Is Ambien Right for You?

I have always had issues when it comes to sleep. As a kid, I never needed much, yet was always forced to bed by my parents' strict bedtime rules. When I got to be a teenager, I could stay up all night long living on as little as two to four hours of sleep.

Mind you, this was only on the weekends when there was all the cool teenager stuff to do. However, on days when there were no dates, parties, or boys to chase like Sundays, I could sleep until 3, 4, or 5 PM like it was my job.

AS an adult now my sleep schedule continues to be sporadic. Especially since all of my children are grown. There is no one to get up and see off to school, the husband, well I never did get up and see him off to work, after all, it was not the 1950s.

So now I am free to stay up as late as I please and sleep in the same all except for one nagging little problem. Work. I have a job where I work from home, so I can stay in my PJs 24/7 if I so choose.

But, since there are bills to pay and I do like to eat, I have to find my way out of bed by at least 8 AM and get to working away on my computer. However, years and years of random sleep times caught up with me in my not old, but more mature version of myself and I find I now need that sleep.

Problem is when I want to, I can't. There is nothing worse than tossing and turning, your mind racing 50 directions and staring down the clock that never seems to move so fast in my waking moments.

I finally had enough, I know enough to know that not sleeping right can lead to serious health issues. So I had a chat with my family doctor and he suggested I try a sleeping pill called Ambien.

He gave the whole spiel about taking it just when I was ready to lay down to sleep and do nothing else. I would need eight to nine hours for this. He also gave me a rundown of all the somewhat crazy side effects that some have experienced while taking Ambien.

Despite it all, I went home that night with my script of Ambien 10MG. I went through my routine, got ready for bed. Fifteen minutes before I brushed my teeth I popped my sleeping pills.

I followed doc's orders and went and got into bed. 15-20 minutes later I started feeling rather floaty and just sort of groovy, but I was not sleeping. Then it happened, I took on the Ambien walrus.

For those of you who are not familiar with the term, it's described like this... "When [Ambien] works as intended, the user is like a lump, but when it exhibits its adverse effects, the user is driven to sleepwalk, shuffling around awkwardly as a walrus would flipper across an ice floe."

Yes, it happens. You are out of it mentally, but you do not know it and your body sure doesn't get it either. So what crazy things did I do? Well, I have woken up the next day and found food wrappers, cartons of ice cream emptied out, and evidence of my eating it all over my sheets, face, and hair.

I have cleaned things, emailed, and Facebooked...Bad mistake. Not only should I not have done it, I came across like a total idiot typing random mumbo-jumbo making zero sense.

I have called people at all hours to wake up and never remember a thing. Luckily, I have never driven, at least I hope not that is. There is a light at the end of the tunnel though.

Once you get past the first few times of using Ambien, things settle down. You just first need to be in bed, away from your cell phone and computer, put your car keys in another room and close your eyes and just sleep.

When you get to that point you will sleep like you have never slept before...And it is fantastic! So my advice to anyone thinking of trying Ambien for the first time to help with their sleep issues, first, tell someone in the home you are going to take it and have them keep an eye on you the first few times.

Follow all doctor's orders, take, just go to bed, and close your eyes. Would I recommend Ambien to other for sleep issues? Absolutely, but it is like with any drug, it can and does have different effects on different users.

Like I said after the first couple of days I have had no problems, it works exactly as it should, for me that is. So if you need sleep and have already worked through the melatonin, Motrin PM, Nytol shelves and you still have problems getting to sleep, time to talk to your doctor.

Hope this helps anyone who is teetering with the thoughts of trying a prescription sleep aid. Sweet Dreams.