Sleep Violence Review

First created | 10/02/2000

Last edited |

Summary by Maurice M. Ohayon, MD, DSc, PhD
Reference to cite:

  1. Ohayon MM. Violence and Sleep. Sleep and Hypnosis, 2000; 2: 1-6.

The potential for danger when an individual is abruptly awakened was already known by primitive tribes.

Their belief was that a sleeper should not be awakened because the soul does not have time to return to the body (1). Sleep-related violence has for a long time caught the imagination because its lacks of rational explanation for the acts.

The earliest detailed account of violent behavior during sleep can be found in The Odyssey (Homer, book 10). Elpenor, a companion of Ulysses, spent a part of the evening to drink with his companions. During the night, he was suddenly awaken by a noise. He was in a confusional state and he forgot all about coming down by the main staircase; he tumbled right off the roof and broke his neck.

In the legal records, one should return in 1313 to find a report from the Council of Vienne (France) stating that a sleeper killing or wounding someone should not be yield guilty (2). Malingering was also a matter of concern: Covarrubias, a Spanish canonist from the 16th century, concluded that an individual cannot be guilty for acts he committed while asleep unless he arranges matters in such a way to make believe he was asleep when committing the acts.

A similar warning was also emitted by Matthaeus, a Dutch jurist of the 17th century. Mackenzie, a Scottish jurist, also from the same century than Matthaeus, was signaling the fact. Both concluded that crime carried out by a sleeper are punishable if there is evidence of animosity toward the victim while awake (3).

Since 1900, three literature reviews (scientific papers, court reports, newspapers) of murdering while asleep have been published (see table 1): The first reviews (4,5) reflected the knowledge of sleep and its disorders: at least 8 cases cannot be considered as being in a confusional state at the moment the murder was committed. They were more likely to be sleepwalking episodes or did not contain enough information to be classified as sleep homicide. Since the review done by Bonkalo in 1974 (3), 29 other cases of homicide or assaults during sleep have been published in the scientific literature (Table 1).


Table 1.Literature review of cases with forensic implications
Authors N of cases Issue
Confusional arousals
Gudden (1905)(4) 18 10 homicides,8 non fatal assaults
Schmidt (1943)(5) 358 15 homicides,20 non fatal assaults
Langel deke (1955) 4 3 homicides,1 sexual assault
Bonkalo (1974)(3) 50 20 homicides,30 non fatal assaults
(included some of the cases quoted by Gudden and Schmidt)
Raschka (1984)(27) 1 assault
Nofzinger &Wettstein (1995)(28) 1 homicide (offender found guilty)
Somnambulism (with or without sleep terrors)
Hopwood &Snell (1933)(29) 1 Homicide
Podolsky (1961)(30) 6 5 homicides,1 suicide
Brookes (1974)(31) 1 Non fatal assault
Watkins (1976)(32) 1 Homicide
Luchins et al (1978)(33) 1 Homicide
Hartmann (1983)(34) 1 Homicide
Oswald &Evans (1985)(35) 3 3 non fatal assaults
Tarsh (1986)(36) 1 Non fatal assault
Howard &d Orban (1987)(37) 2 1 homicide,1 non fatal assault
Brahams (1991)(38) 1 Non fatal assault
Ovuga (1992)(39) 1 Homicide
Broughton et al (1994)(40) 1 Homicide
Moldofsky et al (1995)(17) 3 1 homicide,2 non fatal assault
Lemoine et al (1997)(41) 3 2 homicide,1 non fatal assault
Schenck &Mahowald (1998)(42) 1 Sexual misconduct

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