Health Tips
How Long Does Ambien Stay In Your System: Blood, Urine & Saliva Detection Times
We often see news about various famous personalities getting caught using drugs after a few days of attending a famous party. Have you wondered how the drugs are detected in their body even after a few days or weeks? This is simply because various parts of our body have their own time limit after which the traces of the drug are eliminated from them. To explain this more clearly, we will take the example of Ambien to give you a brief idea about how long does Ambien stay in your system. This will give you clarity regarding which part of our body holds the drug for the longest and which part holds it for the shortest.
Overview Of Ambien
This is the brand name for Zolpidem and belongs to the group of drugs called sedative-hypnotics. The primary use of Ambien is to help people suffering from sleeping disorders such as insomnia. Ambien is available in the market in various forms, such as oral tablet, sublingual tablet, and oral spray. This drug belongs to the category of Schedule IV substances because of the potential for causing dependency and addiction.
Your doctor should be aware of certain conditions before suggesting you take Ambien to avoid worsening your health conditions. You must tell your doctor if you have:
- Depression
- Alcohol use disorder
- Allergies
- Sleep apnea
- Liver problem
- Sleep issues
Dosages
The initial dose of Ambien is always the lowest for every patient to help the body adjust to the drug. You must make sure not to use this drug for a long time to avoid getting addicted to it. Be extra careful if you use Ambien during the day to avoid getting into any accident, because this causes sedation, which might increase sleepiness.
- Initially, 5 mg of Ambien is given to women, and 5 or 10 mg is for men.
- This drug should be taken at least 7-8 hours before sleep.
Side Effects
Ambien can cause several side effects in individuals taking it, ranging from mild to severe. It’s important to be very careful while taking this drug because any mistake can enhance the side effects, leading to death.
The side effects of Ambien are:
- Diarrhea
- Drowsiness
- Grogginess
- Heart palpitations
- Dizziness
- Dry mouth
- Headache
- Nausea
How Long Does Ambien Stay In Your System?
To answer the question of how long does Ambien stay active in your system, we first have to know how long does Ambien take to kick in. The effect of Ambien starts to show just after 15 to 30 minutes of intake, which is very quick for any drug. It stays in its full potential for around 2.5 to 3 hours, after which the composition starts fading and gets reduced to half. These time limits are just average and not fixed because they vary for different individuals.
How Long Does Ambien Stay In Your Blood System?
Ambien can be found in the blood for around 12 to 20 hours. These detection time limits often vary among individuals depending on various factors. The half-life of this drug is pretty low, after which it gradually starts to lose its effect. After 20 hours, the drug is finally wiped out entirely from the system and will not be detectable even by any test.
How Long Does Ambien Stay In Your System Urine?
The timeframe in which Ambien stays in the urine is 1 to 4 days, but the test can only detect it for 48 hours. It should also be noted that for the detection of Ambien in the urine, you have to conduct a drug-specific test since the normal test won’t show anything.
How Long Does Ambien Stay In Hair?
Ambien stays in the hair for the longest period of time, i.e., 90 days if taken in heavy doses. Due to these reasons, the hair follicle is a reliable source to find out about the history of Ambien use. In case of a smaller or lighter dose, the drug can be found for up to 5 weeks at maximum. The reason behind the presence of Ambien for the longest period is that the drug gets absorbed into the hair follicle completely and just stays there without much external pressure.
How Long Does Ambien Stay In Saliva?
The detection of any drug in saliva is one of the most common ways to find its presence. Similarly, a saliva test is also done specifically to find out the presence of Ambien. The presence of this drug can be found only within 24 hours of intake, which is the shortest time period. The individual whose saliva is to be tested must not eat or drink anything for 10 minutes before the sample is to be taken. The sample is usually collected from the cheeks with the help of a swab or sponge.
Factors Responsible For The Stay Of Ambien In The System
Several underlying factors are responsible for making Xanax stay longer in the body than its average time. These factors are also the reason why the time period of Ambien staying in the body is not the same for all.
Let’s discuss those factors in more detail.
- Age: This is one of the major reasons why Ambien might stay for longer than expected in your system. With the increase in age, the metabolism gets lower and lower for which makes it difficult to eliminate high-potency drugs like Ambien faster from the body. So, Ambien stays for a much longer period in older adults than the younger ones.
- Dosage Strength: The strength of doses is also another key factor. The body of individuals taking high concentrations of Ambien takes much time to eliminate as compared to that of individuals with lower concentrations. This is mainly because the body gets dependent on the drug, and hence, eliminating everything naturally takes a lot of time.
- Health Conditions: A Person facing any mental and psychiatric issues might find it difficult to remove the drug completely at a faster rate. Any problem with the liver and kidneys would also make the process of metabolizing Ambien slower because these are the primary organs responsible for taking the drug out of the body.
- Gender: Gender can also play a major role, as studies show that women metabolize Ambien more slowly than men. As a result, Ambien can remain in a woman’s body for a longer period of time.
Alternatives To Ambien
If you face any difficulty in taking Ambien for your condition, then you can go for various other alternative options available in the market. These options would be equally effective and give you the same results as Ambien. Let’s see what those are.
Alternatives to Ambien are:
Conclusion
At the end, we hope that you are clear regarding the time frames of Ambien in various parts of the system. Even if the Ambien stays for a different period in various organs, the working mechanism remains the same. You can consult the doctor if you face any difficulties due to Ambien staying long in your system.