I can't say if the trouble was caused by Ambien or not. The maximum dose for women is now 5mg. It was discovered recently that women clear Ambien much slower than men.

I tapered off of Ambien by reducing the dose slowly, just like you are doing.

Hello Deny,

It can be very distressing to have symptoms that you know shouldn't be there, but no one can tell you where they came from. I took ambien for a while, but never had that sort of experience. I did take a medication called Buspar briefly, which was to treat anxiety, and had a similar feeling, though. It felt like a subtle vibration was going through my chest. It isn't listed as a specific side effect, but a lot of prescription medications occasionally affect people in really strange ways. It is possible that you are one of the unique cases who react to ambien in a rare enough way that it really hasn't been identified in drug trials.

However, while it may be very disturbing to feel those sorts of effects, it isn't necessarily evidence that it is actually poisoning you. The human body is incredible in being able to resist or recover from possible toxins, and keeping your dose smaller will also help with this. The nausea might be a withdrawal symptoms, since ambien can produce these. If it disappeared within few weeks, and your vibration symptoms disappeared after you dropped your dose and does not return, it certainly may be that these were related to ambien in your system. I hope that your symptoms do not return, and that it was just an odd effect of the dose of ambien you had been on.

Hello Deny,
I feel what you have been through! I started having strange symptoms when falling asleep that are not related to obstructive sleep apnea about 3 years ago and it has caused extreme distress. I was dealing with insomnia as it was and then this came up out of the blue. Did you originally take Ambien to help the vibration? I've taken meds to try and help but they either cause side effects or don't work very long. I pray your vibrations are gone forever and hope that maybe someday my problem will just disappear!

Thank you all. I have "chronic insomnia". When I moved to Austin and started seeing a new sleep Dr. I was taking 2 mg of Xanax at night for sleep. This Is when she started me on Ambien..to get me off the Xanax. My vibrations started around this time. I was being told the vibrations were from hormone imbalances. You can't imagine all the HRT I have been through and nothing helped until I decided to start weaning myself off. I had read that the FDA is recommending women over 55 max. dose 5 mg. This scared me. @dhary22 I am beginning to believe that I am that unique case reacting in a rare way. I am reducing my 10 mg. tablet with a pill cutter so slightly and it is working so far. It will be interesting when I get to 5 mg. My Psych did increase my Neurontin by 300 mg @ night. I believe this is helping me get to a deep sleep. Thanks again for your input!!!!!!!!

Please tell us how you do on the Neurontin as I may bring it up to my neurologist as an alternative to the Seroquel he gave me. I took Seroquel once and it put me out but I felt absolutely horrible the next day. As the day wore on I felt better but nothing like getting a sleep without medication. My very caring chiropractor gave his opinion on the Seroquel and cautioned against it. He said you need more over time even if they say it isn't addictive. And he said there is a 50/50 chance of having the side effects from that particular medication. He brought up Neurontin and said the same thing about it but of course he is not a medical doctor.

frogturtle,
I tried Seroquel sp? many years ago. It was a really bad med. for me. I felt like I was awake when I was asleep and couldn't get out of it. I felt like Hannibal Lector's offspring the next day. I went back to the Dr. a few days later and that is when he put me on Xanax. Neurontin was originally prescribed for the vibrations and I believe it helped. My psych increased my bedtime dose when she found out my sleep Dr. increased the Ambien. She uses Neurontin for Insomnia. An interesting thing is when I got to a certain point on my Ambien reduction I haven't needed my daytime dose of Neurontin. I have been taking it for about 3 years. I haven't had any side effects from not taking the daytime Neurontin. Knock on wood!!! It is sad that we have to pick our poison isn't it? I will keep you posted! Take care! Deny

Thank you for the information. So do you feel the neurontin helps you sleep deeply? The seroquel knocked me out well but when I awakened I just felt so bad. Did you do well sleeping with Xanax? How much did you take of that? Sorry for all the questions! I am trying to decide whether to go with a medication or not start this path. I was on klonopin for 7 months which seemed to help but then lost effectiveness over time. I gained 7 pounds on it too. The minute I dropped the dose, I lost that much in one day. I have tried so many things including CBT and sleep hygiene/restriction but the natural non drug things aren't helping me. I know people say medication is not the answer but when you struggle for years trying different things, what is one to do? Yes, it is like pick your poison!

Xanax did help me sleep but I required more over time. Living in Austin (the live music capital of the world) may have Dr's more apprehensive due to all the musician's and recreational drug abuse. Dr's here don't want to prescribe it. I didn't vibrate when I was taking 2 mgs at night. I think I started at .5 mgs. Tolerance is a huge issue. I think that is the same thing with the Ambien. Maybe Neurontin will be the same way, I don't know. I am taking 900 mgs at bedtime. I think it is helping me get to a deep sleep mode but I am only at a little less than 10 mgs on the Ambien reduction. I asked my pharmacist what he thought about me taking the Neurontin vs. Ambien. He said the Neurontin was less harmful. We shall see. I will absolutely keep you updated on progress. Feel free to ask questions anytime. It is So helpful when then there are people who understand.

I can see why the doctors are apprehensive in your area with a drug like Xanax. Here in North Carolina, it seems to be pretty lax and even more so up north. I have a cousin in NJ who was easily prescribed 1mg Xanax for sleep. I mentioned to her that it is an addictive substance but she didn't seem to care! As you did, I also experienced tolerance with Klonopin which is in the same family as Xanax. I actually like Xanax but don't feel it gives as deep a sleep as Klonopin. Klonopin took awhile to work for me but the sleep was sporadic. I would sleep well for a week or more and then back to bad sleep. So it wasn't great all the time but it did help my spasms as I was able to sleep through them if they did occur. But then after about 7 months, I began to wake up more before morning and had spasms while trying to go back. I was at .5 for 7 months which is probably good for a benzo medication. I did not want to increase it and instead weaned down. I tried Ambien a few times but 5mg was not strong enough for me. I had 10mg during a sleep study which put me out for 4 hours. I read about that new drug by Merck called Suvorexant which looks promising. I wish it was out now as I'm desperate. I'm going to ask my doctor about Neurontin. He might be open to letting me try it. Thanks again for your time! It is very helpful to talk to others who understand.