We now realize that sleeping pills can cause some very strange and disastrous side
effects. Because sleeping pills turn off our brain cells – not always in all parts of the
brain to an equal extent – they can make people do some mighty strange things.
For example, having taken Ambien, people can act like somnambulists or sleep
walkers. In the more amusing examples, they may sleep-walk to the refrigerator
and stuff themselves with strange foods that they would not normally eat in such
quantity. Of course, this is not amusing if it leads to obesity, which can be a life-
threatening condition, or if they eat something unhealthy. Unfortunately, the
behavior of the so-called Ambien Zombies is not always harmless. In a few
reported cases, people intoxicated with Ambien have climbed into their cars and
engaged in sleep driving. Some of the accidents were bad, and the police did not
like how the zombies behaved.[27] Hallucinations have been reported with
zolpidem, zaleplon, and eszopiclone.[28] At other times, people receiving sleeping
pills have become confused or disoriented. Another odd symptom is complete
amnesia for events, even during the day. For example, a successful businessman
told me that while taking Ambien, he might have absolutely no recollection of a
conference which his own notes showed that he had attended. From viewing
various reports, I now realize that these terrible side effects may develop in about
1% of users of sleeping pills.
I do not think that these strange symptoms are unique to the new non-
benzodiazepine hypnotics such as zolpidem, though in 2006, Ambien was getting
most of the bad publicity. Similar lapses in memory and strange behaviors were reported frequently when triazolam was the most popular sleeping pill.[29] A lawyer
once asked me to consult with her client in the jail, where he was awaiting trial for
having murdered his sister. The lawyer said her client thought that the Halcion
(triazolam) he had been taking had caused him to commit this irrational crime,
because otherwise he had no idea why he had done it. There would be no way of
knowing for certain if Halcion was the explanation, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the
murderer had been a Halcion Zombie. One wonders if these reports have been
most common with Halcion and Ambien because they were the market leaders, but
it is interesting that both drugs are absorbed and removed from blood at about the
same speed. I am inclined to think that these disastrous side effects are not so
uncommon and can occur with any prescription sleeping pill (though we do not
know yet about ramelteon or doxepin.
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