Sleeping pills that contain the drug zolpidem, including Ambien, Ambien CR, Edluar and Zolpimist, are currently dosed too high, says the FDA, and could even affect people's driving the following morning.  Here's something to lose sleep over.  The feds issued an Ambien alert Thursday, warning millions of sleep-deprived people across the country that the popular sleep aid leaves women too drowsy to drive in the mornings.  The Food and Drug Administration is requiring doctors to cut in half doses of Ambien and similar sleeping pills containing the active ingredient zolpidem.  The new requirements also pertain to Edluar, Zolpimist and Ambien CR.  “Patients who must drive in the morning or perform some other activity requiring full alertness should talk to their health-care professional about whether their sleep medicine is appropriate,” said Dr. Ellis Unger, a director in FDA’s Office of Drug Evaluation.  An estimated 60 million prescriptions of sleeping pills were written in 2011 in the U.S., according to the health care and technology company I.M.S. About 40 million of those sleep aids contained zolpidem.  Unger said the FDA has received a startling number of reports of car crashes and “sleep driving” linked to zolpidem over the years.  He said the drug appears to stay in the bloodstream of women longer than it does in men.  Laboratory tests showed that eight hours after taking medication containing zolpidem, 10% to 15% of women had enough of the drug in the blood to impair driving. Only 3% of men had driving-impaired levels in their systems after a night’s sleep, research showed.  The FDA is asking doctors to lower the standard dosage of immediate-release medication they prescribe to women from 10 milligrams to five milligrams.  For women taking extended-release sleeping pills, doses should be cut from 12.5 milligrams to 6.25 milligrams, the FDA said.  The feds said the drugs will also be relabeled to tell doctors to consider prescribing lower doses to men.  The warnings come about six months after Gov. Cuomo’s ex-wife,  , was charged with driving while impaired after swerving into a big rig on Route 684 in northern Westchester County.  Toxicology reports found traces of zolpidem in Kennedy's blood.  Witnesses said Kennedy, the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, was seen swerving in and out of traffic before the accident and the cops found her slumped over the wheel at an off-ramp five miles from the accident scene.
The U.S. health regulator warned that taking a widely prescribed insomnia drug at night may impair driving and alertness the next morning, and recommended the bedtime dose be lowered.
 
       New data showed that levels of the drug zolpidem may be high enough to impair alertness in some patients the morning after using it, the U.S.