From: Richard Evans on
I've had chronic, severe, intractable insomnia since 1992. I haven't
slept a night without meds in sixteen years. In the beginning, Ambien
worked well for about three years, but lost effectiveness. Since then,
I've been on everything under the sun. Most simply dont work. Some do,
for a few months up to three years, but eventually they all stop
working.

I was on Clonazepam for the last six months, and it worked really well
from May through July, then started wearing off. By September 1, I
started weaning off it. My sleep doc had nothing to offer but retrying
Ambien. Last Saturday, I took 10mg and dozed lightly for three hours,
then was up the rest of the night. Sunday night I took 20mg and was
out cold for seven hours, but when I got up felt worse than the day
before. Monday night I took 15mg, and instead of helping me sleep, it
revved me up. I took it at 10:30pm, got up at 11:30, felt better than
I had all day, and stayed up until 3:00am. I went back to bed but
never really fell asleep.

Now it's Tuesday night, my sleep doc is out of town until next Monday,
and I'm at my wit's end. I haven't had a minimal night's sleep in
almost two weeks.

Has anyone experienced similar paradoxical results with Ambien?