Driving with over 0.08 percent blood-alcohol content is expressly illegal, and you can be arrested for committing this offense. But what about if you want take a sleeping pill, such as Ambien, and then get behind the wheel? A recent experiment aired on ABC News shows that driving with a sleeping medication in your system can be just as dangerous as driving drunk, maybe even more so. Ambien is America’s most popular sleeping pill and over 26 million prescriptions were sold last year. There were 60 million prescriptions filled for sleeping pills in general. The drugs are used to cure insomnia, and to put a person sound to sleep at night. Recently, a forensic toxicologist named Laura Liddicoat looked at the blood samples of 2,300 impaired drivers in the state of Wisconsin and realized something shocking. The 53 most erratic drivers on the road that had been charged with a DUI all had traces of Ambien in their blood.

The drug starts working in as short as 30 minutes, and causes the patient to become drowsy. Liddicoat says that if the drug is used as instructed, a person can wake up the next morning after a good night’s sleep and drive to work safely. Yet the drug has be to be taken directly before bed ideally providing for eight hours of sleep. If a person has to get up and drive in the middle of the night, it can prove fatal. If the driver takes Ambien for another reason before hitting the road, then his or her vision will be impaired. The effects of Ambien on driving were brought into light because of the recent Kerry Kennedy case. Kerry, daughter of Robert Kennedy, was involved in a hit-and0run accident recently, and admitted that she may have had traces of Ambien in her blood at the time of the accident. She claims that she doesn’t even remember the crash, nor fleeing the scene of the crime.

Drivers on Ambien didn’t just swerve in their lane because they were dizzy. Instead, they would drive on the opposite side of the road, or make other maneuvers that put them at risk to a head-on collision. Sean Joyce is very familiar with the effects of Ambien after he woke up in a cell with no memory of what he had done wrong one day. The man was on a flight to London and took Ambien to help him doze off on the trip there. But instead of peacefully going to sleep, the man ripped off his shirt and threatened the passengers. He still has no recollection of the event. Ambien spokespeople say that the drug is safe as long as it is used in the right context, but admit that sleepwalking and sleep driving have been reported.

The spokespeople at the company that produces Ambien say that they only recommend that people take the drug if they can set aside at least 7 or 8 hours to sleep the night before. If now, they may wake up still hazy from the drug. ABC Reporter Lisa Star wanted to know what the sleeping pill DUI scare was all about, so she took an Ambien and then hopped in the country’s most advanced vehicle simulator at the University of Iowa. 30 minutes after taking the drug. She swerved all over the digital road, and almost hit a pedestrian. After a nap, Star tried the simulator again, this time 90 minutes after popping the pill. She said that she could hardly see in front of her and felt she had no control over the car. If you have been charged with driving under the influence because you were using Ambien or another sleeping medication, talk to a DUI lawyer right away. Chances are that you need representation to show the court that you were on a sleeping pill and were not aware of its dangerous effects.