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I can't believe this. I took 2 Ambien last night. They say you're supposed to get into bed and be ready to fall right asleep. Well, I got into bed and laid there and laid there and laid there. I laid there for over an hour. I could not fall asleep! I got so upset I started to cry. I called my T twice and left messages. Finally I went downstairs to watch TV. I couldn't lay in the bed anymore. So I've been up for 24 hours now. I'm supposed to go to a friend's house for dinner tonight - I hope I can stay awake. What is wrong with me? Why is this happening? I thought Ambien is supposed to knock you out. WTF????

Just a lil possibility BG, is your anxiety about sleep over riding the prescribed drugs?

Care to walk through your thoughts/ activiies etc... whilst you lay there last night waiting to go to sleep? From when you decided was time to go to bed until the moment you gave up? If you ended up so very upset over it, it sounds like you could be getting very worked up about not sleeping, which can have the opposite effect to actually resting and thereby aiding a sleep like state.

I have been working on sleep with my T and this is something she had me do. To suss out where the sleep block was coming from. Perhaps others can share ideas then of things they have tried.

My current work in progress is to get back to sleep when I wake, now that I can get off to sleep successfully.

ambien doesnt work on my daughter. she ends up taking benadryl....

some meds wont work on some people...calm....Bg....

Ambien usually works great for me. I would guess that from your post it usually works for you. When it doesn't work, like Tracy said it's because of anxiety?
Is this the first time this has happened? Have you been taking Ambien for awhile?

BG, I agree with others about the anxiety maybe over-riding the med.

I do build up a tolerance to Ambien, but that is after months (like six or eight) of taking it every night. But, if I just don't take it for a week or so, my tolerance is lower again. Now, I just don't take it everynight to prevent this problem. Since you have just begun taking this med and are alternating with another sleep-aid, I wouldn't think that tolerance is already an issue. I would definitely not recommend taking two at once unless your doc said it was okay for you. More of this med isn't really helpful, IMO. And, it can be addictive when taken that way.

The way Ambien works, you have to help it along. It's not just going to knock you out, at least in my experience. It only 'knocked' me out the first or second time I took it--after that I was used to the feeling and could stay awake on it if I chose. But that's not a good thing, I mean it's not good to stay awake on it. That's when the 'amnesia-like' effects take place, at least for me. One has to use relaxation skills in conjunction with the medicine to fall asleep. It just helps us along, it doesn't do all the work, IMO.

Thanks guys. My doctor told me to take 2 every other night. That's what it says on the bottle.

I think I do have anxiety over worrying about whether I will sleep or not. When that episode happened, I had laid down and figured I would fall right to sleep. When I didn't, I got upset, and that made things worse. Thus the cycle was set. I did try breathing exercises. I tried to use my Alpha-Stim, but it's not working - I have to find out why. I tried to relax, but I think the anxiety took over. I was able to take a 3-hour nap yesterday before we went out to dinner.

Last night was my Trazedone night. I fell asleep about 11:00 and woke up at 10:00 this morning. Tonight is my Ambien night.

I have to try to stop being so scared of not sleeping. It's like a vicious cycle - the more upset I get, the more I won't sleep. Thanks for pointing this out to me.

Just a suggestion and this might sound stupid. A few years ago I had horrible panic attacks around sleeping (afraid of the dark and stuff). I got this tape "the secret life of machines" I would put it on before I'd go to sleep this did several things:

Programmed my body to associate this tape with sleep so eventually I'd play it and get sleepy.
It was interesting enough that if my body was determined not to sleep I'd at least be entertained
It was boring enough that if I was remotlyired it would put me out like a light.

Not sleeping is like a fate worse than death for me so I sympathize and hope my silly suggestion helps.

Hi BG! I hope your sleep has improved somewhat since your last post. I totally have problems sleeping, too. I'm supposed to be up early tomorrow morning for some volunteer work stuff I'm doing and I can't sleep because I'm stressed out about going to sleep...lol. I don't know if this would help you, but taking a warm bath or making hot chocolate has been really helpful to me. I'm sure you've probably already thought of stuff..and I wish I could help more..but just know you're not alone. :-)

Thanks lbcgal. I took my Ambien last night. I was reading and got tired. So I took my Alpha-Stim and set it up. I laid down and eventually I fell asleep. I woke up at 4:00 a.m. but went back to sleep. I got up at 8:00. So that's pretty good. The Alpha-Stim really helps with anxiety. I'm going to keep using it on a regular basis!