I was on 12.5mg of Ambien CR for 3 years every night, and proceeding that, on and off for several more. Four weeks ago I stopped because it was no longer having much effect. My doctor switched me back to a medication I took years ago; amitriptyline.

Amitriptyline is a very old anti-depressant that can be used as a sleep aid at a very low dosage (1/10 to 1/15 the dosage for depression). It's the side effect of this medication that is the key, it makes most people drowsy so you take it about 2 hours before bedtime. It only takes 10mg (vs. 100-150mg for depression) for the side effect to kick in. It has a long half life, much, much longer than Ambien so it is more effective than Ambien for people who wake up in the middle of the night. The first couple nights you may wake up the next morning with a hangover type effect, but that will pass quickly. (I did not have that problem.)

It is a very old medication and many young doctors may have never have heard of it, but it is still used for both sleep and for pain problems. And BTW, it is dirt cheap, pennies a night.

I made an instant switch without any Ambien withdrawal problems. Well worth trying it.

I slowly tapered off of Ambien. It isn't easy but it can be done. If the doc has not given a withdrawal protocol, you might ask him to provide instructions on stopping the medication.

I have been taking Ambien for the past 6 years. Every night. I started at 10 mg. Couple years later went to 15 mgs and about 6 months ago it stopped working and she raised it to 20 mg. I have for sure built a tolerance. I have a weird condition that I have been dealing with for years. I vibrate internally. Dr's say there is no medical explanation. They think it is in my head. It's not. I took the 20 mgs for 3 days and the next day my internal vibrations went off the chart. I never put 2 & 2 together on Ambien being the culprit for the vibrations. I pulled medical records and learned I started taking Ambien about the same time the vibrations started. I immediately dropped the dose to 10 mgs and the next day the vibrations were not nearly as intense. My son lives in California and has a medical marijuana script. He has been asking me to please try it to see if it would calm the vibrations. I did 1 day over the holidays and hated being "stoned". He left it with me as he returned to CA. He asked me to please try it for sleep. I did. I took 5 puffs and went to bed immediately. I could not believe the sleep I got. I have smoked it every night since. I have completely weaned myself off Xanax and I am down to 5 mgs on the Ambien. My husband is a musician so it won't be hard for me to find a strong strain. If I can get off all the meds I am taking, I just might turn in to a stoned old granny! I got a taper schedule from a site called benzobuddies. I will probably be at all the rallies in Austin Texas with Willie Nelson promoting the legalization of marijuana in Texas. Not sure how I am going to tell my Dr. about my new found solution. I think everybody should try this. It has to be way better for us than the man made chemicals we are using. Take Care!!! Deny

My daughters have been trying to get me to try mj, in cookie form just to see if my sleep is any better.

Could a person develop a tolerance to mj and need to use more and more to get that same good sleep?

I have wondered the same thing. My son said as long as I just partake at bedtime that I shouldn't have a problem with that. I suspect if I made it a daytime thing it would loose it's effectiveness as a sleep aid. Google Marijuana for Sleep. There are some interesting articles. I tried 1 of the cookies. It was the most delicious looking cookie. It was far to potent for me as a beginner. Maybe some of the more experienced can add some input. My son calls me Mokey Mom :)

i couldn't take ambien for more than a couple of days, it was too strong for me. I accidentally found flexeril does the job

I take Temazepam for sleep. It seems to work great for me. I think getting some sleep is definitely better than no sleep. Since I've been on this medication, I am having more vivid dreams than I used to before.

Doctor put me on 5mg and it knocked me out but I was not sleeping. I explained this to the doctor. After 3 days of it, I stopped because I read too many horror stories and I knew Ambien was not the answer.

Long story short, I looked around for months on what to do to get me to sleep. I was given a whole slew of remedies that at times, I was desperate enough to try. They all failed miserably. I was close to death when laying there one day, I thought about it.....

I thought..... ok, I get paid a whole lot of money to help resolve the most complex computer issues, why can't I figure this out??? Then a light bulb literally came on in my head. I knew that the only way to resolve my issue was not how to sleep but it was how to stay awake.

I searched for how to stay awake and not surprising, it's caffeine. Then, I discovered that caffeine blocks a brain chemical called adenosine and well, at the same time, Ambien acts like adenosine. Yes, adenosine triggers the drowsy effect and duh..... that's how ambien works.

Ok, simple.... problem solved right? All I had to do was figure out how to increase my adenosine levels and I was out of the woods right? However, that was just the start of the 4yr long recovery process.

and now??? I sleep naturally and I can sleep with the lights on, with loud music, loud people talking.... literally back to normal.

Good Luck to you.

Bruticus,

How do you increase the adenosine level?

camas...google how to increase adenosine and there is an interesting article on the livestrong website "how to boost ATP levels" hhhhhmmmm.