Ambien and night eating

Actually, in my recent Mental Health class, Ambien and sleepwalking were discussed quite frequently.  There is strong evidence and cases supporting the fact that many people on Ambien experience sleepwalking and many other activities while sleeping. Please be careful and consult with your doctor about this situation.

I've been taking regular Ambien for a couple of years now and after I take it, I'll stay up a while so I'll get good and sleepy.  After I saw the report about people who take Ambien-CR that get up and eat during the night.  Most of mine is done after I take the medication and stay up for awhile.  I must fall asleep watching the 10 pm news and then get up and go eat a bunch of carbs.  (I'm pre-gastric bypass).  I would say yes, this medication has this side-effect on certain individuals.  You and I are those people.

I have heard lots of stories about unconscious night eating on ambien.  Scared the crud outta me!  Be careful and good luck!

I've read posts from others here on OH about night eating on Ambien that they don't remember. They knew it was them, since sometimes a family member would witness it and tell them "yes, you ate the bag of candy, and even offered to share" or something like that. While some of the stories were a bit funny, they were quite scary indeed, especially when some of the people had real issues with some of the foods. You may want to do a "search" on OH, and see if you can pull up some of he previous posts. In the meantime, I'd be really careful with the Ambien.

Yes I had this experience.  Also went outside and smoked, then ate, then went back to bed. The only thing is I knew I had done these things the next morning. I am no longer on Ambien for these reasons.

Oh heck yeah!  I bought some SF ice cream bars.  The next day there were 2 gone, so i asked my mom if she ate them.  She told I ate them after I took my ambien, and I swear I have no memory of this one at all.  I had the calories with none of the pleasure of the food! Annette

I don't truly eat in my sleep though ... I take the medication and get very tired.  I'm still awake; haven't even gone to bed yet.  I guess mentally I'm asleep though.  Very strange.  I've learned to take it and head the bed in 5 minutes as soon as I feel it hit me. Annette

I take Ambien every night and have done the whole sleep walking/sleep eating thing too.  I discussed it all with my internal medicine doctor, and had no problems with the night eating until I stopped taking my Cymbalta.  He said that can cause the night eating etc.  So, he has me back on Cymbalta and I haven't done it once since. I would definitely discuss it with your doctor.  I was unable to take Lunesta.  It worked fine helping me sleep, but I had a nasty taste in my mouth like I had sucked on a penny all night.  It was really bad.  So I switched to Ambien.   Oh, and before I forget, I too started seeing the weight loss slow down tremendously, and the only way I knew I was sleep eating was because my oldest daughter witnessed it and actually talked to me while I was in the middle of doing it.  I still have no recollection at all.  The husband now asks every time I wake up to potty during the night where I'm going.  It's funny, but not at the same time. I sure hope you get some resolution! Cynthia

Isn't so so so funny how medications effect people so different ways.  This post cracks me up........ I also take Ambien and sometimes I don't even sleep.  It takes an act of Congress to get me to sleep. LOL  My husband tells me he'll use the mallet if I don't go to sleep.  So I pretend sleeping.... Good luck to all of you....

YES!!!  It can and does happen and did happen to me!!! I ate a half of a box of chocolate caramel pecan candies.....something like 5 pieces several months ago and had no memory of doing so.  The only reason I found out was I saw the opened box with the plastic torn off of it on my dresser one morning.  When I spoke with my hubby that morning, I asked him if the chocolates was stale....I had bought them in December from a school fundraiser.....he asked what are you talking about??  He then added.....are you talking about that box of stuff you opened last night and was eating in bed??  He went on to add....you asked me if I wanted some and I said no.....I said your kidding me right???  He said no, why are you sick???  I said NO, but I am not suppose to eat chocolate candy....he then said, I just figured it was some kind of protein snack or sugar free snack......he said you got up out of bed walked over to the shelf and got the box opened it and started eating them. Worse has happened to other posters about Ambien amnesia......like online shopping, driving, ect.....it is very dangerous.  I had taken it off an on several different times pre-op and it never affected me like this.....only happened after my RNY.  Needless to say....I got rid of it and won't ever take it again. Missy