All sleeping medicines have side effects, may have the potential to cause dependency, and even worsen insomnia problems when abused, misused, or are taken too often. The side effects include daytime sleepiness, cognitive impairment, dizziness, unsteadiness, rebound insomnia, memory lapses, and hallucinations. Complex behaviors are a potential side effect of sedative-hypnotic products—a class of drugs used to help a person fall asleep and stay asleep.
Reported complex sleep behaviors include:
~ sleep walking
~ sleep-driving (individual drives when not fully awake)
~ making phone calls
~ eating or cooking while asleep
~ having sex
*Those effected have no memory of these odd events.
The Food and Drug Administration has said that the most widely prescribed sleeping pills can cause strange and bizarre behavior like driving and eating while asleep. Announcing that strong new warnings will be placed on the labels of 13 drugs. A review was prompted, in part, by queries to the agency from The New York Times, after some users of the most widely prescribed drug, Ambien, started complaining online and to their doctors about unusual reactions ranging from fairly benign sleepwalking episodes to hallucinations, violent outbursts, nocturnal binge eating and — most troubling of all — driving while asleep.
Night eaters said they woke up to find Tostitos and wrappers of Snickers in their beds, missing food, kitchen counters overflowing with flour from baking sprees, and even lighted stoves.
Sleep-drivers reported frightening episodes in which they recalled going to bed, but woke up to find they had been arrested roadside in their underwear or nightclothes.
At the University of Minnesota, Dr. Carlos Scheneck and Dr. Mark Mahowald, Professor of Neurology and Director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center at Hennepin County Medical Center; said that they had been studying the cases of nearly 30 Ambien users who developed unusual nighttime eating disorders. In some cases, the patients had gained more than 100 pounds.
For some patients, the strange side effect of sleep walking and sleep eating is unacceptable. They may gain a significant amount of weight, or worry about operating kitchen appliances while asleep. For others, like Rebecca Wiseman, 26, of Sumter, S.C., sleep eating happens only occasionally—and according to her it is a small price to pay for the relief that medication can bring. Mrs. Wiseman is hoping that by only taking it twice a week she'll keep her nighttime side effects to a minimum and be able to get back on a more regular schedule without medication. "But for now—even with the night eating and walking—a full night's sleep is still worth it all when you hit those lows," she says. "People don't realize what no sleep can do to you."
Related Links and References:
“Ambien Sleep Walking Turned Me Into a Midnight Binge Eater”. Health.
9 May 20008. Time Inc. 1 Sep. 2009.
http://www.health.com/health/condition-article/print/0,,20189024,00.html
Saul, Stephanie. “Warning: Side effects may include sleep-driving”. SignOnSanDiego.com by the Union-Tribune. 15 March 2007. Union-Tribune Publishing Co. 18 Sep. 2009
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070315/news_1n15sleep.html
Ambien CR. (2009, September). Ambien CR side effects. Retrieved on 11th October, 2009from
http://www.ambiencr.com/using-ambien/ambien-cr-side-effects.aspx
It truly amazes me how the FDA was not aware of the side effects of alot of these type of drugs! It's mind boggling to think that they are going to have to go back to 13 medications to emphasize the extreme side effects associated with this class of drugs.
ReplyDeleteHow is that people wait till they gain 100 pounds before they realize something is going on? Do they not go to the doctor where he should ask questions as far as to why they are gaining weight?
ReplyDeleteI work deep nights and it is very difficult to fall asleep during the day. As much as I love my Sonata, I have been known to make phone calls I don't remember and have woken up to find all of my shoes scattered around my house.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger, I would go days without sleep. At the time, I was full time college student and employee at a hospital responsible for patient care. So, I was in need of some rest so I decided to try out Ambien on my day off. I only took 5mg worth of Ambien. When I woke up I was still exhausted, dizzy, confused and I slept 36 hours straight. I couldn't believe I lost out on a whole day and half of the next day. My mom claims she attempted to wake me several times by shaking me continously and slapping my face. She thought I was dead. I had no recollection of her doing that. I told her thanks for aggressively trying to wake me up; it didn't cross her mind to check for my pulse or hold a mirror to my mouth to see if I was breathing. After that I got freaked out and decided to not take presciption sleep medication again just over the counter sleep aids.
ReplyDeletevery informative blog, explains why I may not have had enough sleep sometimes. I didn't know that insomnia was the term for it. Was also unaware that so many others have trouble sleeping too. Sleep med stories are unbelieveable, can't imagine waking up in my underware on the road.
ReplyDeleteI too like many other millions suffer from insomnia. There are many times I sleep 2 to 3 hours a night. I happen to take various medications and peraps this is the effect they are having on me. I have tried Ambien, Lunesta and have used melatonin as well. Ambien kept me to spaced out, Lunesta had me sleeping and not in control when awake I felt like a zombie. I feel melatonin does better for me. In today's world we have way to may many preoccupations. Many of us have children, grand children, spouses and parents to take care of or worry about. Each and every one of these factors in turn bring their own set of problems and complications to the table, not to mention illnesses and money problems. This brings about many sleepless nights. My husband also has insomnia. Once he had taken Ambien and did not tell me had done so. He decided to go out and get my prescriptions at the pharmacy. In the morning we discovered one of our parked cars had been hit durning the night. Needless to say, he had hit the other vehicle while driving out of the parking spot. He was not aware he had done so, but the paint markings on both cars clued us in to what had happened. $700.00 worth of damage was incurred, thank God no one had been in the other car. I found your blog very informative. Did not realize the effect of melatonin with alprazolam. People must be very aware of what they take and what they mix with it so that they can spare the expense of the consequences which can be very dangerous to themselves and other as well.
ReplyDeleteI have taken Ambien without problems, but then it did not work. Started Ambien CR with all sort of binge eating, walking in circles around my kitchen (according to my husband) and like others, finding empty chip bags, popcorn bags and cookie bags. Of course I have no recollection of some of this. I find if I take my Ambien and climb into bed, then nothing unusual happens.
ReplyDeletea lot of new and good information...I had heard of sleep walking but not driving and eating...
ReplyDeleteall kinds of medications have side-effects and so people should never depend on them...
they should try alternative methods like relaxing music, deep breathing exercises...
Thank you Jennifer, John and others for sharing your experience about the activities that ya'll performed without even knowing about it, when under the influence of this drug.
ReplyDeleteWait, sex is a complex sleep behavior??
ReplyDeleteSandra said...
ReplyDeleteYes, sex on sleeping pills is a complex sleep behavior. One woman in Orlando has claimed she was raped and robbed after she took an Ambien. Earlier in the evening she had some wine with friends, later at 12:30am took Ambien. She thinks she left her apartment at 1am, headed to 7-Eleven for cigarettes where she recalls speaking to a man. Where the rape charge came into the picture was the next day, she reported to the police that she woke up naked in her bed with vaginal soreness and believed she had been raped. The victim said several items, including a computer, two iPods and some jewelry, were stolen from her home. The man accused of rape says the woman was cogent and initiated contact with him at a 7-Eleven, inviting him back to her house for a drink and that the sex was consensual and she gave him those items. The woman said she did not remember the events of the previous night upon waking in the morning. Pretty crazy and unbelieveable story that involves Ambien, alcohol and extremely "complex sleep behavior" huh? Below are some links if you want to read the story in further detail.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/story?id=8160299&page=1&page=1
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/20119798/detail.html
http://www.wftv.com/news/20152520/detail.html
Okay I can understand some of the behaviors that can occur with sleeping pills but sex? why that behavior? could it be that sleeping pills are increasing sexual hormones? And is it only women or men that have had this type of encounter?
ReplyDeleteSANDRA said...
ReplyDeleteBoth men and women have experienced sleep sex behavior on sleeping meds. There is no way to tell who will have these reactions. Some prescription sleep drugs are classified as sedative/hypnotics. Ambien is one such medication and it affects chemicals in the brain that may become unbalanced; it is called a called central nervous system (CNS) depressant because it slows down the nervous system.
While eating, sleeping, and sex are basic drives, our activities based on these drives are quite complex. Given how vital and automatic these basic drives are, it is no surprise that the brain mechanisms serving them are located deep in the core of the brain. All three functions depend on nerve cells located in the hypothalamus, just above the pituitary gland. Through complex circuitry, other parts of the brain stem core orchestrate how these nerve cells are activated. The hypothalamus in turn connects to the limbic circuits, which organize the actions, emotions, and autonomic responses appropriate to satisfying each drive. The hypothalamus, which sits just above the pituitary (or master) gland, contains neurons that function more or less as clocks. They have a period length of about one day. The signals they put out trigger periods of rest and activity, and these signals in turn produce our states of waking and sleep. Via the sleepwake-windows, these neurons also affect our sexual and feeding control systems, each of which has its own rhythmic features, which we still understand only poorly. A key feature of the hypothalamus is that it is intimately interconnected with organs throughout the body through the many hormonal outputs of the pituitary gland. It is also tightly linked with other control systems in the brain, especially the neurons in the midbrain, pons, and medulla that modulate other neurons. These neurons influence drive behavior as well as thinking because they control the chemical microclimate of the entire brain by projecting their chemical messages over wide areas. REM sleep is when most dreaming occurs, and the electroencephalograph (EEG) readings of a brain in that state can resemble those of an alert person. REM sleep is characterized by the following changes: activation of emotion and “drive” circuits in the amygdala and activation of sexual organs. These are just a few of the drive-related functions that are altered.
SANDRA said...
ReplyDeleteThere was a study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. New information about brain circuit activity may help explain why some people who take the sleep aid Ambien walk, eat, talk on the phone, drive and even have sex while not fully awake and without remembering it the next morning. The drug has also been shown to awaken minimally conscious patients into a conscious state.
In experiments with mice, researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., found that Ambien shuts down some powerful brain circuits but activates other circuits when they're deprived of activity. "Brain cells or neurons are highly reactive to incoming activity throughout life," study corresponding author Molly M. Huntsman, an assistant professor in the department of pharmacology, said in a news release. "When brain activity is silenced, many neurons automatically react to this change. We see this in our study, which suggests that inhibitory neurons responsible for stopping neural activity are themselves shut down by Ambien. The excitatory neurons, responsible for transmitting activity, are then allowed to re-awaken and become active again, without monitoring, because the inhibitory neurons are 'asleep'," she explained. While it appears that Ambien shuts down active neural pathways and perhaps triggers activity in others, the actual mechanism isn't known. "Nevertheless, the paradoxical activation of brain circuits by a powerful sedative definitely needs more attention in additional studies in both human and animal models," Huntsman said.
Below are some webpages on studies of brain activity and curcuitry.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=7990332&page=1
http://www.dana.org/news/brainhealth/detail.aspx?id=10068