i can only tell you what i do with it.. i was told not to take ambien all the time by my doc too, but he didnt get specific on the every other day thing.. if im still up at 1 AM i take it. i know i need it. if i get tired before then, i dont. i refuse to suffer thru an evening of sleeplessness any longer with my sleep med around. sleep is crucial.

i dont use it to avoid a day tho. thats what i use my AP and netflix for.

im sorry you didnt have a good day. i pray things are better soon.

I have had insomnia since I can remember. Hated school because I could never sleep, got 2 or so hours of sleep each night and then had to go to school.

As an adult it got worse, I would be up for 4-5 days, start hallucinating. I got ambien. Worked great for the first few months. My insurance wanted me to take it every other night, that meant I slept every other night.
Now I take an ambien and a trazadone to sleep. Some nights it works, some nights it doesn't. I hate that I've built up a tolerance. I tried Lunesta, didn't work at all.

I'm really scared I'll get to a point with the ambien and trazadone that they won't work and it scares me to think I won't be able to sleep.

I've never heard of Solara, so I don't have any experience with it. I wouldn't say I'm dependent to ambien, but I do rely on it to sleep.

Completely addicted to xanax, I nearly cried in the pharmacy today when they refilled it :)

I hope you can figure it out, life sucks when you can't sleep.

As much as I'd like to take a sleeping pill here and there to avoid a day, I don't. I just don't know how long it takes to form a dependency issue. It's unusual for me to have so much trouble sleeping...so I don't know if I want to suffer a sleepless night or suffer potential withdrawals.

Thanks for replying.

I've done the amitriptyline, trazedone, ambien, lunesta and probably other stuff too. I'm assuming solara is a fairly new med since it cost so much to get the Rx filled (and it doesn't highlight in green on DS) lol.

It works well enough to get me to sleep, and I've got the ok to take another one in the middle of the night if needed (the effects of the pill are only supposed to last 4 hours). I'm fine and dandy with my xanax addiction (unless I don't have any) but I don't think I could afford another addiction.

Am I making sense?

I used to take Ambien but I didn't like the hangover so now if I can't sleep I just take some Klonopin. Seems to work pretty good.

i here that. I took 10mg of ambien a few hours ago..and here I am...still up. and I haven't taken any in 2 weeks. guess i'm weird or something..or hubby snores way to loud...(lol)

maybe I sould look into that trazadone.

sleep IS crucial..I know cause I ain't gitting any.

What my therapist told me is that if I do not get sufficient sleep I will not be able to handle the issue in my life that come up.

If you need something to get to sleep - your doctor should give it to you - even if you need it every day, imo.

I take Trazadone and that seems to work for me - not very well but some. If need be I also take Soma in the middle of the night to get back to sleep. It seems to work for me too.

good luck - we do need our sleep to function.

But hon - if your avatar is any indication of how you are feeling - I am SO sorry.......

I just weaned off the benzoes I have been taking for 11 years (and was VERY much addicted to!!!) I was really scared to do it but now I am actually sleeping better.

I take seroquel and chloral hydrate to sleep. The seroquel is definitely the best sleep med for me, I was taken off it for 5 months and never slept more than a couple hours without it. I have had problems with insomnia since 1999.

I take trazedone to sleep and can take up to 3 a night but I cant get up the next day if I take 2. Sometimes when 1 trazedone doesn't do it I take a klonopin. Seems to knock me right out. Some nights I get sleepy on my own and don't need anything.

I have found sleep aides don't work well for me ...but I do have problems getting to sleep.

So I use my nightly Klonopin dose ( 1 mg)
And usually a Tylnol PM, or Benadryl..I alternate between the two.

Good luck
We need our sleep

I have sleep apnea and insomnia. Plus a failing heart , so i'm SO limited in what I can take. I do take 2 mill of kolonipin every night , and if that don't work , i take 1 benderyl.
I only WISH I could take a sleep aid...
Good luck with the new med , i hope it works good for u ..
Always Sylvia ~

We do not have Ambien in Canada, so I take Imovane, which is a hypnotic. I also take Trazadone or Clonazepam if necessary.

I've had insomnia as long as I can remember. Three years ago I got off all sleep meds, and was doing great. Then I got shingles, twice, and had to take them over and over just to get an hour or two of sleep the itching was so bad.

I was getting off the meds again, and my father got sick and then died. I was taking mega pills to sleep at night.

My goal is to get off of them again. Quite a challenge. One good thing is I don't seem to get addicted to the sleep drugs. I just cut them in half for a day or two, then stop and no problems.

I took Ambien for 2 yrs and when I came off it I didn't have any withdrawal at all. I just took half a pill for 2 weeks then stopped. No problem.