Ambien CR and High Altitude

[Gordon Smith]

Hello,
I'm headed to the Wind River mtns in Wyoming soon for a six day backpack trip. We'll be camped each night at 9500 to 10,500 feet give or take. I always have trouble sleeping on back country trips so I had planned on taking an Ambien CR each night. Then I read this page on altitude illness:
http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/safety/altitude.shtml
It mentions that sleep aides decrease the respiratory drive during sleep, which can worsen the symptoms of altitude illness.
I'm not sure this applies to the newer generation sleep aides like Ambien though. Has anyone had experience with Ambien at higher altitudes? I used Lunesta last year in the Wallowas without any problems, but the elevations were more like 7500 feet.
Thanks for your help!
Gordon,
Portland, Oregon

[Jesse Glover]

Pot is safer and cheaper.

[John S.]

Regular Ambien is said to not depress respiration at altitude..not sure about Ambien CR…probably doesn't either…ask yo doc.

[Robert Mohid]

Altitude greatly amplifies the damage caused to your, already oxygen deprived, brain cells from any kind of smoking.

A big reason Reinhold Messner sounds like Ali is because his sherpa partners got him hooked on smoking hash at altitude.

[Jesse Glover]

I didn't say smoke it you can eat it. But I was just trying to be funny anyway.

[larry savage]

You never want to scratch or break the coating of ambien cr, a timed release drug.
It causes the pupil dilation stay open or slow way down, not a handy prospect up high.
This happened to a couple of climbers on different trips.
About all you can do is sit down and wait it out.
Other then that go for it.

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