"Excuse me sir, you forgot your pants."

Odd little news item:

LONDON (Reuters) - A surge in naked sleepwalking among guests has led one of Britain's largest budget hotel groups to re-train staff to handle late-night nudity.

Travelodge, which runs more than 300 business hotels in Britain, says sleepwalking rose seven-fold in the past year, and 95 percent of the somnambulants are scantily clad men.

"We have seen an increased number of cases over the years so it is important that our staff know how to help sleepwalking when it arises," Leigh McCarron, the chain's sleep director, said in a statement.

One tip in the company's newly released "sleepwalkers guide" tells staff to keep towels handy at the front desk in case a customer's dignity needs preserving.

Article goes on to explain some of the common causes of sleepwalking, but curiously neglects to mention one which I have heard about: Zolpidem, known more commonly by the brand name "Ambien". Here's what Wikipedia has to say:

Some users have reported unexplained sleepwalking while using Ambien, and a few have reported driving, binge eating, sleep talking, and performing other daily tasks while sleeping. The sleepwalker can sometimes perform these tasks as normally as they might if they were awake. They can sometimes carry on complex conversations and respond appropriately to questions or statements so much so that the observer may believe the sleepwalker to be awake. This is similar to, but unlike typical sleep talking, which can usually be identified easily and is characterised by incoherent speech that often has no relevance to the situation or that is so disorganised as to be completely unintelligible. These statements bear a strong resemblance to that of schizophasia, one of many symptoms commonly seen in individuals suffering from schizophrenia. A person under the influence of this medication may seem fully aware of their environment even though they are still asleep. This can bring about concerns for the safety of the sleepwalker and others.

And Zolpidem is fairly widely used in the UK. Reports from there have documented the problems associated with sleepwalking and other activities, as was reported in New Scientist earlier this year. From that article:

UK and Australian health agencies have released information about 240 cases of odd occurrences, including sleepwalking, amnesia and hallucinations among people taking the drug zolpidem.

While doctors say that zolpidem can offer much-needed relief for people with sleep disorders, they caution that these newly reported cases should prompt a closer look at its possible side effects.

Zolpidem, sold under the brand names Ambien, Stilnoct and Stilnox, is widely prescribed to treat insomnia and other disorders such as sleep apnea. Various forms of the drug, made by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, were prescribed 674,500 times in 2005 in the UK.

Hmm. Certainly sounds to me like this may be the source of the problem Travelodge has experienced. Why was it neglected from the Reuters story? Laziness on the part of the reporter? Unwillingness to piss off the drug's manufacturer, Sanofi-Aventis?

Well, whatever the source, I think that keeping a camera handy to use before a towel is applied to the problem would be a smart move for any employee wanting to get out of the 'night desk clerk' job - just think of the blackmail potential!

Jim Downey

(Cross posted to dKos.)