked me to source and contact anyone with any experience of sleepwalking, hallucinations, memory loss etc, to ask for initially, a direct e-mail. That is an e-mail sent directly to me, as opposed to the website. I would really appreciate some help here. I believe my lawyer (David Goldstein) would want to contact you himself for legal reasons (I won’t pretend to understand the legal system) but to begin with my e-mail address is myles.beaumont@btinternet.com Simply stating in an e-mail your own experiences would be perfect. If I lose my license, I stand to lose my job and I have a young family to support, so any help given would be very gratefully received. Kind Regards Myles Beaumont