I never had any problems falling asleep - always used to have warm malted milk at night. But when I went to see my rheumatologist back in 2006 he asked if I had pain and stiffness on waking. My husband (bless his little cotton socks!!!) was with me and told the doctor that I would wake crying in the night every night in pain. So, the doctor put me on Ambien, told me to take one every night so I would sleep through the night. It got to the point when I couldn't sleep without it. I tried several times to come off it but ended up not sleeping and having terrible headaches from not sleeping. One of the 4 day cruises we went on (thank goodness it was only 4 days), I forgot to take the ambien with me and I couldn't enjoy the cruise as I had headaches every day from not sleeping.
My primary care physician told me a couple of years ago that I had been on it so long that I couldn't come off it.
So, I have been on ambien since 2006.
But, never had any hallucinations or raiding the refrigerator in the night. (That may be the ambien CR - I am on regular ambien - the generic zolpidem)
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