Sleep drunkenness is a real sleep disorder, officially referred to as confusional arousal. It is characterized by episodes in which a person awakes and remains in a state of disorientation, and occurs in one out of every seven people, according to a 2014 study from the National Institutes of Health. Sleep drunkenness is most likely to occur when a person is in the deeper state of the sleep cycle known as non-rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and gets woken up suddenly. Over 60% of all reported episodes of sleep drunkenness last over five minutes, and 84% of people with the disorder also reported having other sleeping disorders or using drugs that alter brain chemicals, such as antidepressants.
More about sleep disorders:
- Approximately 50 million Americans suffer from a sleeping disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
- Around 15% of adults sleepwalk, and may even perform hazardous activities while asleep, such as cooking or driving.
- 40,000 traffic injuries each year in the US are estimated to be due to driving after not having enough sleep, according to the National Department of Transportation.
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Discussion Comments
Until reading this article, I hadn't heard of sleep drunkenness before. However, it sounds like one heck of a sleep disorder. In some ways, even worse than sleep sleepwalking. While I don't have anyone in my family with sleeping disorders, I've always been interested in the concept.
Not only is it because there are so many different types, but it's also because people do some very interesting things while they're asleep. In fact, I wasn't even aware of some of these things until reading this article.
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