4 ms·

(Genuinely curious and not trying to downplay the seriousness at all) What would happen if you took a month off work and all your obligations and stayed home a

by grecy 6y ago

(Genuinely curious and not trying to downplay the seriousness at all) What would happen if you took a month off work and all your obligations and stayed home and didn't take anything for a whole month? My understanding is the human body can't go more than about 10 days without sleep [1]. So I assume at that point you would fall asleep, and then over the coming ~20 days hopefully you could normalize it and get back to some kind of unassisted "regular" sleeping.... ? [1] https://www.healthline.com/health/healthy-sleep/how-long-can-you-go-without-sleep https://www.healthline.com/health/healthy-sleep/how-long-can...

Pfhreak 6y ago
According to Wikipedia, withdrawal symptoms can be severe including seizures, vomiting, etc. To do nothing of the discomfort from a lack of sleep. It would take incredible will power to overcome something like that. It also sounds like there are some treatments that can help fight an auction, including other medications that bind to some of the same receptors. Or very slowly weaning someone off (but then you have to figure out something else for the insomnia.)
bxtt 6y ago
I've actually decided to take some time off work because of my addiction issues. It's more so the cycle. I'll stop taking Zolpidem/Zopiclone for several weeks/month (the first several days -- terrible shakes, chills, nightmares, several days without sleeping etc. Zopiclone/Benzo withdrawal is far worse) After a while, I'll eventually adjust but I have insomnia/poor sleep so I'll eventually cave in due to sleep deprivation then I'll pick back up. For the past year, I would roughly take 90mg of either Zolpidem/Zopiclone in a single night. On average, I roughly go through 100 pills a week (I have pharmacies that sell to me...I know sketch). It wasn't always like this, when I first started taking medication after going to Stanford Sleep Clinic, I would just take a pill or two a night and have fantastic sleep. It was like this for several years but eventually my tolerance increased and my work stress/insomnia got worse with age. I want to reiterate that I've destroyed/damaged every meaningful relationship in my life. I state this all out because I've realized that people have a strange fascination with Ambien.
- refurb 6y ago
  For the past year, I would roughly take 90mg of either Zolpidem/Zopiclone in a single night. Holy crap. The typical dose is 5 mg or 10 mg. I’ve taken 10 before and I’m out. 90 mg?!?
- irrational 6y ago
  I can understand the strange fascination with Ambien. My wife was prescribed it one time. She would take it and then soon after want to have sex. Mind blowing sex (for me) every time. She was insatiable and wanted to do things way outside her norm. But the next day she had absolutely no memory of any of it. That weirded me out and I encouraged her to stop taking them. Though to be honest I wouldn't mind one or two of the ambien fueled sex sessions a year. Absolutely mind blowing, but also exhausting.
  - rdevsrex 6y ago
    That really makes you question how much free will we have, if a drug can produce that kind of behavior and affect short term memory. But more fascinating still is what functionality in the brain even enables that.
    - mensetmanusman 6y ago
      It’s often a question of how much. Do we have free will when sleeping? No. There goes a large part of our life. How about when zoned out? No. Do we ever have free will? Atheists looking at the scientific evidence argue that we never have free will.
    - foxhop 6y ago
      I'm of the school of thought that we have at 2 minds, my guess is this drug inhibits our egoic executive mind and our unconscious mind takes over.
      - Nexxius 6y ago
        I've been witness two sleepwalking events with different peopl. Both were fully conversant and aware of their surroundings, they just did odd things and we assumed they were drunk. Later we found out about the ambien and how neither had any recollection of the event.
Griffinsauce 6y ago
10 days without sleep is a great recipe for an epileptic seizure. Don't experiment with this kind of stuff without consulting a neurologist / sleep expert.
InfiniteRand 6y ago
I periodically used to periodically take a day off work and sleep pretty much the entire day to refresh myself during periods when I was having trouble sleeping at night. I found getting yourself back to sleep when you never get to 100% awake is a lot easier than getting to your initial sleep, of course this was with rather mild sleep issues related to stress and anxiety. This isn’t really an option anymore as a father of young kids

by grecy 6y ago

Pfhreak 6y ago

According to Wikipedia, withdrawal symptoms can be severe including seizures, vomiting, etc. To do nothing of the discomfort from a lack of sleep. It would take incredible will power to overcome something like that. It also sounds like there are some treatments that can help fight an auction, including other medications that bind to some of the same receptors. Or very slowly weaning someone off (but then you have to figure out something else for the insomnia.)

bxtt 6y ago

I've actually decided to take some time off work because of my addiction issues. It's more so the cycle. I'll stop taking Zolpidem/Zopiclone for several weeks/month (the first several days -- terrible shakes, chills, nightmares, several days without sleeping etc. Zopiclone/Benzo withdrawal is far worse) After a while, I'll eventually adjust but I have insomnia/poor sleep so I'll eventually cave in due to sleep deprivation then I'll pick back up. For the past year, I would roughly take 90mg of either Zolpidem/Zopiclone in a single night. On average, I roughly go through 100 pills a week (I have pharmacies that sell to me...I know sketch). It wasn't always like this, when I first started taking medication after going to Stanford Sleep Clinic, I would just take a pill or two a night and have fantastic sleep. It was like this for several years but eventually my tolerance increased and my work stress/insomnia got worse with age. I want to reiterate that I've destroyed/damaged every meaningful relationship in my life. I state this all out because I've realized that people have a strange fascination with Ambien.

refurb 6y ago
For the past year, I would roughly take 90mg of either Zolpidem/Zopiclone in a single night. Holy crap. The typical dose is 5 mg or 10 mg. I’ve taken 10 before and I’m out. 90 mg?!?
irrational 6y ago
I can understand the strange fascination with Ambien. My wife was prescribed it one time. She would take it and then soon after want to have sex. Mind blowing sex (for me) every time. She was insatiable and wanted to do things way outside her norm. But the next day she had absolutely no memory of any of it. That weirded me out and I encouraged her to stop taking them. Though to be honest I wouldn't mind one or two of the ambien fueled sex sessions a year. Absolutely mind blowing, but also exhausting.
- rdevsrex 6y ago
  That really makes you question how much free will we have, if a drug can produce that kind of behavior and affect short term memory. But more fascinating still is what functionality in the brain even enables that.
  - mensetmanusman 6y ago
    It’s often a question of how much. Do we have free will when sleeping? No. There goes a large part of our life. How about when zoned out? No. Do we ever have free will? Atheists looking at the scientific evidence argue that we never have free will.
  - foxhop 6y ago
    I'm of the school of thought that we have at 2 minds, my guess is this drug inhibits our egoic executive mind and our unconscious mind takes over.
    - Nexxius 6y ago
      I've been witness two sleepwalking events with different peopl. Both were fully conversant and aware of their surroundings, they just did odd things and we assumed they were drunk. Later we found out about the ambien and how neither had any recollection of the event.

Griffinsauce 6y ago

10 days without sleep is a great recipe for an epileptic seizure. Don't experiment with this kind of stuff without consulting a neurologist / sleep expert.

InfiniteRand 6y ago

I periodically used to periodically take a day off work and sleep pretty much the entire day to refresh myself during periods when I was having trouble sleeping at night. I found getting yourself back to sleep when you never get to 100% awake is a lot easier than getting to your initial sleep, of course this was with rather mild sleep issues related to stress and anxiety. This isn’t really an option anymore as a father of young kids