Why You Should Never Wake Up A Sleepwalker

[Music] hey there brainiacs today we're gonna be talking about sleepwalking also known as some Namba lism will talk about the causes the treatments and the horror stories surrounding this peculiar sleep problem we'll also discuss celebrities who have been caught sleepwalking and we'll debunk a few myths about this mysterious sleep disorder we're going to reveal the good the bad and sometimes embarrassing truth about this sleepy time activity that makes people go bump in the night quick quiz is it actually dangerous to disturb a sleepwalker while they're sleeping the answer might surprise you watch until the end to find out what is sleepwalking before we dive in let's talk about the definition causes and behaviors associated with sleepwalking when a person is asleep their brain usually shuts down so it can recharge it's kind of like plugging in your iPhone only it's way more complicated and your brain doesn't hook up to a USB cable now when you fall asleep your body is supposed to shut down and reset but for some people that doesn't always happen people with a sleepwalking disorder can move their bodies around even though their brains are asleep think of it like this imagine a car with no driver but there's a brick on the gas pedal the car is moving but there is nobody in the vehicle to steer or hit the brakes sounds pretty dangerous right so what should you do first let's dive into the brainiac facts to get a closer look sleepwalking behaviors this sleep disorder isn't just limited to walking other behaviors of people with somnambulism includes sitting up in bed talking shouting or screaming sexual activities opening the eyes and staring with a blank expression engaging in dangerous tasks like driving and even embarrassing activities like urinating in closets Brainiac definition time sleep terrors also known as night terrors caused people to have episodes of screaming intense fear and flailing while asleep sleepwalking can also be common in people with certain mental health conditions such as dementia people with substance abuse disorders obsessive-compulsive disorder depression and anxiety disorders are also at greater risk certain medications can increase the likelihood of sleepwalking such as antidepressants and over the counter sleep medication right now it's time for a pop quiz do you know or have you ever been a sleepwalker yes if you answered yes you're not alone as it turns out sleepwalking is surprisingly common according to doctor Giuseppe Piazzi of the department of neurological sciences at the University of Bologna in Italy 30 percent of kids between ages 5 and 12 have experienced at least one sleepwalking episode so that means that 3 out of 10 kids might be wandering around their houses at any given night that's a lot of tiny sleep zombies sleepwalking incidents tend to taper off as people grow into adulthood in fact only 2 to 3 percent or 1 in every 250 adults report having a sleepwalking episode at least once per week so what causes these strange and mysterious nighttime journeys here's the nerdy science coupe about two or three hours after we tuck ourselves in and go nighty night we drift into a stage of sleep called Engram or non-rapid eye movement it falls between stages three and four of the sleep cycle warning this is the danger zone for sleep walkers in this stage of sleep a person with normal sleep behavior will stay cozy and snug with her teddy bear under the covers but for a sleepwalker in this stage only part of their brain is actually asleep and part of their brain is awake so while their vision and cognitive thinking are in the dream world their bodies are moving around in the real world it can be a very confusing and rather dangerous state for a person to be and it's a circumstance under which a lot of weird and very unfortunate incidents have occurred horror stories for Beyonce the statement I woke up like this is a positive one but that is definitely not the case for 77 year old sleepwalker James currents here's what happened mister currents got out of bed and went on a sleepwalking adventure out his front door with cane in hand his nighttime stroll led him to a nearby pond before he knew it he woke up chest deep in the water he was unable to move or get out because his body was stuck in the mud anyone would be pretty freaked out about this predicament alone but what made the incident even more terrifying was that he found himself surrounded by alligators he had to use his cane to keep the hungry creatures away while shouting for help thankfully one of his neighbors heard him yelling and called the police the police use lights to scare the alligators away long enough to free mr. currents the crazy part is that he escaped completely unharmed except for a few small cuts from the falling into the pond talk about a sticky situation and we just got a fine from the bad pun Department moving on here's another incident that occurred from sleepwalking if you've got a fear of heights you might want to sit this one out so apparently a man was walking home at 2:00 a.m. when he looked up and saw something quite alarming there was a girl asleep at the top of a very tall inactive construction crane he immediately called emergency services it wasn't until the emergency crew arrived that they realized the girl was sleep curled up at the top of the crane this made the rescue mission a lot more complicated because the firefighter was afraid that if he woke her up she would become startled and fall he carefully checked her pockets and found her cell phone the firefighter used her cell phone to call her mom who told him that the girl who was only 15 years old was a regular sleepwalker they decided that the best course of action was to call her phone and let the ringtone waker it worked the girl woke up and the crew was able to safely bring her down from the crane it turns out she had climbed 130 feet up and 40 feet across all in her sleep did you know there's such a thing as sleep eating Leslie Cusack surely does this 55 year old woman from England has had to put alarms on her doors so they will wake her before she gets to the kitchen sleep eating may seem like the least dangerous sleep behavior on this list but it's not as harmless as you think Leslie has been known to cook with her gas stove while asleep which is obviously a fire hazard not to mention there's the added risk to her in the rest of her household if she leaves the gas on in the kitchen this sleepytime chef had to actually join a gym and watch what she eats during the day because of her power eating in the middle of the night she has been known to eat as much as 2,500 calories during one of her sleep eating sessions that equals about ten bowls of ice cream or about seven sandwiches that's pretty impressive for an unconscious not sure what's even more disturbing is that Leslie would often cook dishes filled with surprising inedible ingredients such as Vaseline paint and laundry detergent a long time ago a detective named Robert LeDrew was living in Paris when he was called to solve a murder mystery the local police were having a lot of trouble trying to figure it out since detective LeDrew was the finest cop in the city it seemed he was the best one to solve this case on the night in question another Paris native by the name of Andre Monet had been shot and was found dead at the local beach the only clues were a bullet which was far too common at the time to be traceable and some footprints left by the murderer 'la Drew's heart sank when he examined the footprints and realized that the killer was missing a big toe on his right foot you see LeDrew was also missing his big toe on the same foot his mind jumped back to a few nights before when he had awakened to find that his socks were wet this led him to discover that it was he who had murdered miss Ramona while he was sleepwalking which was brought on by syphilis imagine the surprise of the French police when LeDrew turned himself in as the perpetrator of the horrible crime at first they didn't believe it was him so they conducted an experiment to see if what he was saying could be true they held LeDrew in a jail cell overnight so they could see if he tried to sleepwalk sure enough the first night in the cell the drew did get up and walk around in his sleep still unconvinced they decided to put a gun in his cell the following night that night he shot at the guards in his sleep moving once and for all that he was Monet's murderer prosecutors decided that he could not be held accountable for his crime since he had been asleep at the time but they also acknowledged that his sleepwalking made him a danger to society so they exiled him to a farm in the countryside the drew lived out the rest of his days on that farm he had to be under the care of nurses and guards so he couldn't carry out anymore comatose capers Jennifer Anniston told Us Weekly that she is a lifelong sleepwalker she shared that one time she walked out of her house and was awakened by the home security alarm she said the alarm scared the heck out of her she revealed that when she woke up she was out by the pool equipment in the backyard apparently Brad Pitt who was her husband at the time was terrified because he heard the alarm but Jennifer was nowhere to be found and this wasn't the first time when she decided to go for a stroll in her sleep when she was a child she would walk into the living room and have a full conversation with her mom in the morning she had no recollection of the conversation Chris Colfer from the TV show Glee has got Jennifer beat on the Ellen show Chris shared that his mom has funny stories of finding him sitting on the couch and eating bowls of cereal while being totally asleep Chris shared that he started taking sleeping pills to help with the disorder and that's what a really bizarre sleep behavior emerged according to Chris he started shopping online in his sleep he said he would receive random packages from his sleepy online shopping excursions he would open them up to reveal things like the complete series of the Carol Burnett Show or a life-sized poster of Lady gaga the strangest package he got contained a huge framed portrait of Marie Antoinette well the subconscious wants what it wants there is even something called the ambien defense in a court of law the ambien defense has helped several defendants get acquitted from serious crimes because they committed the crimes while under the influence of ambien the makers of the drug have been forced to print a warning on the label saying that medications in the hypnotic class such as ambien carry occasional side effects these side effects include sleepwalking abnormal thinking and strained behavior such as sleep driving sleep eating or sleeping it got so bad that users sued the makers of the drug the attorney for this class-action suit called people in this ambien blackout state ambien zombies and claim that they were eating things like buttered cigarettes and eggs complete with the full shell several ambien users have ended up behind the wheel causing serious accidents while asleep and under the influence of ambien one woman took the medication and went to bed only to wake up six hours later barefoot in a jail cell still wearing her pajamas apparently she got up ran a bath took her dog for a walk and then got in her car and crashed into another vehicle this woman used the ambien defense and was able to get off with a suspended license and probation it turns out that ambien may not be the best solution to insomnia after all one celebrity wrote a memoir which became a movie about his sleepwalking adventures and how he nearly died in a sleepwalking accident comedian Mike Birbiglia was on tour in Washington when he had a nightmare he dreamt that there was a guided missile headed toward his hotel room in real life Mike climbed onto the windowsill and jumped out of the window of his hotel room although he fell two stories he survived he had to get 33 stitches four gashes in his legs from the after that he decided to visit a sleep specialist for overnight observation when they hooked them up to the machines they discovered that Mike was suffering from a dopamine deficiency dopamine is the chemical that your brain releases to paralyze your body while you sleep so you don't act out your dreams this was a major problem for Mike he shared that people who have this dopamine deficiency tend to be running away from some type of scary situation in their dreams and that's why they acted out in their sleep he said in rare instances people have actually killed someone while remaining asleep and that brings us to our final question just how dangerous is it to wake up a sleepwalker there's a rumor going around that waking a sleepwalker may cause them to have a heart attack go into shock or suffer brain damage this is false the truth is it's sometimes necessary to wake a sleepwalker so he or she doesn't hurt themselves or someone else but be careful if you need to wake them they may think they're being attacked and unconsciously lash out at the person waking them up sleep experts suggest gently guiding them back to bed while touching them as minimally as possible if that doesn't work they suggest making a loud noise a safe distance away from them to jar them out of their sleep that's brainiacs take on sleepwalking if you have a sleepwalking story to share leave it in the comments below and don't forget to like our video and subscribe to our channel to be the first to see the latest brain candy videos from Brainiac see you next time [Music]

Channel: Brainiac

Views: 807,065

Rating: 4.6855874 out of 5

Keywords: brainiac, sleepwalking, sleep disorders, wake a sleepwalker, sleep driving, Jennifer Aniston, Chris Colfer, Mike Birbiglia, sleep eating, sleep shopping, sleep, animation, how to fall asleep, sleep walk, Why do people Sleepwalk, Is Sleepwalking bad, Reasons for sleepwalking, brainiac facts

Id: nxEQ_AkzC-s

Length: 13min 49sec (829 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 17 2019