As chapter five in the book told us, sleepwalking is a relatively common occurrence in children. Most of the time they just make funny stories to joke about in the future, and I actually thought it was kind of cool when I was a kid (although it never actually happened to me). However, as the book demonstrated to us by giving some examples, sleepwalking can actually become quite dangerous in some adults. This reminded me of the time two years ago my friend's 16-year-old brother ended up a half-mile away from his house in only his underwear in freezing temperatures.
According to some sources though, the widely-distributed sleeping pill Ambien may actually cause an even more dangerous occurrence--sleep driving (and we thought we had a problem with texting and driving). According to the article, blood samples were taken in the state of Wisconsin for 2,300 impaired drivers, and 53 of those had Ambien in their blood. These 53 cases also accounted for some of the most bizarre incidents on the road, such as driving on the wrong side of the road instead of just simply weaving into other lanes.
The scientists do want to make it clear, though, that taking Ambien as directed should not cause these erratic behaviors. The pill is designed to be completely out of the blood stream within eight hours of taking the pill, but taking more than one or taking a pill too late in the night can actually cause it to stick with the patient for their morning commute. It's clear that taking this drug incorrectly can cause some very undesirable side effects, such as the case of Sean Joyce, who ripped of his shirt on an airplane and threatened everyone on board. Joyce had no recollection of the events when he woke up in a cell the next morning.
Sleepwalking will always be a very peculiar behavior in humans. However, we must also realize that more extreme cases of the behavior can actually cause harm to many people, and there is sufficient evidence to show that common sleeping medication can actually bring out extreme cases of this behavior in many of us.
I have always thought that sleep walking was very interesting myself. My younger brother sleep walks, but it is not very often (that we know of) and it has not been dangerous so far. One time he came into my room with his pillow and comforter and wanted to use my bathroom. I was very confused because one- I had been sleeping and he turned on the bedroom light which woke me, two- he had his pillow and blanket with him while wanting to use the bathroom, three- he had his own bathroom to use. I had told him to go back to bed that night and he threw his blanket and pillow on the floor in rage and went back to bed. I asked him in the morning if he remembered anything from the night, he couldn't recall anything. Another time with my brother was when my family and I were in Colorado visiting my grandmother. While there, my brother slept on the couch. The first night we were there, my brother slept walk. He moved the couch from the wall and took the vent out of the floor (he didn't even know there was a vent there while awake), and he moved a few figurines from the table to the counter. Once again, this did not have anything dangerous involved, but it is just very intriguing that he doesn't recall anything, and had moved things he didn't even know existed.
My dad sleepwalks all of the time! One time we found him in the living room on his knees, thinking that he was planting tomatoes in his garden... He's also a basketball coach so sometimes he'll "coach-sleep." I loved how you used personal examples, it made your blog interesting and personable!
I don't know anyone who sleepwalks, but I would imagine it to be very interesting to see. But I know that some sleepwalking cases can be very dangerous, as the example given in our book about the man who murdered someone while sleepwalking and the one you gave about Sean Joyce. It's such an interesting topic, but I find it quite controversial, because anyone can claim that they were "sleepwalking" when they committed a crime.
Very interesting article. I've always thought of sleep walking as not very dangerous because the person usually wakes up fairly early in their sleep. I used to sleep walk when I was younger every once and a while and I didn't think of it as weird, and now that I think about it, it's interesting that people don't continue to sleep walk as they get older. Overall this is a great blog.
interesting article! I always find it really interesting that such simple, over-the-counter drugs can affect us in the ways that they do. Furthermore, I think sleepwalking is a really intriguing phenomenon. What is it that keeps us asleep while our brains are working so frantically? And what happens to our brains if we wake up in the middle of sleepwalking? I always hear people saying that you should never wake a sleepwalker - why is that?
One more question - I wonder what portion of the brain Ambien controls, and how this control can reach to affect things such as our motor skills. The story of the guy going crazy on the airplane seems so bizarre... what legal drug could make a person act like that? It would be interesting to find some articles on the neurological effects of sleeping pills, and the side effects of these pills as well.
Thanks... great article! Really interesting to read!
Elleni Paulson
This article touches on a very interesting topic. I feel that this article highlights on the complexity of treating disorders such as sleep walking because the drugs used to treat disorders like sleep walking can sometimes lead to greater problems. I think that drugs like Ambien can be very dangerous, because there is no way to ensure that a person is taking the pill early enough so that it will be out of their system once its time to commute the following day. Also, maybe they should formulate the pill to only stay in the system for 6 hours taking into consideration some may take the pill to late in the night, because you will think that if someone takes the pill to get to sleep once they are sleeping they should remain sleep through the night.
Also, those sleeping pills actually create or increase sleep deprivations when people stop taking pills. The fact that sleep aids can paradoxically boost dependency on drugs is quite a tragedy. The book mentions it as "rebound insomnia." In addition, the phenomenon you mentioned alerts me to the importance of good sleep. Though I've never used sleeping pills, I am actually a habitual caffeine taker. This often keeps me from good sleep. Someday, I may need sleeping pills and may drive while asleep. It's a horror to imagine.
This post was interesting to me because of something I discovered last week. My roommate has an iPhone app that charts her sleep cycle, so it can wake her up more easily when she's in an earlier phase of sleep. Usually it goes up and down about four times during the night. One night, she was sick and took NyQuil. Her sleep cycle app showed her being in deep sleep for the entire time she was sleeping! Instead of helping us fall asleep normally, drugs that aid sleeping put us into the deepest level of sleep for the entire night, and our natural sleep cycles don't happen. This could explain why it makes sleepwalking more common.
Interesting post. Sleep walking can be dangerous enough, but sleep driving? I have never seen an episode of this, but I hear that it can be very bad. I remember this chapter, and reading about how someone in a trail got off with murder. They drove miles down the street and killed there mom and step dad and their claim was that they were sleepwalking and sleep driving. Either they had a really good lawyer or a really bad batch of Ambien.
These sources definitely show us that we need to have at least some understanding of sleep activities, such as walking and driving. Although I can't recall ever having sleep walked, I have considered taking OTC sleeping pills during weeks takes me longer than usual to fall asleep. It's important that we're aware of some consequences, but also that we do indeed follow the dosing instructions.
This is a very interesting article. I've sleepwalked multiple times when I was younger and never thought it was anything dangerous (however one time I apparently was attempting to walk out the front door when my dad found me). Many people take sleeping medication and don't realize the timing of taking it can have a serious affect.