Sleep medication usually makes you sleep, not jump in your gas guzzling Mustang and head to Capitol Hill for a vote in the middle of the night. He was either drunk or needs to be under 24 hour psychiatric observation.
Relax! It was a six cylinder 'Stang. /sarc
I was prescribed Ambien a couple times for one-offs like jet lag, and this doen't sound anything like the effects it produces.
You take your dose and it *does* do a good job of sending you too sleep, but even if you do wake up a few hours later you're not going to be staggering around and driving to work at 3AM with your lights off. You'll simply be awake again, not acting as if you'd just guzzled half a bottle of Jamesons.