Strange sleep disorder makes subjects act ‘totally drunk’

[The title was written by my editor.]

A sleep disorder called confusional arousal affects a substantial number of people and causes them to experience symptoms very similar to drunkenness, especially when they are woken suddenly.

by John Tyburski

Copyright © Daily Digest News, KPR Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

First published at Daily Digest News on August 25, 2014

Waking from a deep sleep to a state of confusion with amnesia of the episode afterward are indicative of a condition called confusional arousal, which may also be aptly referred to as “sleep drunkenness.” A new study published on Monday in the journal Neurology indicates that the condition is “highly prevalent in the general population,” affecting roughly one in seven adults.

People who experience confusional arousal, or CA for short, exhibit confused or inappropriate behavior quite similar to that of someone who is intoxicated. Sufferers may mismatch behaviors to stimuli, perhaps opening the front door while confusing an alarm clock for a doorbell, for example. Some may exhibit behaviors that may be harmful to themselves or others.

According to sleep psychiatrist Dr. Maurice Ohayon at Stanford School of Medicine, the CA episodes usually occur when the sufferer is roused suddenly from sleeping. Sometimes the sufferer fails to remember the episode.

“It’s like they are totally drunk — they don’t know where they are or what they are doing,” said Ohayon, a co-author on the new study.

According to Ohayon, CA is most common in children and is distinct from other sleep disturbances such as sleepwalking and night terrors. Historically, the condition has not been well-studied in adults.

In the newly published study, Ohayon and colleagues randomly sampled over 19,100 non-institutionalized U.S. adults and assessed their sleep habits, medications current at the time of the survey, and history of mental illness or CA.

Approximately 15 percent of those surveyed experienced at least on CA episode in the year prior to the assessment. Over half of these individuals reported having roughly an episode each week. About 10 percent of those with a history of CA could not remember part or all of at least one CA experience. Some 15 percent of those reporting CA in their past also experienced sleepwalking.

The study also found that people diagnosed with depression, bipolar disorder, alcoholism, panic attacks, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder were more likely to experience CA. Sufferers of sleep apnea too were at increased risk for CA. Other risk factors include not getting enough or getting too much sleep, the study revealed.