"i tried ambien about a year ago for my inability to stay asleep.  i have several times a year where i wake up between 2:30 and 4:30 every morning for a few months at a time.  for me, ambien worked.  i slept soundly through the night until my alarm woke me up and i really enjoyed it. i was unaware of my certain side effect until my wife insisted we had a conversation i had no memory of.  so i started asking around to people i worked with and sure enough i had quite a few instances where i had full conversations with people the mornings after i used ambien and had no memory of it.  it got to the point where i had to speak to my bosses and ask them if i had any assignments i was not up to date on.  luckily, i was not."