Problems such as insomnia, sleepwalking and night terrors have received a lot of attention from psychologists and neurologists, but until now a much more common but perhaps less striking “disorder” had gone almost unnoticed: sleep intoxication. In fact, it is estimated that approximately one in seven people suffer from this problem, although it has not even been diagnosed.
What is sleep drunkenness?
A survey conducted in the United States by researchers at Stanford University has brought this problem to the fore. After surveying almost 20,000 people, these researchers noted that 15% of them had experienced sleep drunkenness over the past year and half of them at least once during the past week.
This disorder involves mental confusion during the first few minutes of the morning, as soon as the person wakes up. However, it is not just simple drowsiness; the person feels like they are in a fog and often results in inappropriate behaviors, such as answering the phone instead of turning off the alarm clock or not being able to find the way to the bathroom in their own home.
Other common cases of confusion upon awakening include waking up with a start, thinking that Sunday is a work day and not realizing the mistake until several minutes later. Or waking up in a hotel room and not knowing where you are because you don’t remember getting there.
Often, the symptoms of sleep drunkenness are nothing more than amusing anecdotes, but there are cases in which the problem can have major repercussions. In fact, when these people are forced to wake up, they may behave violently but afterwards they do not remember what happened, they suffer a kind of amnesia.
In practice, this is because an abrupt awakening implies an emergency signal to which we must respond immediately and, as our brain is not yet functioning at 100% of its capacity, it is not able to adequately assess its environment and, as a result, reacts as if there were a real threat.
What are the causes of sleep drunkenness?
These psychologists discovered that sleeping too little (less than six hours a day) or suffering from jet lag are the main triggers of sleep intoxication. Although it can also occur from sleeping too much, more than nine hours at a time.
However, they also noted that 37% of people who suffered from this problem also suffered from other psychological disorders, such as depression, anxiety, panic attacks or bipolar disorder. In addition, 31% of those affected were taking psychotropic drugs such as antidepressants.
Other problems linked to sleep intoxication include stress and worry, sleep apnea, and alcohol consumption.
Is this really a disorder?
Apparently, people who show symptoms of sleep intoxication have difficulty immediately connecting with their surroundings, it is as if upon awakening, their brain is working at half capacity and is unable to quickly locate itself in time and space.
However, it should be noted that for a disorder to exist, this problem must cause significant discomfort in one of its areas. Therefore, for most people, this confusion in the early hours of the morning is not a disorder but is simply a bunch of funny anecdotes.
However, there are people who experience this morning sleep inertia, as this disorder is also known, for several minutes or even hours. In this case, their performance at work or school is often affected and it is not unusual for their behavior to cause problems in the family environment.
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