Sleep Driving?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/03/14/sleep.drug.warning.ap/index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- All prescription sleeping pills may sometimes cause sleep-driving, federal health officials warned Wednesday, almost a year after the bizarre side effect first made headlines when Rep. Patrick Kennedy crashed his car after taking Ambien.
It's a more complicated version of sleepwalking, but behind the wheel: getting up in the middle of the night and going for a drive -- with no memory of doing so.
The Food and Drug Administration wouldn't say exactly how many cases of sleep-driving it had linked to insomnia drugs, but neurology chief Dr. Russell Katz said the agency uncovered more than a dozen reports -- and is worried that more are going uncounted.

I now know my next excuse when I get pulled over.
"I'm sorry officer. I just woke up behind the wheel and heard sirens. Um, where am I? I must have been sleep-driving again."

 

One day, if we're all very lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it) we'll be able to live with virtual impugnity by simply employing the sleep ____ defense.

i.e.-- Knocking over a liquor store (whoa! how'd I end up with a wad of cash splattered in blood).

 

First, the makers of 13 sleep drugs must put warnings on their labels about two rare but serious side effects:

• sleep-driving, along with other less dangerous "complex sleep-related behaviors" -- like making phone calls, fixing and eating food, and HAVING SEX while still asleep.

Wow. The sleep____ defense can even help you out when straying from your wife or girlfriend. I bet Newt wishes this warning came out a couple of weeks ago.

 

I have had sex while falling asleep. I have had sex while drunk. I have diven while asleep and driven while drunk. In both cases, being drunk was better. You might not can stop what's happening, but you know its happening.

 

I'd always rather be drunk than sleep. Unless I'm getting drunk to help me go to sleep.