Ambien CR and phrases

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.

Hey. Just a disclaimer, before I list my experience. Keep in mind that everybody is going to react to a new drug differently. All drugs, especially drugs like Ambien CR, come with warnings in bold print and all caps saying that if you experience ANYTHING...ANYTHING abnormal after you start a new medication, to immediately call your doctor or pharmacist. Don't let it get to the point where your loved ones are driving. If you notice things have happened and you have no recollection...CALL YOUR DOCTOR! It takes maybe ten minutes to call your doctor or pharmacist. This ten minutes could potentially save your life and others. This goes for ALL medications, even ones like Tylenol PM.

Okay. Here is my observations of my mother (55 yrs. old) while on Ambien CR.

Ever since she’s been on the medication, I’ve encountered strange behavior on her part. These are the most common:

1. Phone calls, with no particular purpose or intent. She sounds like she is very lonely and just wants to chat, but her speech is slurred and her thoughts impaired. Most of what she says is not in coherent sentences, just mixed up phrases. Sometimes she starts off sounding somewhat normal and then fades into the slurred speech. I usually terminate the conversation once she starts repeating herself, asking questions she had either asked earlier that day or even just minutes before in the same conversation.

2. Eccentric “projects.” She recently said, “I’ve found that after I take my medicine, I get very creative.” This particular comment was after I found her in the kitchen putting Hot Tamales (the candy) in her ice water, after she had taken her medicine. Another time, she was standing on a trunk, trying to put up shades in her window.

3. Binge Eating. Just the other night she baked an entire batch of cookies...and ate them ALL within 30 minutes of them coming out of the oven. This is just one of the many times I've seen her eat like this after taking her medicine.

Overall, she seemingly "stays up" until she either crashes from exhaustion or only after repeated commands to turn off everything and go to sleep. I recently, after researching further, have found out that she actually is asleep, but medications such as Ambien CR can induce a complex form of sleep-walking and talking, as well as sleep-driving (though my mother has never done this.) It looks, to an observer, like the person is aware of their surroundings because they can carry on complex conversations, or complete a complex task, even though, they are really asleep.

The most concerning thing to me is that she walks up and down the stairs (or gets up on things, like the trunk in her bedroom) even though she is consciously aware that she gets dizzy and has little control over her balance. Most of the time she is living alone, so if she happened to trip and fall, it could turn into a very dangerous situation very quickly.

Another note: She only seems to remember her strange actions once she is reminded of them. Sometimes she will remember them accurately, and sometimes she has a distorted memory of the events, but almost always must be reminded of her actions before she has any memory of doing it.

Since me and our family have taken time to talk to my mother about this, she (an RN for over 30 years) is calling her doctor tomorrow to talk about alternative solutions to her insomnia.