Sleeping Pill Withdrawal

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I was put on sleeping pills about a month ago but really didn't find they helped me much. So two week ago I cut my dose in half and last night I didn't take any at all.

I only got an hours sleep and even that involved a horrible nightmare. I was told to expect some 'rebound insomnia' but feel like death after just one night!

Has anyone any experience of coming off sleeping pill? How long does withdrawal last?

I have been addicted to all sorts of depressant type medications which all help you sleep better, including ambien.

Ambien worked for a day or two and then stopped working but I continued to take them because I enjoyed taking them a little bit.

I find that excercise is a great excelerating in cleaning withdrawl out of your system, this might help you sleep.

Generally it should last 1-2 weeks, can be very nerve racking and make you irratable. You will have more time to do things, so maybe plan some things to do with your extra time not sleeping. Also you might try and do a reset after a week, don't sleep for a night and then go to sleep early next night. I used to do that sometimes and it works alright though sometimes if you stay up for too long it's even harder to go to sleep.

Anyways good luck, hang in there.

It depends on the med. Supposedly, benzos (Valium and Xanax, etc.) produce tolerance and potential for withdrawal very quickly, as do nonbenzos (Lunesta, Ambien etc.) to a lesser degree.

I have been taking Ambien for four years now and have definitely felt I've developed a tolerance. My doctor is skeptical of this and seems to think it's more of a psychological tolerance-- I've been told I'd develop one, so I have one. According to research tolerance develops in about 40% of long-term users. Either way the same dosage I've been on for a long time just doesn't seem to work anymore.

As for withdrawal, I've never had any symptoms of it with any med. I also took Valium for awhile and stopped abruptly and felt no withdrawal.

Exercise only riles me up more.

My "natural" sleep is TERR-I-BLE and the low dosage of Ambien I'm on helps to improve the quality, if only a little and to a lesser degree than it used to.

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What drug was it?

I was on Ambien once, and became tolerant to it very quickly. For me, the worst of the rebound insomnia only lasted about 3 days. I found coming off of Xanax slightly worse, but not too bad. It depends a lot on your particular brain, though.