Please share Lunesta experiences!

Hi, Lunesta is used to treat sleeping problems, but if you have insomnia, you should take the med immediately before bed because you may fall down, like you did. Yeah, your dizziness is probably caused by Lunesta, it`s one of the most common side effects of all sleep meds (the others are drowsiness, lightheadedness and difficulties with coordination). And how drowsy you will be, depends upon how your body reacts to the Lunesta. Memory loss is rare, after taking Lunesta, but if you have that problem take the med only when you are able to get a full night sleep (never while traveling). You need to find out the right dose of Lunesta. Also, never drink alcohol with Lunesta. I`m having problems with falling asleep and am also taking Lunesta. After taking the med, I usually sleep over the next day, or, in the best case, I feel sleepy all day long.

I have almost completed the 7 day free trial. I work nights and sleep days and have a very difficult time sleeping at night on my nights off. Lunesta has helped me sleep through the night woderfully. If i have to get up during the night I'm also dizzy, which as a nurse, know that it is a common side effect. The side effect I find to be most displeasing is the after taste I get all day the next day. Water taste espcially bad. I have no appitiete either. ???good weight loss medication??? has anybody else had loss of appitiete? So far I like it.

I went from weighing 132lbs to 115lbs while I was taking Lunesta. This occurred in only a few months. When taking this medication I have a metallic like taste in my mouth, like I am sucking on a coin. I did have a loss of appetite. My Doc. decided to switch medications, due to my complaining about the taste, and my appetite came back. I have gained back all the weight that I lost in only four months.

yea i know what your mean about the metallic taste. I just started it today and its soo gross. How long does that last? I think ambient works much better.

I was just prescribed Lunesta by my physician. He warned me of the metallic taste that I might experience and told me to rinse my mouth with orange juice and immediately spit the juice out upon awakening. He said he was told this little solution by the drug reps of the medication.


He did not tell me about the weight loss benefits...hmmmm

Hi all,

I have been using Lunesta for about 3-4 weeks now. I sleep great on the 3mg but not 2mg. The 2mg i wake up during the night and can't go back to sleep. The 3mg work right away. I will take it right before bed and within 15 minutes I'm out. Sometime it's so fast that I have to make sure that my lap top is not on my lap cause I have fell asleep with the lights on and the laptop on me. It's a miracle that it works that fast!

This is my first experience taking meds for sleep. I am under a lot of stres with recently married and recently going back to school again.
I do feel that my mouth has that bad silver taste and my appetite has decreased. The first week taking Lunesta I felt that I didn't have an appetite at all. Not sure if that's a good thing. I am trying to lose 10 pds so it may be a postive thing. Has anyone else noticed or exp. the decrease in appetite or is it just me? It's not in the side effects stated on the medication label. It says possible weight gain but nothing about weight loss.

I also noticed that when it's that time of the month, my cramps get more intense and my headaches get worse. Just as long as I am getting my sleep it's good. I enjoy it for now. Thank you

I had insomnia and started taking Lunesta about 3 years ago. When I started taking it, I weighed 170 lbs. I started on the 2mg tablets, but after a while I progressed to the 3mg tablets. After a year or so my tolerance was too high for even the 3mg tablets, by this time I weighed 214lbs. I attributed my weight gain to getting older since I was progressing from my late 20's into my 30's. I just thought my metabolism was slowing down with my age. I stopped taking lunesta 6 months ago and my Dr put me on Kolonopin(sp). Today I weight 170lbs again. I have not changed my diet one bit, nor have I started exercising. I have lost 40 lbs in 6 months and the only change at all is that I've stopped taking Lunesta.

I took Lunest two nights in a row for bad sleeping patterns and now I've completely lost my sense of taste. It tastes like I'm always licking a pole! It's been 4 days now and I can't taste anything except this persistent metallic taste! I'm concerned that it might be permanent? What should I do?

I too have experienced the bad taste the morning after I take Lunesta. I haven't treid anything to make it go away but find that by mid-day it's usually gone. My bigger problem is the memory loss and the sleep walking. When I first started taking it I would fall asleep in 5 to 10 minutes no matter where I was or what I was doing . . . eating, on the computer (woke up with keyboard marks on my forehead more than once), watching t.v. And there was no warning, like feeling drowsy or anything, I was just awake one minute and asleep the next.

The problem I found was that after a while that instant sleep thing stopped happening so I would take it earlier than I should have. When that happened it was like my body was awake but my mind wasn't so I would do and say things that I had absolutely no memory of. The scariest thing was when my girlfriend found my heading out the front door, keys in hand, ready to drive to the store because - as I apparently told her - the dog told me she was hungry and I was going out to buy some Milk Bones. I thought she was joking with me until she video taped my next incident where I was sitting on the couch trying to drink a jar of jelly that I thought/dreamed(?) was a Diet Pepsi.

It sounds funny now, but thinking about what might have happened if I'd gotten behind the wheel or grabbed a bottle of Draino rather than a jar of jelly is really scary. So my advice is that even if after taking Lunesta for a while you find that you don't fall asleep as fast, get in bed right after you take it anyway. I'd never walked in my sleep before Lunesta and have done it a few times since, so be careful - - and if you're experiencing memory loss, you might want to have someone keep an eye on you to make sure you're not doing anything stupid or dangerous when you're under the influence.

I have tried Lunesta also. I have found that I experience the dizziness, bad taste, also some memory loss. I also have little desire for food and I have experienced worsening of depression and aggression. In other words this was not for me at all. I wished I would have read up on it some more before giving it ago. Do not make the mistake I did. Read every bit of information you can before trying.

When asking things like "Is the metallic taste permanent?" Ask your doctor! Why would a bunch of strangers on the internet know? You might as well be asking 4chan. It's not permanent, by the way. As for the dizziness, well, that is why they tell you when they prescribe it to take when you're ready for bed, a.k.a. when you're going to lay down immediately thereafter. I have really bad insomnia due to PTSD. It took an hour for the 3mg to work. I still followed my doctor's instruction and took it while sitting up...in my bed...with a magazine in my lap. I passed out with the tv on. I didn't notice a metallic taste, thankfully, but I don't think I would care. PTSD has kept me from sleeping for a month, to where I would be tired, but unable to sleep until I passed out from physical exhaustion each day. I'll take a metallic taste over that any day. The million dollar question is: "Do the benefits outweigh the risks?"

As a chronic nighttime insomniac who has been put on every sleep med ever conceived, I was originally amazed by Lunesta.  It is the only one to have not only worked well, it also gave me that wake up feeling great kind of sleep every time with no groggy feeling the next day.  I have normally only get about ten or twenty days like that in a given year!!!!  But the taste problem... Ugggggh!  If aluminum foil came in liquid form, it would taste like being on Lunesta.  I tried all the "tricks" to combat it--there are a hundred  suggestions out there.  But even putting it in a capsule so it never touches my tongue and taking with copious amounts of liquid for quick transit through the stomach, I would still wake up with a taste that could not be brushed away, rinsed away, neutralized, nothing, and it lasted all day and night.  It ruined all food and beverage.  Water was the worst.  Even breathing through my mouth was horrible.  I finally gave up after a month; what's the point of great sleep if every waking moment is hellish?  And it took a full week for the taste to completely fade away.  (I wonder if somehow this stuff gets into your mucosa straight from the bloodstream.)  Some people never have this issue.  Some find it unbearable.  Your mileage may vary.  But the one thing I got out of this was hope:  If one med can be this effective, there just may be another coming down the pipeline that will finally help me with this crushing sleep issue.

I have been battling insomnia for about a year. Before, I had problem sleeping here and then and took a sleeping pill, but the 30 day supply would last for a year, so it was more "as needed". Then something has changed, and I started sleeping very lightly, waking up to my boyfriend snores and exhales. I was in a killing mood (and he is such a sweetheart)... I was so focus on those sounds that i could not sleep whatsoever. I reached out for an ear plugs and got nasty ear problems that were 100 times worse than Insomnia. We only have one bedroom condo so there is no escape from the snores. Anyways, the snores got much better after taking some precautions, and I found ear plugs that work for me (not the kind that goes all the way to the ear canal), but my Insomnia remained.

I was first on Ambien-did not work, Ambien CR-did not work, then on the verge of an absolute exhaustion, i tried Lunsta and was amazed. WOW! I finally slept after weeks of agony...(not the 8 hour sleep, but adequate and thats what matters). My plan was to get back on the track and stop taking Lunesta. I remember suceeding for a while and starting slowly dozing off, but then somehting would always come up and I'm like i need to sleep tonight so i took it (I have a responsible job 8-5 every day)...so I never really got off of it and now I developed tolerance. I have not slept in a week, waking up exhausted, going to work like a Zombie and hoping for a good night sleep EVERY NIGHT which is not coming. I still take Lunesta 2mg, but I am only able to sleep for up to 5 hours-waking up every few hours or so, sleeping lightly almost like half awake..I'm afraid that if I stop taking it, i wont be able to sleep at all and that means I'd loose my job and THE VICIOS CYCLE OF WORRY STARTS! I got order for a sleep study, but honestly I dont think i will sleep at all so it may just be a waste of $3000, because they wont be able to measure anything. I also noticed that when I read lot of negative stories on Internet, i label myself with those and tell myself, omg this will be me in 5 years or so..and now I'm contributing to those stories!! ;)) lol..I have to laugh a little..  I hope i will conquer this one day@! Sorry for typos, tired!

I have been taking Lunesta for about 8 years, every night. About two weeks ago I stopped taking them. I went two days without sleep but now I am sleeping 10 hours a night without any problems at all. My only  problem is that I am exhausted all day long. I can't get anything accomplished due to fatigue. Does anyone know if this is due to the long term use of Lunesta?

Thank you.

Cathy