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Increasingly, sleep-related behaviors are invoked in the courtroom as a defense for criminal violence or sexual assault, or both. The lawyer of the accused claims that the client acted during sleep, without conscious awareness, and therefore is without culpability and should be acquitted. Formal sleep studies have already been established as absolutely valueless in such cases: Nothing found during such studies will help determine whether the accused was sleepwalking during the remote event in question (Sleep Med Rev 2007; 11:5). Pressman therefore examined published medical and legal cases, most of which occurred within the past 100 years, to determine whether violence directed toward others during disorders of arousal (mixtures of wakefulness and non-REM sleep such as confusional awakenings, sleepwalking, or sleep terrors) is triggered by physical contact by or proximity to the victim.
Sleep-related violence apparently is rare; only 32 documented cases were identified. Nearly all violent acts associated with disorders of arousal followed direct provocation by, or close proximity to, another individual. Pressman concludes that such events are related to proximity of the victim and rarely occur spontaneously or randomly.
Pressman MR. Disorders of arousal from sleep and violent behavior: The role of physical contact and proximity. Sleep 2007 Aug 1; 30:1039.
Comment
Although overwhelming evidence demonstrates that extremely violent physical and complex sexual activity can arise during disorders of arousal, many legal claims invoking sleep to explain such behaviors are undoubtedly bogus. Expert witnesses must help the court and jury decide whether a given criminal behavior could have been sleep-related. This study will assist legal authorities by reducing the amount of junk science presented in the courtroom. It shows that sleepwalkers almost never seek out victims and that sleep-related violence, although generally provoked, is without prior intent.