My experience with Ambien CR is from a family member point of vie...

My experience with Ambien CR is from a family member point of view. My father-in-law has only been taking it for 2 weeks and I was unaware of any side effects, until last night. My husband & I live directly across the street from my father-in-law - so at about 9:30 pm we received a call from his dad saying he had fell (he is not an elderly man either - 44 yrs. old) walking to his door & needed help up. He told my husband he had taken 2 - 5mg of Ambien about 40 minutes ago so he was tired & going to bed- so my husband walked him into the house. Everything seemed okay so he came home. An hour later I went out on our porch and noticed his dad was lying at the end of the drive way face up not moving. I yelled for my husband and he went over and woke his dad up - my husband & brother-in-law helped him in the house. He got undressed and got into bed. About 20 minutes later (I was still on the porch at this point) I saw him walk out of the house AGAIN and get a beer out of the cooler and start walking down the street in his underwear. I again yelled for my husband and when he caught up to him he was talking to the shrubs and telling my husband our neighbors cat was out (which it wasn't) and he was trying to catch it. Again we put him in his room and told him to lay down - which he did. We went home and were watching a movie in the living room and all of sudden we hear his dad's truck start up! My husband ran out the door - thankfully in time to catch him. His dad proceeded to tell him he needed to go get ice for the cooler (which BTW - was full of ice) and he is still just in his underwear. We convince him to come inside and lay down (at this point very argumentative). This time my husband stays there for a long time. An hour later he came out again ate half a gallon of ice cream and went to bed. This morning he got up went to work and has no memory of anything that I just described. This medication seems horrible. My husband caught him the other night eating a pack of 20 cupcakes and didn't realize he was sleepwalking/eating. The more I read about this medication it seems like our trouble is just beginning. I just fear that one night we won't be home and something will happen to him or someone else. Please consider all the risks before taking it - it not only effects you, it puts your family at risk also.