Posted by Greg on April 4, 2000, at 10:43:27
In reply to Re: Ambien - sonata, posted by Victoria on April 3, 2000, at 21:38:54
Victoria,
Are you talking dependence or addiction to the Ambien? I've taken Ambien for over a year for insomnia and stop it periodically just see if I can sleep well without it. My insomnia is still here, but I have no side effects from stopping the drug. I've been told that Ambien disapates completely from a person's system after 4 hours (depending on the dose, I take 10mgs) thereby eliminating the possibility of dependancy or addiction. Then again, I've been called naive once or twice too! I agree that Ambien is the best of the alternative sleeping aids.Greg
> I tried Sonata briefly; it worked well for 5-6 hours, then I always woke up. I think it's especially good if your sleep problem is waking up too early rather than trouble getting to sleep, because you can take Sonata in the middle of the night and still be awake at a reasonable time. But I went back to Ambien because it keeps me asleep all night. To avoid dependence problems, my doctor has me on a 4-days on/4 days off schedule (which I admit I cheat on a little if I need to be sure of sleeping well on a particular "off" night). I also take trazadone at bedtime every night, which helps a lot on the "off" nights. Still, Ambien gives me the most restful "normal" sleep of anything I've ever tried.
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> > I just had my doc prescibe sonata to replace ambien to see it it would help me sleep better.
> > I haven't tried it because it is almost $3/pill! and not covered by HMO. Just wondered if anyone has tried it. jane
poster:Greg
thread:26795
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000401/msgs/28835.html