Now sleeping pills are the new sex

Already this year one hostess has confided that she has particular reason for following obsessive coverage on the subject of the nation's growing dependency on sleeping pills and their disturbing side-effects. She had started taking Ambien, the most popular brand, regularly. Suddenly she'd find her fridge empty in the morning, its contents inside her stomach. She had zero memory of her nocturnal binges though the bathroom scales sadly showed they had been all too real.

Since 2001 the consumption of Ambien has increased 53 per cent - a whopping 49 million prescriptions are written annually. Why is not clear. Fear of terrorism used to be cited but now it seems people just cannot tolerate the idea of a single wasted second in bed, as in their daily lives.

Needless to say it isn't just the pharmaceuticals industry that smells an opportunity here. Nasa has engineered a mattress costing $8,000 that the space eggheads reckon can fix what is now dubbed poor "sleep hygiene", caused by watching television or doing work right before bed, which keeps our bodies in an alert, restless state. Meanwhile, no one seems to have pointed out that all this coverage might merely exacerbate the problem.

A straw poll of friends reveals that few go without some sort of sleep aid although, intriguingly, no one mentioned sex. One found that while on a sleeping pill, he sleepwalked into the local deli to make a few purchases. He learned this only the next day when the store owner said it had been odd to see him at 3am.

His story made me remember the case of Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy, 40, who was arrested last year while driving late at night in Washington. Alcohol was thought to be the issue but Kennedy insisted he had been under the influence of prescription medications, one of which was Ambien. The last he knew he'd taken the drug and gone to sleep.

So what is an over-anxious sleep-deprived nation to do to avoid insomnia? I asked my doctor what he'd recommend. He didn't hesitate: a large glass of whisky. Who am I to disagree?

Vicky Ward is a contributing editor for Vanity Fair.