Ambien or Natural Sleep Aids?

This morning on the Today show I heard a woman talk about her problems with a sleep aid she had been taking for 5 years. She worked nights and had trouble getting to sleep in the daytime. Her husband worked days, but at home. Her doctor prescribed Ambien.

She got up one morning to find a thrashed bag of hamburger buns, and the debris from the little bit of buns that were left, on her counter. She asked her husband if the dog got into the buns. Surprised by her question, he said that she ate them.

She had no recollection of getting up, ripping open the bag, slathering butter all over the buns, and voraciously eating every one of them. Though, she did say she sort of remembered a hazy dream that was something like that.

Turns out that one of the side effects of Ambien for her was unconscious binge eating while sleeping! She did sleep walk as a child, but not since then and nothing like this.

Whoa! Sleep walking, sleep binge eating!?! Sometimes she would get up and cook an entire breakfast and eat it, without remembering that she did it. She also mentioned that she was usually barely cognitive of the first two hours upon waking and she had memory related problems.

The pharmaceutical company issued a statement that said that there was no proof that this was a side effect caused by the sleep aid.

However, keeping this in mind, wouldn't you prefer a natural sleep aid that has side effects of better health? Also chamomile tea works as a mild sleep aid.