Sleeping-Pill Deaths Prompt FDA to Add Strict Warning for Drugs

U.S. drug regulators added a strict new warning about prescription sleeping pills like Lunesta and Ambien, after well-publicized, sometimes joked-about side effects were found to sometimes lead to tragic injuries or even deaths.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it had found 66 examples of patients who took the drugs and engaged in dangerous activities such as sleepwalking or driving while not fully awake, including 20 deaths linked to carbon monoxide poisoning, drowning, fatal falls, hypothermia, car crashes and apparent suicide.