Sleepwalking, formally known as somnambulism, is a behavior disorder that originates during deep sleep and results in walking or performing other complex behaviors while asleep (Siclari). It usually occurs when a person is transitioning from a deep stage of sleep to a lighter stage of sleep, or as they are awakening. Because a sleepwalker is neither awake nor aware during an episode, he or she cannot respond during the event and may not remember the incident afterwards. The disorder is diagnosed mostly in children between the ages of four and eight, but it also occurs in adults. In fact, each year, about 8.4 million U.S. adults sleepwalk; that is 3.6 percent of people in the United States (Popat). Research has found that sleepwalking is …show more content…
Yet, there is no law in existence that provides a set of determined actions for when someone commits a crime or acts out in an aggressive way while asleep. Therefore, parasomnias that result in illegal activity - specifically violence - create a grey area within the justice system: should those who commit crimes and/or violence while sleepwalking be persecuted for their actions? In the legal case of Mr. A, he was not found guilty for his wife’s homicide with a defense of sleepwalking which many people did not agree with. Nine months before his wife was killed, Mr. A began dealing with high stress caused by his job. He was assigned to be project manager of a new product that he believed was going to fail from the start. He continued to work hard and put in long hours in his office. He feared that he would be held responsible for a failure that would cost the company millions of dollars and cause his team members to lose their jobs. As a result, he went to bed late and reported feeling extremely exhausted and depressed. He began using caffeine tablets to stay awake while on the job, leading to a sporadic sleep schedule consisting of two to four late nights of short and poor quality sleep followed by a night of going to bed early to catch up on sleep (Cartwright). The day of the homicide, Mr. A got home from work and had dinner with his wife and children. His wife asked him to check
Sleeping disorder is a medical disorder of the sleep models of a human being or an animal. The sleeping disorders interfere with the normal mental, physical, social, and emotional functioning of the body. The commonly ordered sleeping disorders are polysomnography and actigraphy. This paper provides a critical analysis of a 2010 article written by Jane F. Gaultney called The prevalence of sleep disorders in college students: impact on academic performance.
09-09-2012 Day 1: I went to sleep at 1:00 am and woke up at 6:11 am. The dream was that my grandmother passed away and that I had nobody to confide in. It got to a point where I just went
Merits: The respondent, Daniel Murphy, was convicted by a jury in an Oregon court of the second-degree murder of his wife. The victim died by strangulation in her home in the city of Portland, and abrasions and lacerations were found on her throat. There was no sign of a break-in or robbery. Word of the murder was sent to the estranged husband, Daniel Murphy. Upon receiving the message, Murphy promptly telephoned the Portland police and voluntarily came into Portland for questioning. Shortly after the respondent’s arrival at the station house, where he was met by retained counsel, the
The “Sleepwalking Defense” has been used, though not frequently, as a criminal defense in court. In the US News article assigned, they touched on seven murders that used the “Sleepwalking Defense” in court to fight the charges against the person that was proved to have committed the crime. It was argued that the murders/crimes were committed when the defendant was asleep and totally unaware of their actions. Some of the sleepwalking actions committed during the murders led to the defendant being physically injured. Actions were also carried out in what seemed like clear awake and conscience thought, like hiding/disposing of evidence or actually telling the family dog to lie down during the murders. I did notice that most of these cases
Credibility Statement: Having a sleep disorder, myself, I know how important it is to get the recommended sleep each night. According to Alina Bradford in the article "Sleep Paralysis: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment"(2017), Sleep Paralysis is described as the inability to move or speak immediately after waking up.
Sleep deprivation is prevalent in industrialized societies and has been linked to serious health issues and traffic accidents. This essay views sleep and sleep deprivation from five different motivational perspectives in order to gain a holistic understanding of the phenomena. From evolutionary, psychodynamic, behaviourist, cognitive, and hierarchy of needs perspectives, it is inferred that the cognitive and behaviourist perspectives uphold the most merit for gaining understanding into sleep and sleep deprivation. However, it is
Sleep paralysis is a common condition with a prevalence of 5-62%, although most affected people have single or infrequent episodes (Dahlitz). Occasionally sleep paralysis is found to run in a family, and it can be associated with other disorders of hypersomnia, such as sleep apnea (Becker 81). Narcolepsy has also been linked with sleep paralysis; both are thought to be REM sleep disorders (Siegel). Gender and race do not seem to be a factor of risk for this disorder. The episodes of sleep paralysis seem to range from ages 5-35 (Dahlitz). The use of anxiolytic medicines, psychiatric disorders and high anxiety can also contribute to sleep paralysis (Larkin).
After reading Lindsay Lyon’s article about “sleepwalking defense”, it’s clear this is a controversial pled. The thought of being able to do anything in your sleep is an outrageous concept to grasp, let alone use as a defense in a court room. Out of seven different cases in this article, there’s only two that I could come to terms with. State v. Bradley and Pennsylvania v. Ricksgers both involved the murder of their significant others with a single gunshot during an unconscious state. In my opinion, these cases are most relevant to the sleepwalking defense because it’s more believable to think one action took place before someone waking up then multiple actions. The Regina v. Parks case was a far stretch to try and use sleepwalking defense.
Do not take this study lightly. Sleep is a biological need, it is vital to the human body. Deprivation will not kill anyone directly. However, it will cause personality shifts (irritations, mood swings, microsleeps), hallucinations, and paranoia. Microsleep is temporary sleep that lasts anywhere from 1 second to 30 seconds. An individual becomes unconscious for that time period and fails to process sensory input. Loss of sleep also affects concentration, memory, hunger, weight, and the immune system, all negatively. Studies show that driver fatigue is the cause of 20% of US car accidents. When the clocks ‘spring forward’ in the Spring, more accidents
Researchers at Brigham and Women 's Hospital examined sleep disorders and how they affected the health and safety of 4,957 state and local law enforcement officers in the United States and Canada. the researchers found that just over 40 percent of
In modern times sleep is used as a reprieve from reality as a stress reliever. It can help a person relax and rest, but it can also lead to restless times where one is plagued with nightmares and terrors that can be caused by any one thing or event. In the play Macbeth, the author, William Shakespeare, uses the term ‘sleep’ to represent peace of mind, purity, and innocence. However, as the acts continues on he uses sleep to foreshadow future entanglements and uses the lack of sleep to symbolize the guilt and lack of innocence in the title character and his wife.
Sleepwalking is commonly seen in older children. It ranges from getting out of bed to prolonged and complex actions. "Sleepwalking occurs relatively often among children; one can even cause it intentionally simply by picking up a child or adult in deep sleep and standing them on their feet" Borbely (1986). In adults, sleepwalking could indicate a personality disturbance. For instance, a good amount of adults that sleepwalk are suffering from depression. It is thought that this condition is hereditary and can be brought on by stress, also by not getting enough sleep or a high fever.
Research indicates that America’s sleep problems have increased and might be the number one health problem. The average amount of sleep that people get per night can range anywhere from three to twelve hours. According to Dr. David Dinges at the University of Pennsylvania, it is a fact that people who get fewer than six hours of sleep a night do not live as long as people who get seven hours or more. Most people do not realize the importance of sleep or even realize that it is needed to survive. Many people experience sleep deprivation; however it is commonly seen in college students. Irregular sleeping patterns tend to occur in students, which can later lead to long-term effects.
Sleepwalking most often occurs at a certain point in the sleep "architecture" (6).This is the point where the sleeper's brain waves have become larger and he or she has moved into deeper sleep. This is not REM sleep, but deep non-REM sleep. The series of complex behaviors characterizing somnambulism includes "amnesia following an episode," and "difficulty in arousing the patient during an episode" (9). The patient can also have other REM disorders or psychiatric and medical disorders which do not account for the sleepwalking. While sleepwalking, the patients' brainwaves show a mixture of types of brainwave patterns, including ones similar to those observed in waking patients, as well as those found in deep sleep. It is the "awake" patterns which match the waking behaviors like walking and talking while the patient is still asleep enough so that he or she is not aware of what it happening and is not forming memories of their actions (3).
 REM Sleep (Rapid Eye-Movement Sleep): a stage of sleep associated with dreaming, and characterized by frequent eye movements, suppression of the muscles.