Sleeping Disorders - Not to Take Lightly

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Chapter 5 is all about consciousness versus unconsciousness. It talks about how our bodies work when we are in a deep sleep, and some of the problems that can arise. Now, I know we all know about sleepwalking; from movies, if not your own personal experiences. I, myself, have been told countless stories of walking into my parents' room as a child and saying things I can merely laugh about the next morning, because I don't remember them ever happening. Well, what I found in our text, were not things to laugh about. What struck me the most was a controversial case of a man who claims to have sleepwalked to his mother-in-law and father-in-law's home, killed his mother-in-law, and seriously injured he father-in-law. He was found innocent. His defense was that he was asleep the entire time and wasn't responsible for his behavior. I was very surprised that this was a valid argument, as it was so extraordinary. Relating back to Chapter 1, there must have been undoubtedly strong evidence to back-up that sort of claim.

Although that was an extreme example, there are many smaller cases of people hurting themselves during one of their dreams or night terrors; which is actually a brief moment of consciousness and confusion before falling back into a deep sleep. One classic example is of Bizkit the dog, who is having a night terror and, well, see for yourself...

Reading over this chapter made me wonder if I have sleepwalked with no one to see it, and therefore no one to tell me about it the next morning. Maybe the saying, "Don't go to bed angry" is really warning us so we don't hurt the ones we love while unconscious.

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Good personal example! Sleepwalking and night terrors are much more common in young children than any other age group, so you probably grew out of sleepwalking.

Interesting video! :) I always sleepwalking when I am about 5 years old. My parents always worried about that. Luckily I not longer walking at night and have a better sleeping quality now.

Super interesting video and example! I myself have never sleepwalked but I think it would be scary knowing your walking around doing things at night and have no recollection of it the next day! I wonder what evidence was used in the case where the man was found to be innocent?

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This page contains a single entry by smit6163 published on January 25, 2012 1:19 AM.

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