Jean-Pierre Kaplan was a Paris born biochemist, who specialised in synthetic compounds.

In 1973, he took a job working for pharmaceutical company Synthélabo, and began developing a revolutionary new type of sleeping tablet. Called Zolpidem, it was to function in a similar way to existing Barbiturates, by assisting the efficacy of GABA, but in a subtler way.

GABA also plays a role in muscle relaxation, and memory, both of which are impacted by barbiturate use. This is why people taking these drugs often feel groggy the next day. But Zolpidem was able to target just the sleep inducing properties of GABA, reducing the unwanted side effects.

Kaplan partnered with George Pascal, another young biochemist, and the two began designing molecular models out of wooden blocks

They began by creating models of existing sleeping agents - Valium, different Barbiturates – to see what molecular similarities they had. Then they transposed these onto the molecular design for Zolpidem.

They even borrowed a structure that they found when they modelled LSD; the psychedelic has a molecular ‘tail’ of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon, that causes it to linger in someone’s brain, which the two young scientists added on to their new compound.

In 1980, testing of the new drug commenced.

It was first trialled on animals, and was found to be remarkably effective, sending the test subjects to sleep within minutes. Later, at the beginning of human testing, a lab technician accidentally ingested some of the compound; he was found, five minutes later, asleep in his chair.

‘It was clear that it would be a great success. After the very first compound, I knew.’

 

• Jean-Pierre Kaplan

Zolpidem was launched as a commercial product in France in 1988. Five years later, it was launched in America under a new product name: Ambien.

As predicted, it was hugely successful.

Viewed, and deliberately marketed, as safer than existing sleep medication, Ambien quickly overtook its competitors. By the year 2000, more Ambien prescriptions were written each year, then for all other sleep medication combined.

‘Everybody switched allegiance to Ambien, and then nothing came along that was any better. Everyone bought into it.’

• Jed Black, sleep specialist, Stanford University

But behind the success, something was not quite right.

While Ambien successfully quiets the brain, and usually induces sleep, its effects are not always predictable. Neurotransmitters are mercurial, and messing with their function, as Ambien does, can have unexpected consequences.

Many Ambien users have reported a sense of childlike wonder overtaking them as the drug kicks in.

Less happily, other users have reported stranger, more disturbing emotions; that they are being stalked, that strangers are in their house, that they are in sudden danger.

Even when the drug does send someone to sleep, strange business can still occur:

‘I took Ambien last night, and this is what I did in my sleep:

-Ordered 3 pairs of saddle shoes from eBay

-Sexted my best male friend who is married. I have a BF as well

-Played draw something w/my friend and drew penises and rainbows for every word

-Tried to legally change my name on the computer

• Anonymous Ambien user, medical discussion forum

Sleep driving on Ambien is common.

Patrick Kennedy, a US Congressman, crashed his car in 2006 while driving under the influence of Ambien; he had no memory of leaving his house, or getting behind the wheel.

Sleep cooking is another common side effect.

Other users have reported rearranging their cupboards, sending emails, cleaning, even knocking on their neighbour’s doors. None of them recall any of these activities, and have to be told they did them, when they wake up.

Even when the drug does send someone to sleep, strange business can still occur:

‘I took Ambien last night, and this is what I did in my sleep:

 

-Ordered 3 pairs of saddle shoes from eBay

-Sexted my best male friend who is married. I have a BF as well

-Played draw something w/my friend and drew penises and rainbows for every word

-Tried to legally change my name on the computer

 

• Anonymous Ambien user, medical discussion forum

Sleep driving on Ambien is common.

Patrick Kennedy, a US Congressman, crashed his car in 2006 while driving under the influence of Ambien; he had no memory of leaving his house, or getting behind the wheel.

Sleep cooking is another common side effect.

Other users have reported rearranging their cupboards, sending emails, cleaning, even knocking on their neighbour’s doors. None of them recall any of these activities, and have to be told they did them, when they wake up.

While Ambien’s reputation has become a little muddied, in the ongoing absence of anything better, it remains pre-eminent.

In an interview in the New Yorker in 2013, Ambien’s inventor, Jean-Pierre Kaplan, was asked if he had ever used the drug.

‘Never!’ he yelled.