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I have recently become intrigued with the strange side effects occurring with sleeping pills and read an article in the New York Times (F.D.A. Warns of Sleeping Pills’ Strange Effects) that covered this issue.  The two most famous drugs implicated in this article were Ambien and Lunesta.  Apparently individuals who have taken these sleeping pills are sleep driving and sleep eating.  These individuals claim that they go to sleep and then find them selves waking up with candy bar wrapper in their bed or pulled over on the side of the road.  I am curious about how this relates to central pattern generators.  I think we can assume that driving and eating are controlled by central pattern generators.  After all if when you are eating or driving you stop to consciously pay attention to what you are doing you will mess your self up.  The person is unconscious when these behaviors occur and usually do know remember or know what is going on.  What do these drugs do?  Do they shut down some inhibitory part of our nervous system that control behavior while we sleep?  Is the motor neocortex implicated in any of this?  Perhaps it is inhibited by the drug, would some one be able to do the single finger movement trick while in this state?  I guess I am just curious how the drug seems to simply turn on these central pattern generators and cause out puts.  Obviously the I-function in not involved in these cases, I guess that this should come as no surprise as the I-function does not need to be involved for the central pattern generators to work.  I find these behaviors so bizarre and frightening that I am wondering what the medication does to the nervous system to stop the inhibition of or to cause these behaviors.