So I’ve recently changed medications. I use to be on Lunesta but due to a stomach issue with it I changed to Ambien CR recently. Honestly everything has been going great! I know CR doesn’t last as long as Lunesta but honestly I’m okay with that because I don’t normally sleep for 8 hours, more like 6.15-7 is perfect for me. Because of the shorter effect I don’t feel has bad in the morning like I did on Lunesta. Not to mention it works faster. I normally take my Ambien 2-4 times a week. I try to avoid dependence and tolerance as much as possible so I take it when needed or when I have to wake up early the next day. It’s been about a month and a half and I noticed something strange. On the nights I don’t take it I’m in and out of sleep for the first 30 minutes to an hour and within that time I have a lot of dreams, more than I have before. The part that’s bothering me more is when I wake up I’ll look around the room and get terrifying visuals. Like pieces of furniture turning into people and faces and I just have an overall sense of dread when I wake up. It’s not sleep paralysis either, I can move just fine. I don’t WD from it since I won’t go more than 2 or 3 days without taking it or I at least don’t feel like garbage when I don’t take it. I’m in recovery so I’m familiar with WD of all kinds and there’s nothing noticeable that makes me think I am. Besides that I find it surprising because I’m not even in that deep of sleep in the first 30 or 45 minutes. I feel like if I was in a deeper sleep it would make more sense. I don’t feel particularly exhausted from waking up either and I normally would the next day. Lunesta never did this to me but I still plan on taking CR since it helps and I guess this is something that’s manageable. I’m really wondering if anybody else has had something similar or does anybody know why this might happen?