My experience of zopiclone (down the rabbit hole)

For me, zolpidem is less strong than the zopiclone.  It's shorter acting. I heard about people getting up in the night and doing things they don't remember and i never had that, no evidence of it, and plenty of evidence that it didnt happen.  But after i added zopiclone, i started getting the really weird stuff.  No sign that i ever went out in my car, or did anythign in my house during the night.  Just that one time with the plumber that i have no memory of, and once i woke up and was still in a dream, it was so real, but i was up, i got up and walked to the bathroom in the morning and i was still living in that dream. I dreamed a supervisor had called me from work and wanted me to work on something stressful and with a deadline, something that was a crisis.  And i was sitting up on the edge of my bed. I didn't have a phone, but i thought that i was talking on the phone. i thought to myself, "Aren't i retired?" and i thought they must really need my help to call me on my time off. and i wanted to help them. Then, i dreamed the phone call ended and i walked to the bathroom, but i was still in the dream because i was still thinking about what i had to do for the job, and i thought about the deadline, and i felt stressed out, i was in the bathroom, up walking around, and thinking about this as if it really happened.  And then slowly, gradually, i began realizing that this didn't really happen and i didn't have to do this stressful thing, it was a dream of some kind, though not like any dream i ever had before because i was always in bed asleep and would wake up and know i was dreaming, except for this one example. That near the end of when i was tapering off the zopiclone and still on the zolpidem.  

Earlier this week, Monday, Monday night, that was my first night on the new treatment from my addiction medicine doctor, where i was supposed to stop taking the 27mg of Ambien i was taking each night and start taking 10mg of Valium, and if i had "breakthrough anxiety," (he called it), i could take 2.5mg Valium during the day.  I just thought of that option as being if i wake up in the night and can't go back to sleep, i could take 2.5mg Valium to get more sleep.  The first night, i messed it up, i got confused. The tablets in my Valium prescription were 5mg, so i was supposed to take two tablets, but i got confused and thought that one tablet was 10mg, that's what i used to get when i was on Valium before.  I was quite freaked out by the idea of abruptly stopping the zolpidem after all that time and a pretty high dose, so i think that is why i got confused.  I laid in bed for an hour and had no effect from the Valium that i could feel, so i thought it didn't work and it wasn't a strong enough dose.  So i took about 10mg of Ambien, which was less than my usual bedtime dose of 17mg, and i went to sleep soon and slept better, longer, than usual, and then it was about 4am and i took a 2.5mg piece of Valium and 5mg of zolpidem (my usual dose at that time had been 10mg) and i went to sleep and slept really well, much better than i had slept in a long time. When i broke my  Valium pill in half to take 2.5mg, that's when i realized, DOH!  they are 5mg tablets, not 10mg, so that is probably why i didn't feel any effect from the Valium.  So the next night i took 10mg, it knocked me out fine and i slept til about 4 and then i tried staying asleep without taking more and i did, i had the best night's sleep i've had in years.  And no zolpidem.  So, so far, it's been a few days of that, it seems to be going pretty good.  The bad part is, the Valium is leaving me very hung over and tired during the day, sometimes when i stand up, i'm dizzy, that wasnt happening before so i assume it's from the Valium. I tried cutting it down, in consultation with the doctor, i cut it to 8mg, and i went to sleep ok, but i didn't stay asleep as long, but i didn't take anymore when i woke at 5:30, i laid in bed for some hours and then i did wake from a dream, but i know i didn't sleep much because i had been checking the clock every half hour or so.

So that's what's happening with my strategy to get off these meds. I'm onto the Valium now, 10mg, and last night i took a small amount of zolpidem when i was awake in the morning. It's kind of chaotic right now, but i'm working on getting it smoothed out.  

I am coming face to face with my hang ups about sleep.  What i need to do is just take the Valium, sleep however much i sleep, and if it's only 2 or 3 hours, then let it be that, and get up in the morning and go through the day, and know that i will get tired enough to sleep better after a couple of days or something. I am really face to face with my hang up about sleep. I didn't have this a year ago. I could have 4 hours of sleep and not worry about it.  

But if i take more Valium or zolpidem to go back to sleep and get more sleep, it's not like i'm feeling refreshed and good energy from getting more sleep. On the contrary, i'm feeling hung over from the medication.  Zopiclone was like that for me when i first started it. I had always just taken zolpidem, and then i found the zopiclone helped me sleep longer, but i found out i couldn't take it on week days because i couldn't work, i was too groggy, i was impaired, so i only took zopiclone on the weekends.  But eventually my body got more used to it and i was taking it all week.  I did continue to feel groggy but not nearly as much as in the beginning, and not as much as i've felt this week from the Valium.  I have an appointment to see my doctor on Thursday. He may advise tapering off the Valium now.  That is the goal, being off all of it, adapting psychologically to not always sleeping and not having control over whether i sleep or not.  That's the hardest part.  

there is a light at the end of the tunnel though.  Back in December when i was on both zolpidem and zopiclone and having all those weird symptoms, i couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. i couldn't imagine how to start getting off the meds. But then, when i tapered off the zopiclone, when i got to the end of that in late February, then i could see the light. i was still in the tunnel, and it seemed like kind of along way to get to that light, but i could see it.  So, i'll just keep focusing and refocusing. i need to let go of my clinging to a certain amount of sleep, it's a psychological hang up, and it's the kind of thing that, once i let go of it and move on and get past this stage, and this obstacle to moving forward, i will look back and wonder why i didn't do it sooner.  

Tell me something, how are you measuring 5mg of Zopiclone when they only come in 3.75mg and 7.5mg? I ask this as I am told that when pills are made that they are mainly filler and it is possible that the Zopiclone is not always spread evenly inside the filler so you could well get either an under dose or over dose if cutting the pills up. If this is true you would be better off going straight down to 3.75mg then you'd be certain of what dose you are taking.

Dave - SEVENTY FIVE DAYS ZOPICLONE FREE!

As I said since I stopped the phenergan, I am still sleeping well.   

After taking Ambien (zolpidem) for 20 years and being up to 27mg a night, my doctor had me switch to 10mg Valium and just stop the Ambien, which i  did. The Valium has me sleeping better than i've slept in years, but from my experience, i can't really recommend it.  Every day on the Valium, i wake up so hung over, i feel drugged all day. I hate it.  I didn't feel this way before at all, on the Ambien. The zopiclone did make me feel that way, especially in the beginning.  I was combining zopiclone and ambien, so impossible to say what caused what, but i am pretty convinced that zopiclone is a stronger Z drug than Ambien, in the sense that it affects more GABA receptors than Ambien does, i think Ambien only affects the one that is related to sleep, while zopiclone affects some others including one that affects anxiety, and that's probably why going off it can cause some high anxiety symptoms in some people.

Zopiclone made me feel groggy during the day.  Ambien did not.  When i got off the Zopiclone the end of February, about a week to a week and a half later, my head cleared and i felt much better, more energy, and that's how i've felt until i stopped the Ambien and started the Valium.  

The Valium is kicking my butt. It's a benzo and it affects something like 5 GABA receptors, not only the sleep one.  What's the point of sleeping unless it's to feel refreshed and awake during the day?  I'm sleeping good, like a normal person who doesn't have insomnia, nice, but then all day i feel groggy and tired, so i just know that i want to get off the Valium ASAP, talked to my doctor yesterday about a taper plan, i will cut one milligram a week.  But i expect i'm going to do it faster than that, and he will support that if i'm doing ok with it.

i dont' know how much longer i can stand feeling the way i feel during the day. It's like the zopiclone but stronger.

 If i was going to recommend a Z drug for short term insomnia treatment, from my experience, i would recommend Ambien/zolpidem, not zopiclone. Zopiclone has a broader more complex effect, it messes you up in more ways, and that can make it harder to get off of. I probably could've gone cold turkey off my Ambien and would've been ok in a few days but i was too scared to do it, so now i'm on Valium.  

If being on Valium or other benzos can be avoided, i recommend avoiding them, especially Valium because of the very long half life.  I have been reading about this in the past few days.  Valium stays in the blood stream for a long time, it varies so it's hard to say, but could be 200 hours. Then, there are active metabolites which stay in the bloodstream even longer. I don't know what that means ('active metabolites' ) but it can't be good.  And then, i was reading that the drug is absorbed into muscle and fat tissue, especially fat cells. The more fat you have, the more it is absorbed, and so that even after it's eliminated from the plasma or the bloodstream, it still stays in the body, mostly in the fat tissue.  When and how that is elilminated i'm not sure, i read something about it staying in fat tiisue at least 90 days or a period of months beyond that.  You will not get this with Ambien.  zopiclone has a short ellimination half life similar to Ambien, about 6-7 hours, so its out of the the plasma in a couple of weeks max. i don't know where else it's absorbed or how long it takes to be eliminated from other body tissue.  i would never recommend zopiclone to anyone if all that's needed is short term treatment for acute insomnia, like after the death of a loved one or something like that, maybe while traveling and changing time zones.  i would only recommend Ambien, a much simpler and short acting medication. 

And i would think that a doctor might first prescribe phenergan and ask the patient to call and let them know how it worked out.  

Emis Moderator comment: I have edited the post to remove the smiley and will report this to stop it happening again. It is due to typing an apostrophe followed by closing bracket.

You know, I think even though you are on Valium right now, I still think it's better than being on Zopiclone or Zolpidem because of the withdrawal symptoms you get during the day. The daytime axiety etc. Just keep lowering the dosage of Valium and you will be fine.

Phenergan is on prescription in Sweden, im not sure about US, Canada or Australia. But it's just an anti-histamine so it might be otc in some countries, but I have no idea. Just call your doctor and ask for a prescription? It should be easy to get it compared to Ambien or Imovane. For me it takes exactly 3 hours before it kicks in and makes me tired so be sure to take it atleast 3h before bed time. If you do get it and it works for you as well, you will probably be able to reduce the Valium more quickly since you haven't been on it for a long time?