Sleepwalking
and Sleep Talking
As sleep disorders go, sleepwalking is pretty bizarre. If you unconsciously indulge in this activity, you may find yourself performing waking routines while you are fast asleep. Some people do housework, raid the fridge and even leave the house - without having any awareness of it. Unless you wake them up, they have no memory of their somnambulism and this is how the condition can go unnoticed for some time.
It's a myth that you actually act out the movements of a dream. The vast majority of cases take place during NREM sleep where dreams don't occur. This is also why it's virtually impossible to sleepwalk while lucid dreaming - if you did, chances are you would realize and wake up very quickly.
 The most common causes of sleepwalking are:
- sleep deprivation
- emotional problems
- stress
- fever
Facts About Sleepwalking
A whopping 18% of the population have recurring bouts of this sleep disorder. In fact, we have probably all done it at least once in our lives. Unlike other sleep disorders, men are more prone than women. It is more common in children and young adults, who spend more time in Slow Wave Sleep (up to 80% of the night) which is when most parasomnias occur.
Many of us move our legs in our sleep. But sleepwalking begins when you move your legs in synchronization.
This triggers co-ordinated movement and off you go into the night. People have been reported to eat, bathe, urinate, dress, drive a car, whistle and even commit murder during an episode. Sleepwalkers have their eyes open so they can see what they're doing. And, no... they don't have their arms outstretched like in movies.
Sleep Talking Sleep talking is another parasomnia where people talk in their sleep. It happens during the transition of one NREM cycle to another, when a person becomes partially awake. It can also happen during REM sleep, in which case the person verbalizes their own dream speech.
Sleep talking relates to several other sleep disorders:
- REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD) - loud or emotional sleep talking
- Sleepwalking - performing waking movements during sleep
- Night Terrors - screaming or shouting during sleep
- Sleep Related Eating Disorder (SRED) - eating during sleep
Sleep talking is very common in young children, and only occurs regularly in about 5% of adults. It does seem to run in families.
A famous sleep talker is Dion McGregor, who became a celebrity in the 1960s when his roommate began recording his nightly monologues. Apparently they were hilariously detailed and explained what was happening in his dreams - including a hot air balloon trip to the moon!
How to Deal with Sleepwalking
The best thing to do is to guide the person back to bed. However, they may simply return to the task they were doing before (like cleaning up) so you could help them to get the weight off their mind. Don't be embarrassed - they won't remember any of it.
If you're not sure what their goal is, you can simply ask them what they are doing. They will be slow to respond and some people are more responsive than others. But don't be afraid of asking simple questions to get them through the episode sooner.
Don't be surprised if they do strange things, like urinating into a pot plant or eating invisible food! They are not fully aware of their surroundings. To read about more experiences, visit the sleepwalking forum.
Sleepwalking as a Murder Defense
It may be shocking, but it's true. Confirmed killers have walked free from court because they used sleepwalking as a murder defense. About 68 cases are known to date. These cases have led to the creation of new laws and definitions about murder.
The courts now recognize that you can't be held responsible for acts which you can't willfully control; including automatism where the body acts independently of the mind. This covers spasms, reflex actions, convulsions, acts under concussion, and of course walking in your sleep.
Here are two of the most high profile sleepwalking murder cases.
Kenneth Parks
In 1987, Kenneth Parks was a married 23-year-old man with a 5-month-old daughter. He had a very close relationship to his in-laws, and his mother-in-law referred to him as "her gentle giant".
The summer before, he developed a gambling problem and fell into deep financial problems. To cover his losses, he took funds from his family's savings and then began to embezzle money at work. Eventually, his actions were discovered and he was fired from his job. He started going to Gamblers Anonymous. He made plans to tell his grandmother the following Saturday and his in-laws on Sunday about his problems. In the early morning hours of May 23rd, Parks reportedly got up, drove 23km to his in-laws' home and broke in. He then assaulted his father-in-law and battered his mother-in-law to death with a tyre iron. After all this, he drove to the police station. Covered in blood, he told them: “I think I have killed some people… my hands.”
Parks' only defense was that he was asleep during the entire incident and was not aware of what he was doing. Nobody believed it - even sleep specialists were extremely skeptical. However, after careful investigation, the specialists could find no other explanation. Parks' EEG readings were highly irregular even for a parasomniac. There was no motive, and he was amazingly consistent in his story for more than seven interviews. The timing of the events also fit perfectly. Since there was no way to fake EEG results, Parks was acquitted of the murder of his mother-in-law and assault on his father-in-law. |
Scott Falater
In 1997, Scott Falater brutally murdered his wife of 20 years. Falater stabbed his wife 44 times with a hunting knife and pushed her in the family swimming pool. Witnesses saw him hold her head underwater.
After killing his wife, Falater hid his clothes in the wheel well of his car, changed into his pajamas and bandaged his bleeding hand. He also hid the murder weapon in a tupperware container, and put it in a trash bag with his boots and socks. The police woke him the next morning with the news of his wife's death.
Some experts said the most likely cause of the crime was a sleep disorder. But the prosecution argued that Falater's actions were too complex to have been carried out while sleepwalking. After a lengthy trial, the jury returned its verdict: guilty of premeditated murder. Falater was sentenced to life without parole. |
These are fascinating cases where sleepwalking was used as a defense for murder. Even after looking at all the evidence, how can a jury know what happened in a person's head - whether it was a true act of automatism?
I guess we have to rely on more research into sleep disorders, so that the experts can come up with a bulletproof system. The idea of murderers walking free on false claims of automatism... now that is a nightmare.
Finally... to put your mind at ease: sleepwalking has nothing to do with lucid dreaming. Least of all murdering people in your sleep. So you can sleep soundly tonight. I aim to cover a range of sleep disorders for your interest, and maybe we will all learn something new along the way.
Sleep Disorders
False Awakenings
Escaping From Nightmares
Sleep Paralysis
Sleepwalking
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