Ambien and the Z's

I’ve always had trouble sleeping. My first memory of this is nap time as a 4 and 5 year old. My sister and I had bunk beds. Since I was the older of us, I got the bottom bunk. I remember laying there for what seemed hour after hour looking at the images of old newspaper clippings that was the pattern on the material of the bottom of her mattress. I can still see the images of old steam ships and train engines with newspaper type. I don’t remember ever sleeping during naptime. I knew even then that it was safer to keep quiet and wait for Mom to come “wake” us up. My little sister tried to help me, telling me, “just close your eyes really tight and then you can see movies in your head.” She got so frustrated with me when I couldn’t see the movies in my head.

In college, my hours sleeping during the night had dwindled to 4 or 5. Which was fine, I was up late and had to be up early for class. Soon after that my son was born and I never knew how long I could sleep straight through.

I normally get 3 or 4 hours of sleep now. I’m used to it. Some doctors have asked if I get tired during the day or take naps. My answer is always, “no. I don’t get tired and I don’t nap”.

That just doesn’t seem right.

A few years ago, during a doctor’s visit we touched on my sleeping habit/problem. This doctor wanted me to try something called Ambien.

Wow! When I took a 10mg Ambien, I slept 8 hours straight! No tossing, turning, flipping the pillow, trip to the bathroom or turning on the TV after giving up on going back to sleep. It was my miracle drug!

I’ve talked to people that have experienced very strange things when taking Ambien. Raiding the refrigerator in the middle of the night or sleepwalking then waking up in strange places like the living room or out by their pools. I had no experiences like that.

Last year, I started reading a book by Stephen King called “From A Buick 8”. I was also walking in a park at the time, so I purchased the audio book to get a constant stream of Stephen King no matter what I was doing.

I mentioned that I watch TV at night when I can’t sleep. This has become a lot easier now with my iPad and Netflix. My iPad is right by me and will shut off automatically after a period of time. I don’t have to set the sleep timer on my TV anymore!

One morning I woke up, and as usual, I check my email. That morning, I received an email from Amazon.com thanking me for my purchase of “From A Buick 8” for my kindle app.

I don’t remember logging on to amazon.com let alone browsing for that book and then buying it!

Thank you, Ambien!