dr. alon avidan runs the ucla sleep center in los angeles. he was not involved in the case but has studied sleepwalking for years. it s one of many types of sleeping disorders. what happens is that patients are neither asleep nor awake. but when you look at their brain activity, terror sleep. yet they act out behaviors that are often as simple as talking to more complex episodes such as walking, as we see in sleepwalking. in the morning they wouldn t be aware of any of this? they have no recollection. if someone has a history of sleepwalking like stephen reitz was claiming, and who uses drugs or alcohol like those found at the crime scene, then the chances of an episode are even more likely. and there was one more risk factor that may have contributed to the violent nature of stephen reitz s alleged sleepwalking episode. he was bipolar, which made him more susceptible to violent
tape and later featured in an australian documentary on sleepwalking. is it possible in this case there was a sleep terror episode and a sleepwalking episode which would somehow happening at the same time and thus created this tremendous violence? it s very likely. patients may wake up, be terrified, fulfill all the criteria for what we call sleep terror and then go on to develop a sleepwalking episode. dr. alon avidan runs the ucla sleep center in los angeles. he was not involved in the case but has studied sleepwalking for years. it s one of many types of sleeping disorders. what happens is that patients are neither asleep nor awake. but when you look at their brain activity, terror sleep. yet they act out behaviors that are often as simple as talking