10 unimaginable things that can happen to you in a dream

We are used to seeing sleep as a rest — this is a precious time when you can take a break from all the hustle and bustle of the world and recharge your tired body during the day. The implication is that every morning we should wake up feeling great and in a good mood. However, for some people, a night of sleep can turn into a tragedy, a crime, or even death…

During episodes of sleepwalking, people are in a semi-conscious state — half of their brain is awake, and the other half is asleep. They do not feel pain and, as a rule, are not able to evaluate their actions. But at the same time they can perform quite complex actions.

Today we will tell you about the 10 most unimaginable things that people do in their sleep - from driving a car to jumping out of a window.

Researchers from the University of Toledo report a girl who got up in the middle of the night, turned on her computer and emailed invitations to a party to her friends. Despite the fact that only one such case has been registered so far, this phenomenon already has a name — "Zzz-mailing". The girl fell asleep around 10 pm. A couple of hours later, she wrote and sent three emails. One of them said: "Come back tomorrow and clean up this damn hole. Dinner and drinks, 16:00. Bring only wine and caviar." Another briefly exclaimed, "What the..."

She had never suffered from sleepwalking before and was understandably shocked the next morning when one of her friends called to say that he accepted her invitation. Sleepwalkers often do not remember anything or almost nothing of what they did in their sleep. Their consciousness is in an altered state, but they are able to perform quite complex actions. The researchers say that the reason for the "Zzz-mailing" could be prescription drugs that the girl took.

People suffering from REM disorder often carry out what they dream about. "Life as in a dream" usually implies something good, but not in their case. In 2007, a sleeping teenager came out of the window of the 4th floor. After flying about 9 meters, he landed on the sidewalk, where he continued to sleep without noticing anything. The guy did not take alcohol or drugs.

Comedian Mike Birbiglia (pictured) once jumped out of the window of a hotel room on the second floor in a dream and fell into the lobby. He woke up covered in incised wounds, on which he had to put 33 stitches. Birbiglia, who was diagnosed with REM disorder, admits that he had suffered from sleepwalking for several years before. "I remember thinking often: "It seems like it could be dangerous. I should probably go to the doctor..."And then I thought, "Well, maybe I just need to have dinner,"" the actor says.

Victims of Kleine-Levine syndrome are often called real sleeping beauties. They can literally sleep for the rest of their lives. Periods of drowsiness, such as the girl in the photo named Alanna Wong, can last a couple of days or even up to 8 months! 

In rare moments of wakefulness, their behavior becomes unpredictable — they can cry for no reason, suffer from gluttony and fall into childhood. When they wake up after such a period, their body tries to gradually return to normal, but it is not so easy. They can go weeks and months without episodes of drowsiness, returning to normal cognitive function. The owners of the syndrome are undergoing treatment, but its symptoms may never go away completely.

Ambien (zolpidem) is a popular sleeping pill that often appears when drivers are arrested. Ambien users can do strange things and always stand out from other drivers who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, especially if they violate the dosage. They drive against the traffic, crash into lampposts and do not pay attention to the police. 

Over the past 10 years, cases have been reported twice when drivers drove into a supermarket in their sleep. Another case tells about a nurse dressed in one thin nightgown, who crashed into another car in the cold, and then decided to pee in the middle of the intersection. When the police arrived, she started fighting with them. 

Sleepwalking drivers often have a zombie-like look. Very rarely do they then remember how they got behind the wheel after taking the medicine.

Liam Derbyshire (pictured) suffers from the "Curse of Ondine" syndrome, which occurs in one in 30 million. Ondine's curse is a disorder in which a person stops breathing as soon as he falls asleep. If he falls asleep, he may die within an hour. 

By 2006, only 200 such cases were known in the world. Patients require a tracheostomy — that is, a tube in the neck that helps to breathe. To survive, they have to spend their whole lives next to an artificial respiration machine, which is connected to the tube when they go to bed. 

Liam's parents should constantly make sure that he doesn't get tired and accidentally fall asleep, especially in the car. Ondina's curse syndrome is so rare that many doctors never encounter it and may not make the correct diagnosis in time.

Sexomnia is such a wonderful disorder in which people have sex in their sleep. It is most often found among those who suffer from other forms of sleepwalking, but not everyone is lucky — only 8% of patients seeking treatment for sleep disorders report sexomnia. 

In total, 1.5% of the population "suffer" from sexomnia, most of them are men. As with any sleepwalking, most often they do not remember what they did in a dream. At the same time, they have no restraining factors and prejudices that usually limit sexual fantasy in reality, so their sex in a dream is particularly sophisticated. However, this does not always please their partners, who no one asks for consent. Many of them wonder who the sleeper is currently imagining himself with. Well, some people are just annoyed.

Seeing the silhouette on the tower crane at 2 a.m., passers-by thought that someone was trying to commit suicide. It turned out that this was a sleepwalking girl who, apparently, left the house unnoticed, passed unnoticed by the security of the construction site and managed to climb to a height of 40 meters in her sleep. All this time she had no idea that she was on the verge of death. 

The fireman climbed up to her, but could not wake her up, fearing that when she woke up, she would panic, fall and break. As a result, the rescue operation took two hours — the girl was lowered down with the help of a hydraulic lift, unharmed. Later, her parents admitted that she often suffered from sleepwalking.

Real nightmares are not just "bad dreams", which are quite common and sometimes happen to almost everyone. Nightmares haunt from 1 to 6% of children and less than 1% of adults. They occur during the phases of deep sleep, usually begin in early childhood and disappear in adolescence. Episodes of nightmares can occur at intervals of several days or weeks, every night in a row, or repeat repeatedly during the night.

The eyes of such parasomniks are wide open, there is an expression of horror and panic on their face, they sweat, their heartbeat quickens. Often they shout — at those who are nearby or just into the void, they fight and seem to be trying to escape from something. During episodes, it is impossible to calm them down, because they are still asleep.

By 2005, 68 cases of "sleepwalking" murders had been reported. For example, in the early morning of May 23, 1987, a 23-year-old Canadian Kenneth Parks got out of bed, got behind the wheel in his sleep, drove more than 20 km and broke into the house of his mother-in-law and father-in-law. There he strangled his father-in-law to unconsciousness and stabbed his mother-in-law with a kitchen knife, after hitting her with a tire iron. 

What is most surprising, after that he, still in a dream, arrived at the police station, covered in blood and panic. The tendons on his arms were cut in half, but he showed no signs of pain. The readings of his electroencephalogram, which cannot be faked, were atypical even for a parasomnik. As a result, the court concluded that he was in a state of sleepwalking throughout the incident, and issued an acquittal.

Lee Hadwin suffered from sleepwalking since childhood. Therefore, it is not surprising that now he leads a parallel life in a dream. He started drawing in his sleep from the age of four, and in adolescence his simple children's drawings grew into something more sophisticated. It is called "Kipasso". He says he feels strange because he has no interest in art or painting while awake. And he doesn't remember anything he did in his sleep.

When Lee is awake, he works as a nurse. He also played in a country band and claims that he is much more interested in music than drawing. "I just can't explain where my painting comes from. It's like when I'm sleeping, some other part of my brain turns on," Hadwin says. And, like the rest of the parasomniks, he will not respond if you refer to him by name while drawing in a dream.