What happens if you wake up a sleepwalker yahoo

Settling down for a long snooze, he had no idea he had been sleepwalking until he saw the photos and selfies on his smartphone the next day. John Vlahides with a turban and paper airplane he unconsciously made while under the influence of sleeping pills. Vlahides had become what many flight attendants unflatteringly call an "Ambien zombie. He hadn't done anything too embarrassing, unlike other unlucky sleepwalkers.

The streaker was a sleepwalking economy passenger who had taken off all his clothes and decided to run up the aisle to first class. According to the story, he was stopped by flight attendants and told to don his clothes; he only realized his humiliating exploit when he later woke with his underwear in his hand. Flight attendants told similar stories to Mayo Clinic sleep specialist Dr.

Lois Krahn during her research on inflight substance use and jet lag. Krahn tells her patients one disconcerting tale as a warning about the potential dangers of sleeping aids, especially if combined with alcohol.

Do people on sleeping aids really behave this way on a plane and not remember? It's not necessarily an everyday occurrence. More common on planes, said Garland, is for the dosed sleeper to reach out and fondle their unlucky seatmate.

Ambien, or zolpidem tartrate, belongs to a class of drugs called sedative-hypnotics. Prescribed to treat insomnia for adults over the age of 18, it works by slowing brain activity. You don't lay down any new memories," said Dr. Julie Holland, a psychopharmacologist who practices in Manhattan. If you're in bed and asleep that's not an issue. To ensure that, the manufacturer of Ambien has clear-cut safety information on its website: Don't take Ambien more than once per night and take it just before going to bed.

Don't take Ambien unless you can stay in bed for seven to eight hours. It's tough to follow those instructions on a plane, Holland warns. That's what happened to Vlahides on his transatlantic journey a decade ago. A friendly flight attendant interrupted just as he'd taken his sleeping pills to ask about his career as a travel writer.

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The year-old gets candid about spending the holidays as a single mom. Then there was the case of the 15 year old girl who in was found curled up asleep at the top of a ft crane, having climbed there while sleepwalking. These cases are rare. Occasional sleepwalking does not tend to present a problem and most children grow out if it. If it happens every night and causes problems, then sleep disorder specialists suggest that parents spend a week noting the time when the sleepwalking tends to happen, and then gently wake the child about fifteen minutes before this time.

This will often break the cycle. For a start, they are in such a deep sleep that they will probably not notice you, even if you try to wake them. If you do succeed in waking them you might disorientate them to the extent that they become distressed.

Everyone has experienced that feeling of utter bewilderment when the alarm awakens you from deep sleep, instead of the lighter sleep we are usually experiencing by the time our alarms sound. I once had the shock of being woken by a crash and found myself in the kitchen, standing barefoot and surrounded by broken glass.

So waking a sleepwalker will not cause them to have a heart attack or put them into a coma, but the kindest thing to do is not to try to wake them at all. Lead them gently back to bed so that they do not hurt themselves. They will remain deeply asleep, and it is likely that they will not remember a thing in the morning. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. Disclaimer All content within this column is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professional.

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