Reader Gabrielle wrote in to ask: “Why can't we wake a sleepwalker? Is it a can't do, or a shouldn't do?”
Despite urban legends claiming that waking a sleepwalker will send
them into shock or give them a heart attack, it’s pretty much harmless.
While you can wake them up, you probably shouldn’t, and that’s for both
your benefit.
Waking a sleepwalker has never been shown to cause them any harm, but
there’s plenty of potential for the person doing the waking to get
hurt. Sleepwalking usually occurs during Stage 3 non-rapid eye movement
sleep, also known as slow wave sleep, and this stage of sleep is very
deep. While waking straight from stage 3 is difficult, it can be
done—but doing so can leave a person in a state of cognitive impairment
(sleep scientists call it sleep inertia) for around 30 minutes.
For the rest of the story: http://mentalfloss.com/article/49053/why-arent-you-supposed-wake-sleepwalker
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