As if having insomnia was not miserable enough, recent reports confirm that taking Ambien, the world's most popular sleeping drug, may result in a frightening side effect: sleep-eating.

From cases reported thus far, a specific pattern seems to be emerging. According to Michael H. Silber, MD, co-director of the Mayo Clinic Sleep Disorder Center and president-elect of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine:

"What happens is the patients get out of bed, walk to the kitchen, prepare food -- often sloppily, and often with strange, high-calorie ingredients. They have microwave food sometimes. They eat in a very sloppy way, either in the kitchen or after taking the food back to bed. And they have no memory of it. They wake to find a mess in the kitchen or crumbs in the bed."

Affected individuals have been reluctant to come forward for two main reasons: disbelief and embarrassment. First, many patients are completely unaware of their late-night feasting and have blamed their empty refrigerators on other family members or, in some cases, the hired help. One such case involved Judie Evans, a 59-year-old woman who was recovering from back surgery and sporting a full body cast. She hired two nursing aides to come and care for her during the day, seeing as how she could barely make her way to the bathroom by herself. Upon seeing the shortage of food in her refrigerator, she accused them both of stealing. Her son, who came to visit shortly after, discovered the truth:

The first night her son was there, he found her standing in the kitchen, body cast and all, frying bacon and eggs. The next night he found her eating a sandwich, Evans said, and sent her back to bed. Later that same night, her son arose to find her standing in the kitchen again. "I had turned the oven on," she recalled. "I store pots and pans in the oven and I had turned it to 500 degrees."

Once these patients become aware of their sleep-eating, some will still not inform their doctors, despite significant weight gain (one woman was reported to have gained over 100 pounds). They are extremely embarrassed about their food binges, even though they are in no way responsible.

Adding to the less-than-stellar news, according to a New York Times article, "Spurred in part by consumer advertising, more than 26 million prescriptions for Ambien were dispensed in this country last year, an increase of 53 percent since 2001."

So the question now becomes, how many more of these cases are we going to see? And what are the makers of Ambien going to do about it? As of right now, Sanofi-Aventis - the French company that makes the drug - defends its safety and explains that sleep-related eating disorders are listed alongside other potential side effects directly inside the package. Not much of a comfort, now is it? Researchers are currently investigating the Ambien/night-eating connection and will hopefully discover more details about what is causing the late-night binges. Until then, they are simply trying to spread the news to doctors, who have the ability to switch affected patients to another sleeping pill. Because really, if there's one thing America doesn't need, it's another way to pack on the pounds.