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Just imagine the nightmares you can create for a character suffering from a sleep disorder.  Tucked safely into bed, all cozy and content; never imagining sweet dreams are just prelude to violence.

Kenneth Parks stumbled into a police station and confessed to murder.  He had bludgeoned his mother-in-law and father-in-law with a tire iron and then stabbed them with a butcher’s knife.  He claimed to be sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism.  It was the first time a defendant claimed he shouldn’t be held responsible for his actions while sleepwalking. Parks was acquitted of murder and since then dozens of defendants have successfully argued they are innocent of murder on grounds of homicidal sleepwalking.

There have also been cases in which sleepwalking was used as a defense for sexual assault.   Sexsomnia is a rare sleep disorder in which people carry out sexual acts in their sleep.  Jan Luedecke was found not criminally responsible for sexually assaulting a woman because he was asleep at the time.  Luedecke claimed he was overworked, overstressed, and sleep-deprived factors cited by experts as triggers of Sexsomnia.

Elain Barfoot had a rude awakening after years of sleeping in the same bed with her husband, Derek.  He started assaulting her with blows to the face and back due to Parasomnia, a sleeping disorder which causes violent outbursts.

Sleepwalking can also be dangerous to your health.  A Kansas City man was sleepwalking when he had an altercation with his girlfriend.  She reportedly grabbed a knife for protection and he walked into it.    

Sleep disorders can be deadly even without these dangerous encounters. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control, sleep disorders caused 684 deaths in the U.S. in 2005.  Some deaths occur with no known cause.  New mothers lay awake at night listening for their infant’s next breath, terrified of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).  Healthy adults, victims in their 30s or older, have died from a mysterious disorder known as Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome.

Fatal Insomnia is a genetic disorder in which seemingly healthy individuals begin to have trouble sleeping.  Night after night, sleep becomes more elusive until sleep regimens shrink to less than an hour.   After a few months, individuals are unable to sleep at all and ultimately slip into comas, then die. A similar fate awaits victims of African Sleeping Sickness; a contagious disorder which is spread by tsetse flies. Symptoms, including skin lesions, swollen lymph nodes and skin rashes, start to appear a few weeks after infection. As the disease progresses victims stop sleeping at night and can’t stay awake during the day.  

Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder in which patients involuntarily fall asleep for periods lasting from a few seconds to an hour or longer: mildly amusing over cocktails, but deadly when patients snooze behind the wheel.