Are Sleeping Meds Causing Suicides?

The FDA recently required the addition of a box warning to some popular sleep medications after adverse effects lead to reported deaths. The medications, most commonly found in Ambien, Lunesta and Sonata, have led to reports of bizarre behaviors in the past, but the extent of their related dangers is only now coming to light.

Sleeping medications such as Ambien, Lunesta and Sonata have been known to cause some people to sleepwalk. The behaviors associated with sleepwalking can be bizarre and complex, with some users even preparing and eating food in their sleep. But some of the behaviors caused by these medications have turned deadly for at least 20 users. Causes of death include drowning, freezing, carbon monoxide poisoning, fatal falls, car wrecks and apparent suicides. 

Bizarre Behaviors

Studies have determined Ambien, Lunesta and Sonata can cause some people to perform complex behaviors in their sleep with little to no waking memory of the events. One study details the experience of a woman who reheated each night’s dinner leftovers and ate them in her sleep.

Almost like clockwork, about 1 ½ hours after falling asleep each night, she’d raid her refrigerator. Sometimes the woman had fragmented memories of her actions, but most of the time she learned about her activities the next morning by the messes she’d leave on the kitchen counter. She gained about 50 pounds as a result of her sleep-related eating disorder before her doctor took her off Ambien.

Police have caught users driving in their sleep, and many of those cases have ended up suffering legal repercussions for driving under the influence. Other users have put their lives at risk by exposing themselves to extreme cold or heat, walking in unsafe areas and even firing guns.

Note: A person’s chances of sleepwalking on Ambien and similar medications increases if they take the drugs with alcohol.

Deadly Repercussions

In some instances, medication-induced sleepwalking episodes have led to people killing themselves. One report describes a woman who died of head and neck trauma after falling from a second-story window. Her autopsy revealed she’d also been eating, with food still midway down her throat when she died. In total, at least 20 people have drowned, frozen to death, died of carbon monoxide poisoning, caused fatal car wrecks or seemingly committed suicide while under the influence of sleeping pills.

In addition to these scary events, sleep-inducing medications can also cause morning grogginess severe enough to impair driving. The FDA warns that users may suffer from decreased alertness even if they feel completely awake. Users of these sleep aids should take care when operating a car or dangerous machinery the morning after taking Ambien, Lunesta or Sonata. You could be more impaired than you realize.

Sleep medications affect different people in different ways, and many people are able to use them without incident. If you or someone you know may be sleepwalking while under the influence of these drugs though, it might be advisable to discuss alternative treatments. It might seem harmless enough, but continuing to take these medications may lead to serious, or even deadly, consequences.