u/DisguisedSnail

I take zolpidem (5mg) occasionally when I know beforehand that sleeping will be difficult, either because I have to go to bed much earlier than usual or because I’m in a difficult sleep environment. Especially in the former case, I’ve had a few occasions where it took much longer to kick in than expected.

Normally, it works within about 15–30 minutes. But a few times, it seemed to take 2–3 hours to start working. I’m pretty sure it was delayed rather than not working, because on those occasions, I had trouble hearing my alarm the next morning, which normally isn’t an issue for me unless the medication is still strongly affecting me.

Has anyone else experienced something similar? Any idea what could cause this?