The Debunker: Ken Jennings vs. Sleep Myths, Part 3
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Everything you know is wrong! Each week, we ask writer and Jeopardy! ace Ken Jennings (seen at left and far left) to tear down one of the lies that they teach us in school, man. During these sleepy dog days of August, Ken will expose four common misconceptions about sleep. If your elaborate edifice of preconceptions can stand that much Debunking, read them all.
Sleep Myth #3: Never Wake a Sleepwalker
Sleepwalking, or somnambulism, is more common than you might think: 30% of children and 3% of adults experience episodes. For centuries, we’ve been warned that waking a sleepwalker could lead to a heart attack, brain damage, or worse. In 1841, surgeon Walter Cooper Dendy related the case of “a young lady who was walking in a garden in her sleep; she was awoke, and almost instantly died.”
In reality, sleepwalkers, when awoken, are likely to be disoriented and even distressed by their unfamiliar surroundings, but that’s as serious as it gets. To avoid a possible sock in the jaw, doctors recommend gently leading the sleepwalker back to bed rather than waking him or her.
In fact, the only serious injuries reported to sleepwalkers are in those cases where nobody woke them up. In 2007, a sleepwalking teen in Demmin, Germany wandered out of a fourth-floor apartment window. He fell thirty feet to the ground, breaking an arm and a leg — and went on peacefully sleeping.
Quick Quiz: What Shakespeare character says “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” during her famous sleepwalking scene?
Ken Jennings is the author of Brainiac, Ken Jennings’s Trivia Almanac, and the forthcoming Maphead. Follow him at ken-jennings.com or on Twitter as @KenJennings.
Photo by Photocapy, used under a Creative Commons License.
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