Feeling Groggy and Confused in the Mornings? You Could be 'Sleep Drunk.'

How many times a week can you claim you actually wake up feeling alert and ready to face the day?

If your morning scene is more like one out of a horror movie, then you might be one of the 15% of people who suffer from “sleep drunkenness,” or confusional arousal, a disorder recently chronicled in a study for science journal Neurology. The published study detailed the symptoms of “sleep drunkenness,” including trouble coming to full wakefulness after sleep, confusion, disorientation, amnesia and, in some cases, more violent reactions.

The study was held at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, where 19,136 people ages 18 and older were interviewed about their sleeping habits, mental health, and use of medications. It was discovered that one in seven of those interviewed, around 15%, had experienced at least one episode of confusional arousal in the last year, with many of them experiencing an episode a week. Of those who had experienced it, about 84% also either had a sleep disorder, issues with mental health, or taking medications such as antidepressants. Meaning that, if you’ve ever experienced the symptoms of sleep drunkenness, you may want to consider it a red flag for other things that may be awry in your mental or physical health.

But don’t panic if you experience regular grogginess in the mornings. The people who suffer from sleep drunkenness don’t remember what they’re doing, and attempts to wake them are futile.

"It's like they are totally drunk — they don't know where they are or what they are doing," explained sleep psychiatrist and study co-author Maurice Ohayon.

Not getting enough sleep was another factor in those who experienced sleep drunkenness. About 20% of those who reported getting 6 hours of sleep or less a night had experienced an episode. And though the name is silly, the disease itself is not. Imagine accidentally hurting your spouse or child and having no recollection of it afterwards or being an on-call doctor who suffers an episode in the middle of a shift and you can begin to see how something that seems so trivial could, in fact, be anything but.

But hey, it could be worse. At least this drunkenness won’t give you a hangover.

[Pic via Flickr - David Goehring]