Ambien and sleep eating

I also heard sleepwalking and sleep driving is being linked to this drug. Here is one article.

Unconscious food forays tied to Ambien sleep aid

The New York Times Salt Lake Tribune

The sleeping pill Ambien seems to unlock a primitive desire to eat in some patients, according to emerging medical case studies that describe how the drug's users sometimes sleepwalk into their kitchens, claw through their refrigerators like animals and consume calories ranging into the thousands. The next morning, the night eaters remember nothing about their foraging. But they wake up to find telltale clues - mouthfuls of peanut butter, Tostitos in their beds, kitchen counters overflowing with flour, missing food, and even lighted ovens and stoves. Some are so embarrassed, they delay telling anyone, even as they gain weight. ''These people are hell-bent to eat,'' said Mark Mahowald, director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center in Minneapolis and one of the sleep experts researching the problem. He and colleagues are preparing a scientific paper based on their findings - that a sleep-related eating disorder is one of the unusual side effects showing up with the widespread use of Ambien. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn., have made similar findings. Most of the people who use Ambien say the drug puts them to sleep, and they wake up without incident. But several doctors and a number of report a variety of unusual reactions to the drug. The reactions range from fairly benign sleepwalking episodes to hallucinations, violent outbursts and, most troubling of all, driving while asleep, a subject explored in an article last week in The New York Times.