Ambien CR and memory

I have been taking Ambien CR for 2 months - almost nightly. I think it does help me sleep. Or at least if I don't sleep, I don't remember not sleeping. I do wake up the morning after with headaches. I have a lot of headaches anyway... so that is not that bothersome to me, unless they get to the migraine point. I feel like it affects my memory the next day. Also for about 2-3 hours after taking it, my husband and son say that I am very talkative (which I don't remember) I have had 15 min conversations with my son and not remember. I have sent text messages and not remember. I have not been told that I have done anything else. But that is concerning to me. If I didn't have any other options for sleep meds, I probably would stick to it, but I am going to try something else that has less side effects.

after taking ambien CR for a few months with no real side effects all of a sudden I started doing bizarre things with very little memory of doing them, I walked around the house in the middle of the night in a blackout I cleaned things, ate things, made phone calls to friends and they couldn't understand me because I was slurring my words, My family said I was acting very drunk swaying back and forth and not making any sense. I"ve driven places and don't remember driving and that is enough to make you say o.k. something is wrong with this medication

I am 32 years old. For years I have suffered with insomnia. I finally decided to do something about it and get a prescription because I was tired of always being tired in the daytime and not sleeping well at night. Well almost 3 weeks ago I was prescribed with Ambien CR. That 3rd week of taking Ambien I noticed significant hair loss behind my right ear. I now have a bald spot the size of 2 quarters. My hair is continuing to fall out still today and that spot is now enlarging. I made an appointment to my physician and she claimed Ambien has no side effect of hair loss. Strange thing is, I have never experienced any side effect that Ambien reads on the prescription paper from the pharmacist and the pharmacist claims hair loss isn’t a side effect found in research. My memory is well collected and usually when I would take the Ambien CR I would wake up feeling great. Now taking the Ambien allowed me to sleep well relaxed but with 4 hours max and I would wake well alert to start the day. Those 4 hours of rest did feel like an 8-hour rest. So that was the only downfall with sleep using Ambien CR is that I was sleeping enough hours like I should have been. My physician now claims I have Alopecia Aerate because significant hair loss has caused baldness on my head. Blood work was tested for various diagnoses of illnesses and my results came back clear. She referred me to a dermatologist next week to seek help if it's possible for hair growth while I still take Rogain. I find it quit amazing that with in a few weeks of taking Ambien CR that I have experienced patches of baldness. I did stop taking Ambien CR because I strongly believe this Ambien CR is the cause of my hair loses. Me losing my hair have caused me to become depressed. I am very worried and scared that I may loss more hair and that the bald spot will continue to grow larger with extensive hair loss because I took Ambien CR before. I just know that this drug is the cause of my hair loss. I pray that with dermatology help that my hair will stop falling out and grow back. I DO believe hair loss is my side effect of Ambien CR since I experienced no other side effect of this drug.

I have been taking ambien cr for over 2 years. I did not realize I was having side effects until I started to notice things, and my family would tell me things. I was cooking late at night, full meals and eating them. This I would do either for my self or me and my son. He said I would carry on conversations with him and clean after I was done. I have gotten in my car and went to visit people, or went to the store (no memory of these acts). Just this morning I woke with a band-aid on my finger. Called my husband at work. He said I was washing dishes and he had been watching me do this.He said I cut my finger with a knife on accident and I said "ooh, i cut my self", and then I said "oooh look, there's blood". He immediately took care of it but he noticed I could not stop stumbling and I just stared at my finger like a zombie. Evidently I continued this behavior for over an hour and a half. He assumed I was awake because I was talking to him. But my words were limited and only in phrases. He took me to bed and I went straight to sleep. Just a few days ago, my husband was telling me about me and my son going to the store one night. (no memory of this) Now he is scared and he hides the keys, although he is a heavy sleeper. First he thought this was kind of funny, because I seemed so lucid. Now he has taken note of things. Like damages to our car, my new found OCD (with no memory of fixing and cleaning things), my need to be left alone and expressing this only at night, and how I don't need him in my life and how I feel I am a horrible person, all of these things occurring at night after I have taken my ambien. My biggest concern is the sleep activities and knowing that I am involving my son without knowledge. Thank goodness he has not been injured. How would I know if I have hurt someone with my driving? I don't. If my husband hides the keys and he wakes up and the keys are on the table and the vehicle is parked different. He knows it had to be me. I have even gotten dressed and went to the club (no memory of this, people telling me about me being there cause they saw me). And me seeing the clothes I wore laid out on the floor. Yeah, its gotten out of hand, I want to stop taking it, I need to. I tried and stayed awake for 8 days and then slept for 3 hours.Depression is only there when I am on the ambien, not when I am awake during the day. I have lost track of times and events. Memory loss is a horrible thing. I can't remember things from last week or last year. Its like gaps in my mind. Scary, yes, heartbreaking definitely. The breast pains, I thought that was just something new going on with me, still may be. I have to wear sports bras, to constrict any movement, if I don't it feels like someone hit me in the chest with a bat. I tried Lunesta (the rashes were unbearable). As you can tell, I am an insomniac. I am not sure what to do. I will call my doctor but I thought the sleep activities were not real. Now I know they are.

I've taken Ambien only once or twice with no side effects. My boyfriend however, takes it every night. He goes on ALL night eating binges, consuming almost everything in the kitchen. In the morning, the kitchen is littered with empty peanut butter jars, cracker boxes, cold cut wrappers, ice cream containers, jelly jars, left over take out boxes, etc. etc. This is what he consumers in just one night. This also happens night after night. I've asked him about it, and have had conversations with him while this is all going on. He seems lucid, but has absolutely no memory of his eating in the morning..But this new problem happened just the other night. We had what I thought was really terrific sex..You could have knocked me over when he said he did not have any memory of it what so ever This really scared me, and really got me thinking. He seems very sluggish during the day, without much energy. He has basically stopped going to the gym every morning, and I can see that he's putting much less effort into his very lucrative business. I've mentioned Ambien as a possible cause of these behaviors, but he doesn't seem totally convinced...What else could it be?

I am so glad to have found this site. I thought I was slowly losing my mind. Did late-night binge eating, house cleaning, paid bills on-line - all with no memory of it the following day. As the medication would start to work, I had a nightly "conversation" with myself about how worthless I was, how I deserved to have all kind of bad things happen, etc. I wouldn't have these kind of thoughts during the day. I haven't taken it for 5 days now after 10 months of continuous use. The first night was as if I had consumed a pot of coffee, tossing and turning, with practically no sleep. But each night it's gotten better. When I weigh the side effects against the benefits, for me it's not difficult to say I'd rather have my sanity back!

My experience with Ambien CR is from a family member point of view. My father-in-law has only been taking it for 2 weeks and I was unaware of any side effects, until last night. My husband & I live directly across the street from my father-in-law - so at about 9:30 pm we received a call from his dad saying he had fell (he is not an elderly man either - 44 yrs. old) walking to his door & needed help up. He told my husband he had taken 2 - 5mg of Ambien about 40 minutes ago so he was tired & going to bed- so my husband walked him into the house. Everything seemed okay so he came home. An hour later I went out on our porch and noticed his dad was lying at the end of the drive way face up not moving. I yelled for my husband and he went over and woke his dad up - my husband & brother-in-law helped him in the house. He got undressed and got into bed.
About 20 minutes later (I was still on the porch at this point) I saw him walk out of the house AGAIN and get a beer out of the cooler and start walking down the street in his underwear. I again yelled for my husband and when he caught up to him he was talking to the shrubs and telling my husband our neighbors cat was out (which it wasn't) and he was trying to catch it. Again we put him in his room and told him to lay down - which he did. We went home and were watching a movie in the living room and all of sudden we hear his dad's truck start up! My husband ran out the door - thankfully in time to catch him. His dad proceeded to tell him he needed to go get ice for the cooler (which BTW - was full of ice) and he is still just in his underwear. We convince him to come inside and lay down (at this point very argumentative). This time my husband stays there for a long time. An hour later he came out again ate half a gallon of ice cream and went to bed. This morning he got up went to work and has no memory of anything that I just described.
This medication seems horrible. My husband caught him the other night eating a pack of 20 cupcakes and didn't realize he was sleepwalking/eating. The more I read about this medication it seems like our trouble is just beginning. I just fear that one night we won't be home and something will happen to him or someone else. Please consider all the risks before taking it - it not only effects you, it puts your family at risk also.