Follow-Up:
I've had lousy sleep patterns all my adult life but it has really started to affect me (muscle pain) in recent years. Tried Trazadone and even Ativan to sleep, plus all the antihistamines, muscle relaxants, etc. While some put me out quickly, I still wake up in 2-3 hours repeatedly all night. It's like having a newborn infant for 40 years. When I heard about Ambien, I asked to try it. It is not formulary at my HMO so I had to pay $3 a dose for it at another pharmacy. Long story short, 10 mg gave me weird hallucinations, if it can be called hallucinations when you are aware it isn't real. Mine involved stationary objects moving like they were breathing and people on TV coming out into the room. Then when I laid down to sleep, I had the feeling of a crowd of people standing around the edge of the room. None of this was frightening, just weird in a curious kind of way. I didn't take 10 mg more than a couple of times and after that only took half of one. No hallucinations, but neither the 5 or 10 mg dose let me sleep more than my usual 2-3 hours. I continued to take 5 mg occasionally, though, in hopes of getting some sleep. Long story short, I find my daytime memory seriously affected. ie: Fixing coffee pot and forgetting to put in the coffee; forgetting whether or not I took my other meds; leaving an ingredient out of something I'm cooking. No big deal in themselves but multiplied many times a day, very alarming. I feel like I've killed some "connect the dots" brain cells. I actually found this message board from searching to see if anybody else had the same experience. I have not taken Ambien in weeks and the symptoms remain.