March 13, 2024
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Prescription insomnia drugs known as Z drugs can cause bizarre and sometimes dangerous behavior while the person taking them is not fully awake.
Pretty much everyone has heard of sleepwalking – and some of us even do it from time to time. But sleep cooking and sleep driving?
Engaging in such activities while not awake – a phenomenon known as complex sleep behaviors – can result from taking prescription insomnia medications, also commonly referred to as Z drugs. These medications include eszopiclone (Lunesta), zaleplon (Sonata) and zolpidem (Ambien, Edluar, and Zolpimist).
Z drugs can improve the quality, though not necessarily the duration, of sleep, according to research. But they can also pose serious risks by leading to bizarre complex sleep behaviors, including driving, cooking and eating while sleeping, the Food and Drug Administration warns.
The FDA has even had reports of people accidentally overdosing on other medications or shooting themselves while taking Z drugs.
Upon waking, people may or may not recall their complex sleep behaviors.
The FDA cautions that people could find themselves enacting complex sleep behaviors even on lower doses or after their first use, and that Z drugs could impair your ability to drive or operate machinery even the next morning.
The FDA recommends:
• Discussing the risks of taking a Z drug with your health-care provider
• Reading the patient medication guide as soon as you fill a prescription for a Z drug
• Carefully following dosing instructions from your health-care professional
• Not taking Z drugs with other sleep drugs, including those available over-the-counter
• Abstaining from alcohol use before and while using Z drugs since together they may be more likely to cause side effects.
