I was reading in the webpage about “confusional arousals” and that got me thinking when you said that you are supposed to outgrow this state. I don’t wake up voluntarily like that, but when somebody tries to wake me up after I have been asleep I go right into a “confusional arousal.” For instance, when I was at girlscout camp a few months ago, my friends tried to wake me up to get me to scoot over. Instead of waking up, I went right into what you call a “confusional arousal.” I sat up, looked straight ahead and fell right back to sleep. The next morning I didn’t remember a thing. Is this regular or irregular to happen?

--Annie, Age 13. Huntington, MD, USA

Hi Annie -

Researchers tell us that, in order to remember being awake during the course of a night, we have to be awake for at least seven minutes! That’s a long time isn’t it? This means - if you were quick and tired - that you could get up and use the bathroom during the night and not even remember it - if you fell back asleep right away. A lot of people also tell stories of answering the phone and having conversations with people in the middle of the night - and not remembering a thing about it the next day!

What happened with you at camp is totally normal. You did have a confusional arousal - in that you “woke up” briefly - enough to sit up for a moment or two in bed - but then you plopped back down to sleep. Chances are that, even though you sat up in the bed, you never really were fully awake. During a confusional arousal - you never fully wake up.

I’ll tell you one other interesting thing about confusional arousals: They occur out of non-dreaming sleep. Essentially, it’s harder for us to wake up out of deep, non-dreaming sleep than it is for us to arouse from a dream. As you probably know from experience - sometimes you wake right up from a dream in the middle of the night. When you woke up at camp, I’d put money on it that you “woke up” out of deep, non-dreaming sleep.