Has anybody watched news re connection of sleepwalking and Ambien (drug for insomnia)

Apparently, one guy was caught for driving under the influence. He says he doesnot drink but had taken Ambien earlier night. But does not remember getting up, getting dressed and starting the car till he got into accident.

The news also featured another lady who takes ambien and her son said she would wake up in the night and cook and clean the gas stove but was not awake.

Yea, that's scary.
I do remember reading somewhere that in such cases the doctor recommend reducing the dosage gradually and trying to get "tired in natural way" so to get sound natural sleep.

But does this drug has side-effect for all ? or just in certain cases ?

They have just found out. Further reserach needs to be done.

Here's the story from Fox

FOXNEWS.COM HOME > HEALTH
Ambien Linked to 'Sleep Eating'
Wednesday, March 15, 2006



LINKS
•Understand the New Generation of Sleeping Pills •Short Insomnia Therapy Beats Sleeping Pills •What Kind of Sleeper Are You? •Sleep Dos & Don'ts •Visit WebMD's Sleep Disorders Center
New reports appear to confirm weird behavior in patients taking Ambien, the world's most popular sleeping pill.

Perhaps the strangest of these behaviors is sleep eating. It was first reported in 2002 by Michael H. Silber, MD, co-director of the Mayo Clinic Sleep Disorder Center. Silber is the president-elect of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

"What happens is the patients get out of bed, walk to the kitchen, prepare food -- often sloppily, and often with strange, high-calorie ingredients," Silber tells WebMD. "They have microwave food sometimes. They eat in a very sloppy way, either in the kitchen or after taking the food back to bed. And they have no memory of it. They wake to find a mess in the kitchen or crumbs in the bed."

In each case, Silber says, the patient took Ambien as prescribed. At the time of the 2002 report, Silber had seen no more than five cases. He now has seen some 20 cases of sleep eating in patients who took Ambien as directed.

"It could be injurious -- but I have not had anyone who set the kitchen on fire," Silber says. "The most important thing is the severe embarrassment and discomfort these patients experience. And some put on a lot of weight due to high-caloric sleep eating. We have some patients who have had it happen often -- in one patient, more than once a night."

(Story continues below)

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Understand the New Generation of Sleeping Pills


Sleep-Related Eating Disorder

New interest in this rare, strange side effect of Ambien has been spurred by recent New York Times articles. The articles cite recent studies by Carlos H. Schenck, MD, and colleagues at the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center. Schenck told the Times that he thinks thousands of U.S. Ambien users experience sleep-related eating disorders.

Sleep eating isn't a new phenomenon. It's a rare sleep problem called sleep-related eating disorder. It may be related to an eating problem called nocturnal eating disorder, in which people fully wake up, get out of bed fully conscious, and binge eat.

"Sleep-related eating disorder happens during sleep, with no memory of the event. Nocturnal eating disorder is when people wake up hungry and, with full memory and consciousness, begin to eat," Silber says. "We have had people with nocturnal eating disorder who were put on Ambien, and they converted to nocturnal sleep disorder. There may be a continuum, but that has not been well explored."

Short Insomnia Therapy Beats Sleeping Pills

Sleeping Pills and Sleepwalking

Maha Alattar, MD, a sleep disorder specialist at the epilepsy and sleep disorders center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says Ambien actually helps people with sleep disorders.

"I have put patients with sleepwalking and bizarre sleepwalking behaviors on Ambien, and it helped," Alattar tells WebMD. "It suppressed the arousal mechanisms that let these patients wake up to do these odd things. But any sleep medication can create bizarre effects."

Silber hasn't seen any of these bizarre behaviors in patients taking other brands of sleeping pills. That may be because Ambien is different, he says -- or it may simply be that so many more people take Ambien than any other sleep drug.

In any event, Silber says Ambien is still a very useful drug.

"We should not slam Ambien because it has some rare, unpleasant side effects," he says. "I still prescribe it for some of my patients."

What Kind of Sleeper Are You?


Sleep Driving?

The New York Times articles also linked Ambien to another disturbing side effect: sleep driving. In a recent report to a forensic science meeting, Laura J. Liddicoat reported a series of drivers arrested after driving under the influence of Ambien. Liddicoat is supervisor of the Toxicology Section at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene.

Liddicoat objects to the term "sleep driving," as the people arrested in Wisconsin had misused or abused Ambien. All had taken Ambien before driving, not before going to bed.

"All of the cases that I have personal knowledge of involved people that were not in bed sleeping prior to driving, and took Ambien while intending to stay awake and be active," Liddicoat told WebMD in a recent interview. "Ambien has been in the 'Top 20' drugs -- other than ethanol -- detected in Wisconsin drivers for each of the last seven years."

Silber says he's never seen a case in which a patient took Ambien, went to bed, and was later found sleep driving.

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Chandresh

Advice is free – lessons I charge for!!

Yes, I was listening to the story on the public radio.

However, there wasone guy who took the drug, got into the car, drove home, and got into a wreck. His intent was to be fall asleep as soon as he got home.

Then there was another individual who took this drug with wine.

Both of the above are a big no no. Anyway, the problem is probably a mix of a screwed up drug and a whole lotta stupid people.

Makes the lawyers rich

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Dimple2001