What cause sleep driving??

Question:

I live in Anchorage Alaska, and last night i woke up 30 miles from my house in my car! I had no socks or shoes on, and i had apparently gone to the store to buy chips, dip, milk, and cigarettes (i dont even smoke!) someone found me asleep in the car at the state fairgrounds. i had no knowledge of how i got there. I have had some episodes recently where i have been passing out for no apparent reason. Im not sure if this is related or not. the funny thing is i have not been allowed to drive for 2 months because of these passing out episodes

Answers:
You should be checked out before you drive again. You do not want to wake up to find out you were the cause of a fatal car crash. Sometimes we all doze off if we have not had enough sleep or are on a monotonus road...but your situation sounds much more serious. Please stay off the road until this is remedied.

that's the gnarliest thing i'veever heard.

i was going to say narcolepsy, but this sounds more like sleep walking.
whoa, ride the bus and hide the keys

Hi,

your episodes are fairly common and many people are affected. It isn't 'normal' however and obviously you don't want this behaviour to continue.

What you experienced was NOT a 'passing out' episode, but (as you correctly identifed) a sleep pattern that allows you (or compels you) to get out of bed and perform these driving actions...not good!

Plenty of accidents are caused by people who are fully awake and alert...driving while you are asleep could be very dangerous.

What to do? Perhaps you could 'alarm' your bedroom door, so that if you get up in the night, still asleep, you would disturb a pile of noisy stuff piled by the door?

This should be sufficient to wake you, so you realise what is happening and go back to bed. (remember to 'reset' the 'alarm' in case you do it again)

Some people say it is dangerous to wake a sleepwalking person, and maybe it is, but it's likely to be far less dangerous than driving without any awareness of other traffic and road conditions, don't you think?

Disallowing you to drive because of these episodes is bound to end in failure...after all, you don't even know you are doing it, so making it 'illegal' wouldn't change your new 'habit' one little bit!

Obviously, your doctor may be able to prescribe something that will allow you to have undisturbed sleep and possibly he or she may well be the best person to ask.

So, short of handcuffing yourself to the bed, you just need to make it difficult for you to follow your unconcious thoughts through.

Perhaps you could 'hide' the car keys with someone else in the house, so that if you start on another trip you would have to wake them...and then they could prevent you?

Of course, there's another danger...you may start smoking!

Good luck, it can't be an easy situation to cope with.

Cheers,

BobSpain

Sleep driving is a sleep disorder. If you're going for adventures while asleep, you need to have your spouse or child(ren) hide your keys someplace where you won't find them, and get yourself to your doctor ASAP (Monday morning, 8AM)! A sleep disorder isn't usually life-threatening, but you're not driving while alert. Sleep driving is hazardous. Please get yourself evaluated for sleep disorders.

It's important that you tell your family not to try to wake you up (as you might harm them). Tell them to hide your keys and double lock the doors. They should avoid you, if they find you sleep walking.

The good news is that sleep walking/driving can be treated with medication that helps your brain and body be separated during sleep (like they should be). Usually it's something like Klonopin, although there may be newer medications in use that do the same thing.

What cause sleep driving??

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