One in seven suffer ‘sleep drunkenness’: Disorder results in confusing behaviour after being forced awake


  • An episode can cause violent behaviour and then amnesia about event
  • Normal people are disoriented for a moment or two when awakened
  • But ‘sleep drunks’ may be in a confused state for half an hour or more

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Jenny Hope for the Daily Mail

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One in seven people may suffer from ‘sleep drunkenness’ – more than previously thought, claim experts

One in seven people may suffer from ‘sleep drunkenness’ – more than previously thought, claim experts.

The sleep disorder involves difficulty waking up which results in confusion or strange behaviour, such as answering the phone instead of turning off the alarm.

An episode, often triggered by a forced awakening, may even cause violent behaviour during sleep or amnesia about the event afterwards.

Normal people are disoriented for a moment or two when awakened from deep sleep.

But people who suffer from sleep drunkenness may be in a confused state for up to half an hour or more.

A new US study found 15 per cent of those taking part had suffered an episode of sleep drunkeness in the past year – nearly four times higher than previous estimates of four per cent.

The official term is confusional arousal, and it is often linked to sleep and mental disorders, and taking certain types of medication.

Study author Dr Maurice Ohayon, at the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, said ‘These episodes of waking up confused have received considerably less attention than sleepwalking even though the consequences can be just as serious.’

He said there was a parallel in the animal world, where sudden awakenings result in the need to be instantly responsive to a potential threat.

‘A similar protective mechanism probably exists in humans’ he said.

‘Therefore techniques used for sudden awakenings in the morning (for example alarm clock, telephone ringing) can trigger this reaction and provoke confusional arousals’ he added.

For the study, 19,136 people age 18 and older from the general US population were interviewed about their sleep habits and whether they had experienced any symptoms of the disorder.

Participants were also asked about mental illness diagnoses and any medications they took.

The study found that 15 per cent of the group had experienced an episode in the last year, with more than half reporting more than one episode per week.

In the majority of cases—84 per cent—people with sleep drunkenness also had a sleep disorder, a mental health disorder or were taking psychotropic drugs such as antidepressants.

Less than one per cent of the people with sleep drunkenness had no known cause or related condition.

Among those who had an episode, one-third also had a mental disorder, says a report in the journal Neurology.

Normal people are disoriented for a moment or two when awakened from deep sleep. But people who suffer from sleep drunkenness may be in a confused state for up to half an hour or more

People with depression, bipolar disorder, alcoholism, panic or post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety were more likely to experience sleep drunkenness.

The research also found that one in three people with sleep drunkenness were taking psychotropic medications such as antidepressants.

The study found sleep drunkenness was linked with both getting too little sleep or too much sleep. Sleeping more or less than usual can upset the body’s circadian rhythms, which regulate sleep cycles.

About one-fifth of those getting less than six hours of sleep per night and 15 per cent of those getting at least nine hours experienced sleep drunkenness.

People with sleep apnoea – which causes snoring, fatigue and dangerous pauses in  breathing at night – were also more likely to have sleep drunkeness.

Dr Ohayon said ‘These episodes of confused awakening have not gotten much attention, but given that they occur at a high rate in the general population, more research should be done on when they occur and whether they can be treated.

‘People with sleep disorders or mental health issues should also be aware that they may be at greater risk of these episodes.’

 

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