So, I have finally come close to running out of Ambien, after a year of taking it almost nightly. For a light sleeper, it’s heaven to go to bed within 20 minutes of taking a pill and waking up 7 hours later. It’s good sleep. Why can’t I do this sleep thing naturally?
I have 2 pills left. I could wean myself off slowly by cutting them into quarters. I only took half anyway. I can’t believe that, at one time, a whole pill was required.
“Pah!” to the people who say it eventually loses it’s effectiveness.
In desperation, I bought some Benedryl. I figured, if nothing else, it would alleviate my allergies. It also gave me a nice nap for some of the afternoon.
Having not slept for a lot of last night.
So far, the withdrawal symptoms:
- insomnia
- mild panic attacks, here and there (joy)
But at least I feel more like “me”.
I expect that tomorrow, I can add “irritability” to the list. I AM going back to work, afterall. 
Congrats on trying to kick the habit! Addictions scare me, which is why I’ve never experimented with anything strong. I even go without caffeine periodically, to assure myself I can do it.
I have found that if you want to sleep at night, you should avoid napping at all during the day. I’m not an expert on sleep, but I’ve listed a number of sleep tips I’ve accumulated on my web site:
http://www.dkgoodman.com/sleep.html
Good luck!
Yeah… the thing about Ambien (at least I think), is that the withdrawal causes panic attacks in varying degrees. I know it’s not the lack of sleep causing it, because I took Benedryl last night and got sleep, but still had anxiety throughout the day.
It could be many things really. It’s hard to know what to blame sometimes.