A 28-year-old woman took her regular dose of zolpidem, the sleep drug sold as Ambien, and fell asleep sitting on a hardwood floor with her back against the edge of her bed and her legs straight out. She stayed that way for about 12 hours. When she woke, her legs were swollen and numb, and she could not walk.
Doctors traced the problem to both of her sciatic nerves, the thick nerves that run from the lower back down each leg. Hours of pressure from her own body weight had injured them. The condition carries an unflattering nickname, "toilet bowl neuropathy," because similar injuries have been described in people who fall asleep or pass out while sitting on a toilet for a long time.
