KathrynT

This is from the ambien.com website:

Memory problems: Sleep medicines may cause a special type of memory loss or “amnesia.” When this occurs, a person may not remember what has happened for several hours after taking the medicine. This is usually not a problem since most people fall asleep after taking the medicine.

Memory loss can be a problem, however, when sleep medicines are taken while traveling, such as during an airplane flight and the person wakes up before the effect of the medicine is gone. This has been called “traveler’s amnesia.”

Memory problems are not common while taking Ambien. In most instances memory problems can be avoided if you take Ambien only when you are able to get a full night’s sleep (7 to 8 hours) before you need to be active again. Be sure to talk to your doctor if you think you are having memory problems.

daisy58

Rex- you are a very bad boy!
.....checking my seat assignments now....oh look, seat A-what a surprise!!
uh oh....hubby seat C, not such a good surprise for him!
Our arrival from San Francisco to Genoa will be at approx 10pm (with a 10pm PST prior departure from SFO) I was planning on perhaps taking Melatonin when we arrive, to help us sleep (somewhat) naturally, and be perky for our train to SML the following morning, and pretty much avoid the dreaded, and experianced first hand, jet lag, what to all of you suggest? PS Rex, keep your hands, and all else to yourself

Faux

My experience with sleeping pills (Normasin) and Melatonin and nothing is that it made no difference to the amount of sleep I got, just how I felt when I woke up. Normasin let me sleep about 5 hours and I woke up feeling lousy with a "hangover", melatonin let me sleep 5 hours and no nasty taste in my mouth on waking and nothing had the same result as melatonin.

Now I take nothing but it is important to wear an eyemask and NOT to worry that you are not asleep. Just pretend to do yoga breathing and you will soon drop off but if you are thinking about whether or not you are asleep you will fret and will be too wakeful.

Since Melatonin did not make me feel lousy the way the sleeping pills did and if you think Melatonin will help, by all means do take it but avoid sleeping pills. Airlines discourage them anyway in case their is clear air turbulence or anything else that requires you to be awake when you need to be.

Neopolitan

Dina, you must have a revolutionary sort of doctor. He told you Ambien is "completely out of your system" in 4 hours? Has he alerted authorities to this news or let the company know?

RufusTFirefly

Whatever you plan to try, try it at home before your trip first. Melatonin gave me night terrors.

After that I decided to try a sleep mask, and it worked great. Any light reduces natural melatonin production, so a sleep mask should help most people to some degree. In the sleep disorder websites I checked they even recommended turning the brightness setting on your bedside clock to the lowest setting you can.

rex

<< He told you Ambien is "completely out of your system" in 4 hours? Has he alerted authorities to this news or let the company know? >>

Dina's doctor is just exaggerating slightly. The <i>half-life</i> of zolpidem is 2.5 hours. This means that the active (unmetabolized) drug zolpidem will drop from peak to half-peak in 2.5 hours, to one-fourth peak in 5 hours, to one eighth peak in 7.5 hours. Thus, at 4 (to 5) hours, the blood concentration of zolpidem is <i>generally</i> below the level to be sleep-inducing - - obviously, this depends on dose, size (and <i>volume of distribution</i>, a physiologic measurement that can be influenced by body composition) of the patient, and modifying clinical factors.

But &quot;completely out&quot; of one's system? Well, Neopolitan is <i>technically</i> correct to scoff at the use of this phrase.

The rapid elimination of Ambien, is, of course... the basis for the introduction of Ambien CR.

Best wishes,

Rex

julies

So how long has it been since any of you arrived at your destination totally sleep deprived? We are just back from Paris where we arrived like zombies because neither of us can sleep on planes. We've got ear plugs, eye maske, neck pillows etc. They don't make any difference at all; we're awake all night. This trip, not wanting to use Ambien, I tried Tylenol PM; didn't do a thing. Our first day in Paris I vowed to call the doctor when I got home so that for this summer's trip I can sleep my way across the Atlantic. I'd rather take my chances with Ambien (I've used it in the past on a couple of flights with no problems at all). My husband prefers to just resign himself to the fact that he'll be awakw because his body has some very strange medication sensitivities.

robjame

KathrynT - Not to shock you but just to be clear, despite what you read on Ambien's website (and we all appreciate the veracity of drug companies), this is not a memory problem, it is a sleep disorder. This is not &quot;traveler's amnesia&quot; or whatever euphemistic spin that they would like to put on it. These sleep disorders are people doing things that they would not normally do if they were awake. One person reported a gain of 100 lbs while on Ambien. People have reported candy bar wrappers surrounding their beds in the morning.

&quot;What happens is the patients get out of bed, walk to the kitchen, prepare food -- often sloppily, and often with strange, high-calorie ingredients,&quot; Silber tells WebMD. &quot;They have microwave food sometimes. They eat in a very sloppy way, either in the kitchen or after taking the food back to bed. And they have no memory of it. They wake to find a mess in the kitchen or crumbs in the bed.&quot;

Neopolitan

I liked the story from the woman who discovered the emply hot dog bun wrapper in her kitchen in the morning. Seems she tore it open and slathered the buns with butter and devoured the entire package without knowing it.

Thanks for the clarification, Rex. And even then isn't there a difference between its &quot;sleep inducing&quot; effectiveness time limit and residual drowsiness or after effects time limit?

SeaUrchin

For the first few nights after I arrived I used a little Lunestra and it worked fine to allow me to doze off. The adrenalin can get going with the excitement of the trip and the planes, etc. so I just need something to calm me down to sleep. Lunestra worked fine with me, no side effects, groggy feeling upon waking at all.

cadillac1234

I would be more worried about sleeping straight for 8 hours on a plane due to Ambien, having restricted movement due to the seat and being at risk of developing a blood clot/DVT than sleep-eating, amneisic air rage, etc.

There are a lot more cases of the former than the latter.

suze

Many people prefer anti-anxiety (valium, xanax) rather than actual sleep medication to help deal with overnight flights.

P_M

CAPH, of course the River Dancing, flips and yodeling were to celebrate your news!! Although I do these things as part of my daily routine, I don't usually do ALL of those things at the same time. So I hope you know how priveledged you were to have seen everything at once.

I fear that if I take Ambien on the plane, I will go nuts and I'll put on my &quot;CAPH's good news&quot; show all the way across the Atlantic. While Fodorites might appreciate my multi-talented act, I doubt that sleepy trans-Atlantic passengers would be to impressed by it.

massagediva

I have just returned this week from Venice with a friend.We both took Ambien CR on the way over. It worked well for me,but my friends remembers NOTHING of our arrival in Venice,including getting our luggage,customs,ATM visit,pulling our luggage to the Alilaguna launch,the boat ride,checking in to Locanda Orseolo,NOTHING. She only remembers what happened after we awoke from our nap a few hours later-SCARY!

ipod_robbie

I've also heard side effect warnings about Levitra. 4hrs + on a plane could be dangerous.

P_M

What's really interesting is when a man takes Levitra, and sits next to a woman with Ambein Amnesia.

Oldmyst

On my way to Venice, I forgot that I had my xanax medication strength doubled. So I took four pills (thinking they were low strength) instead of two. I slept like a baby. In fact, I woke up to find my dinner sitting in front of me. I think I slept ate it too.

Lea_Marie

Robjame,

I had a BAD experience with Ambien...

I took a Ambien about a year ago and had a really bad reaction to it. I started hallucinating, vomiting repeatedly and ended up in the Emergency Room. My husband, who had also taken one, was fine though and had no reaction to it.

I would recommend Melatonin to be on the safe side.

Lea

Neopolitan

drat. Every time I start to read this thread I fall asleep.

artlover

The only time I get a good night's sleep is with ambien, but believe me, this stuff IS addictive and for me, it was causing some real memory issues, so I decided to stop taking it nightly. Not only couldn't I sleep when I stopped taking it, but I got very painful cramps in my legs and feet when I was going through &quot;withdrawal.&quot;

Now I just take it once or twice a week so that I can at least get a decent night's sleep once or twice a week, and yes, I always take it on flights to and from Europe.

I've never experienced &quot;sleep-eating&quot;, though maybe the fact that there're several dents on the car that DD claims &quot;I don't know how that happened&quot; were actually due to me sleep-driving! LOL