I’m very sorry for what happened to your friend. I also had very scary side effects from Ambien. I only took 5mg and it got me 7 hours of sleep, but it made my heart race and I got anxious, stressed out to the max and very angry which is not my style at all. I now take 1-2 Advil PMs and Melatonin. Sleep just fine most of the time. Learning to relax is half the struggle. I later learned that they tested only men on Ambien but advertised it to both men and women. There is not only sleep walking but sleep sex, sleep driving and sleep eating. I’m staying away from that stuff!