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May 13, 2005

Strange But True!

Q. While the city sleeps through the long dark night, crime stalks the streets. But what if the sleepers are themselves the stalkers? Is sleepcrime very common?

A. It's more widespread than was originally thought, arising out of sleep disturbance or dysfunction and involving physical harm to people or destruction of property, reports the "Newsletter of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law." There can be sleep-associated violence during night terrors and sleepwalking, possibly related to incomplete arousal from non-dreaming sleep. Medications, alcohol or other recreational drugs may be the cause, or psychosocial stress the trigger. And "REM-sleep-behavior disorder" might involve an acting out of dreams, with hallucinogenic overtones.


 
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