Zolpidem is a medicine prescribed to treat insomnia and brain disorders. It is a short but quick acting medication, it acts after 15 – 30 minutes and has a short life life (stops working after 2 – 3 hours). Talking about Zolpidem effects there is still no adequate effectiveness in maintaining sleep, but there is a positive effect in initiating sleep. This medicine works similarly to drugs belonging to the benzodiazepine class, but its molecules are slightly different and because of that Zolpidem is classified as imidazopyridine. In cases of overdosing Zolpidem a medication called Flumazenil is used as it is a benzodiazepine receptor antagonist and can reverse Zolpidem’s sedative, hypnotic and memory impairing effects.
Although Zolpidem effects include muscle relaxation and seizure prevention, the medication is not approved to be used for that. The reason is that only a big dose of 10 or even 20 times could have beneficial effects, but on the other hand could be very dangerous for the patient and cause even such negative effects as amnesia, memory disorders or hallucinations.
Sometimes Zolpidem, similarly to benzodiazepines, is used for recreation. People use it not only to achieve a high, but also as a sleep aid or to ‘come down’ after using stimulants such as ecstasy, cocaine, amphetamines or methamphetamines. However, with Zolpidem effects in this case are slightly different and the user feels different,
too. With big doses effects such as halucinations, double vision, a kind of relaxation, an impaired motor coordination, mild disorders of perception, a sense of calm and relaxation and auditory hallucinations may occur. Finally, the person falls asleep. To tell the truth, recreational characteristics of Zolpidem decline with every subsequent dose and after the 3rd or 4th dose taken in a short time the person feels nothing but sleepiness.
Comparing to other medications for insomnia Zolpidem seems fairly safe. It is rather impossible to commit suicide by overdosing Zolpidem. Even after taking a dose as big as 400mg (which is 40 times a standard dose), Zolpidem effects were just nausea and vomiting, which makes fatal overdose highly unlikely.
Elderly people seem to be more sensitive to the hypnotic effects of taking Zolpidem. Several cases of the elderly falling after Zolpidem were reported. Moreover, patients with reflux disease should rather not use this medication as it causes higher esophagus exposure to gastric acid which subsequently may lead to esophageal cancer.
Zolpidem is a very popular medication in the Netherlands. It cannot be used long, usually it is recommended not to use it longer than two weeks. Also, it is used by the United States Air Force to help aviators and special duty personnel sleep in support of mission readiness. It is also worth mentioning that in some cases Zolpidem effects included unexplained sleepwalking, driving, binge eating, sleep talking and doing various everyday tasks while still sleeping after taking the medicine. Scientists have not reported yet if these behaviours are caused by Zolpidem if they are due to the short-term memory loss and amnesia side effects.