“Sleep Drunkenness”
Have you ever woken up and experienced a period of total confusion for a few minutes? You might not know where you are or how you got there. This is a phenomena known as confusional arousal and according to the LA Times, it might affect more than 1 in 7 Americans. This may not sound like a big deal, but “sleep drunkenness”, as the condition is commonly known, can be extremely serious. There have been many reported cases of people being injured or even dying while in a state of disorientation immediately after waking up.
The causes for confusional arousal are not entirely known, but many scientists believe that the condition occurs most often when a person is awoken from non-REM sleep or when they are awoken suddenly. Disorientation after waking also occurs when someone has been getting too much or too little sleep. For example, travelers who are experiencing jetlag are more likely to also experience confusional arousal. There is a strong correlation between those who experience confusional arousal and those who have another sleep disorder such as sleepwalking. Also, people with a mental health condition, such as depression, and children are more susceptible to confusional arousal.
Many scientists who study confusional arousal believe that the condition is not given as much awareness as it warrants. They also believe that more research into the topic would be happening if it was taken more seriously. As of now, there are not many possible solutions to the problem. Getting into a consistent sleep pattern is shown to help, but that is not as easy as it may seem since most of the people who experience confusional arousal are dealing with other sleep issues as well. Most doctors just try to treat the person’s other conditions and hope that doing so helps with the confusional arousal too. It will be interesting to see what new treatment options appear as the condition becomes more widely known and more research into the topic is done.
Sources:
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-sleep-drunkenness-confusional-arousal-study-20140826-story.html
http://www.philly.com/philly/health/HealthDay691094_20140825__Sleep_Drunkenness__Is_Common_and_Linked_to_Other_Behavior_Issues.html
http://sleepdisorders.about.com/od/commonsleepdisorders/a/What-Are-Confusional-Arousals.htm
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This is a very interesting phenomenon, because sometimes I fins myself waking up and feeling a little confused. Granted it is not to this scale, but I never pegged it as an illness or problem. Now I see how “sleep drunkenness” can turn violent or even deadly, and that is because a person in this state has lost their cognitive abilities. This means that the person cannot perform their job or think clearly, much less realize what they are doing.
Stanford School of Medicine psychiatrist Maurice Ohayon gives a clue as to why this may be happening: when we are suddenly awakened, a startle reflex is triggered, allowing us to respond quickly to threats. When we abruptly wake up our brain thinks there is an emergency, leading us to respond with action, not reason,
One way that this illness can be combated is by making sure someone suffering from this is fully awake and aware of what they are doing fifteen minutes before operating any sort of machinery. Other ways include getting adequate amounts of sleep, lifestyle changes, or medication. There is no specific treatment, however.
Sources:
http://www.newsweek.com/1-7-people-experiences-sleep-drunkenness-study-says-266692
http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2014/08/you-may-suffer-from-sleep-drunkenness.html