Ambien® Induced Sleep Driving Prompts FDA Order

Nationwide, sleep driving is on the rise. That sounds hard to believe but it's true. An incident of sleep driving just made the ABC Good Morning America show. I was intrigued as sleepwalking is akin to a paranormal activity to me, but is actually a parasomnia that includes sleep apnea, night terrors; sleep eating/cooking, the two in the title, and a couple more. I started a small search and found that there was an increase in the number of sleep driving cases in California, and Wisconsin, Washington. How long before the epidemic breaks out and a convoy of blank faced Ambien ® parasomniac driver zombies flood the roadways.

People have been getting arrested for this in California and charged with DUI, but according to law you must voluntarily drink, (or take drugs) then choose to drive. How can that be when after going to sleep via a sleeping agent, you involuntarily arise from bed to jump in your car and drive off to some dream induced function of your life. Imagine waking up to find yourself standing outside of your employment fully dressed with your car parked in your assigned space.

Sleepwalking is a series of complex behaviors that are usually initiated during partial awakenings from sleep. People will walk around with an altered state of consciousness and impaired judgment, and, according to the FDA, "sleep driving" is defined as driving while not fully awake after taking sleep aid medication, with no memory of the event. The FDA has ordered a change in sleep medication labeling in response to the growing number of sleep driving cases. The drugs are: Ambien; Butisol sodium; Carbrital; Dalmane; Doral; Halcion; Lunesta; Placidyl; Prosom; Restoril; Rozerem; Seconal; Sonata.

I'm not sure if you could, or should hold the drug manufacturers liable for any of this. The drug may facilitate the disruption of slow-wave sleep, the deepest stage of sleep, even to the point of prodding your mind into creating an ersatz consciousness that is disconnected from waking reality. Do sleep medications aid the dreamer? Be that as it may, how can the manufacturer be held responsible for what you choose to do in your dream?

This is no joke, how long will it be until these sleep driving related accidents result in fatalities, and anyone affected by any parasomnias adversely, may not find it funny. I think it's all rather bizarre. I had one sleepwalking incident (that I remember) at eight years old or so. I woke up nearly dressed standing in front of the bedroom closet - - getting ready for school. (I still sleep talk though, imagine that.) Many individuals have experienced some sort of sleepwalking but the condition usually disappears in puberty, except for 4 percent of the adult population. Do we really need that many people at risk to count on the reading of a warning label? These people probably shouldn't be allowed to take these medications in the first place, as it is a prescription drug, and ultimately the responsibility of the personal physician who prescribes the medication.

And what about the people we don't know about who are already walking around in an altered state of consciousness before going to bed? Would they benefit from taking Ambien® how about Lunestra? Cracking down on warning labels, and increased physician awareness of their patients histories will not stop those individuals who are negligent

"Probably the most striking feature of what we know of what goes on in the mind during sleep is that it's very independent of waking mentation in terms of its objectives and so forth. There is a lack of control of directing our minds in sleep compared to wakefulness". (From a defense expert in a Canadian murder trial.)