I'm an insomniac. I reaaally don't want to use sleeping pills but it's getting to the point that I feel that I have to- I can't sleep at night! I am always exhausted!

I didnt know hypnic jerk is what that was. I also thought that happened to everyone now and then. :) I do have insomnia too and have since I was a little girl. It came and went through the years but then re-emerged itself full force when I started nursing school.

Ambien-CR has been a Godsend for me.......and my husband because when i sleep soundly that means he will sleep soundly because i will not be hitting him all night to get him to turn over to stop his freight train snoring or tossing and turning constantly............or be waking up every hour or two hours and being in a really bad mood in the morning.

I could write a book about things that people on Ambien have done. One man urinated into his grandson's crib (yes, with baby in it) because he thought he was at a baseball game; another went skinny-dipping in the high rise pool; dog walking; gardens dug - the list goes on & on. What's really sad is how many times a client of mine has been told they have dementia because of it, and yet, the minute Ambien is out of the picture, they're fine.

I wouldn't touch it with the proverbial ten-foot pole!

I think Ambien is like most other drugs. It is not and will not work for everyone. Different treatments must often times be tried before the right one is found.

However I find it really sad that the medical establishment (I see this in my practice too) would automatically label someone as having dementia without checking side effects and/or adjusting medications first:mad:

That's one of the major down-sides of working in geriatrics. Too many people are ready to dismiss an elderly person as having senile dementia or Alzheimer's instead of really checking out the brain patterns etc.

I do think that Ambien-CR has addressed a lot of the problems found in the original formula. Although the anctedote about the grandfather was someone in his Fifties!!

Has anyone seen that commercial for Cialis (sp?) - with possible side effects including "gambling"? That always cracks me up!

I have suffered from sleep paralysis since I was about 8. I do find that stress sometimes induces it and it always happens when I am sleeping on my back (hmmm I wonder if that is why I prefer to sleep on my side?). I had no idea what it was called until I read an article about it a few years ago. It is a very scarey sensation and I often do feel there is someone standing over me. You can hear everything that is going on around you but you cannot move (except my toes and sometimes I can move my feet, I do end up wiggling my toes through the episode). Sometimes it happens when I am taking a short nap at work-luckily I haven't had an emergency come in during this time, I am not sure how I would explain it to the staff. It comes and goes and when i experience an episode and then wake up, if I fall back asleep immediately I will continue to have episodes until I actually get up and walk around. I am fine after walking around and can go back to sleep. I also suffer from insominia but I think that has to do with working nights for the last 11 years.

This is one reason of many as to why I love working with the elderly and why i hope to be able to work with them in the future specializing in geriatrics/gerontology. I believe elderly people are often times not taken seriously or as seriously as they should be by medical professionals. They are truly a misrepresented, vulnerable population.

That's definitely possible. Just because it's a disorder doesn't mean everybody can't have it.:)

Me too.....however

I usually have a bad memory, but I have been forgetting the names of family members who I see at least once a week, I have been calling someone on the phone thinking I am speaking to speron A but it is actually person B. I am not sayingit is connected, but I am getting worse. I have been sooooo tense and on edge a lot lately, however I have been getting some good sleep.

Eek. I sleep eat when stressed. Usually pretzels, red vines, or a popsicle.
I have sleep paralysis on occasion which is related to night terrors, which yep, have--tho both of those are rare and act up also due to stress and sleep meds--lovely. and that psuedosomnia thing--have experienced that alot too.

And yet, I love to sleep. HAHAHAHA But all these things in me are brought out by stress.

Oh goody--as I just made leap out of traditional day job to work on my own personal projects and money is nil--i guess i can be expecting my old pals of sleep issues to visit.

good thing i don't have to be up and anywhere by any particular time in the morning these days.