What Would Happen If A Sleepwalker Took Psychedelics?

[LandsUnknown]

Granted, this is quite an unusual and rather strange hypothetical question, but I have wondered about this at times when I hear stories about the stuff that sleepwalkers do. Luckily, I don't sleepwalk, so this isn't something I need to worry about Since I'm in my 20s, I very, very highly doubt that I'll start either since I've never done it. I do have sleep paralysis often, which is sort of the reverse of sleepwalking (e.g. REM paralysis lasting longer than necessary rather than not long enough, resulting in a sleepwalking episode). At least, this is how I have always heard the sleepwalking phenomena described. I do have a serious fear of it though, especially as I have heard stories of sleepwalkers driving and even having sexual encounters while sleepwalking. All the while, the sleepwalker appears normal but is actually asleep and doesn't recall the previous events the next day. However, for anyone who sleepwalks and has psychs in their house at the time, the possibility of eating shrooms or dropping acid while sleepwalking would be something to be a bit concerned about 8( This has me wondering, let's say the sleepwalker were to pick up a tab of acid or a psilocybin mushroom and ingest it while sleepwalking.

I know that during sleep, levels of serotonin are low and the receptors are in the process of replenishing themselves for the next day. If one took psychedelics while they were sleepwalking (thus technically asleep), clearly it would alter that process drastically. The way I see it, I see a few possibilities. Perhaps, the dreaming/sleeping sleepwalker would be in a state that is different from wakefulness and the psychedelics would affect them very differently than taking them while awake would. Perhaps, this would result in the substance having entirely different effects and somehow not waking the sleepwalker but merely altering their dreaming/sleep pattern in some fashion........ perhaps kinda like that LSD dream emulator game lol.

Or the sleepwalker would jolt awake when the psychedelics kicked in, and they'd notice everything was off...... probably realize what they did while sleepwalking and check their stash, see that it's missing and likely be quite baffled and likely rather freaked out by what happened. And then just go into a trip from there, though unfortunately this is about the worst set and setting that I could imagine for a trip 8( So, thankfully I've never sleepwalked

The other possibility I can see is the sleepwalker entering a bizarre and thankfully incredibly rare (or perhaps even impossible) state of mind where they are still sleepwalking and tripping simultaneously. Perhaps even, confusing the person to the point of them thinking they're in a lucid dream and doing some seriously crazy shit I do lucid dream often, so I have a good bit of experience with the lucid dreaming state and yeah, this third possibility would probably be the worst of the three 8( So, yeah if hypothetically this is the most likely possibility then yeah, I'm very glad I can never sleepwalk or otherwise I'd probably have to buy a safe to hide my drugs from my sleepwalking self lol

The fourth possibility is that perhaps sleepwalkers simply tend to eat and do random actions (certainly that is what they usually do). And the stories of sleepwalkers getting up, driving miles, and having random sexual encounters are overstated and so rare that they are not worth considering. And the idea of the sleepwalker not taking the usual course of action of just ignoring the "cool piece of paper with that awesome artwork on it" that they found on the dresser is pretty much unheard of. Chances are this whole thing is close to unheard of, but I have sometimes wondered what exactly would happen with the hypothetical sleepwalker if instead of just passing it by, they just kinda thought....... hmm, that piece of paper with a tripped out guy riding a bicycle on it looks pretty cool..... maybe I should just eat it and see what it tastes like 8(. The more I think about it, the more I see that the sleepwalker would not do this, so it's just kind of a hypothetical as far as if they did somehow, for some reason. Since I have heard of sleepwalkers eating raw bacon, perhaps the "piece of the paper with the cool artwork" might be a menu item for a sleepwalker somewhere lol And what would happen? Because I honestly have no clue

 

[sekio]

It's usually pretty hard to sleep on the sense-amplifying effects of 5-ht2a agonist psychedelics. But, if someone were to fall asleep on LSD or something, I'd expect it would alter their normal sleep architecture somewhat, so if they were prone to sleepwalking normally they may not do so on LSD, the proportion of REM/NREM sleep may change, and so on...

 

[LandsUnknown]

It's usually pretty hard to sleep on the sense-amplifying effects of 5-ht2a agonist psychedelics. But, if someone were to fall asleep on LSD or something, I'd expect it would alter their normal sleep architecture somewhat, so if they were prone to sleepwalking normally they may not do so on LSD, the proportion of REM/NREM sleep may change, and so on...

I wasn't saying if they went to sleep on psychedelic. The person in the hypothetical scenario was sleepwalking and ingested the psychedelics during their sleepwalking episode. So, since they were in REM sleep while they took it..... but they took some acid or mushrooms in their house while they were having a sleepwalking episode.

 

[sekio]

Given that oral psychedelics don't usually develop peak effects until around 20 mins to ~2 hours (needs to pass through the gut, liver, blood etc), it's likely that the sleepwalking episode would end and the person would awaken before anything too strange would begin to happen. Especially anything "stimulating" like the 2C-series or LSD.

As a comparable gedankenexperiment, I'd expect similar stuff would happen if you injected a sleeping person with DMT or something - they'd come out of sleep and be tripping.

 

[LandsUnknown]

Given that oral psychedelics don't usually develop peak effects until around 20 mins to ~2 hours (needs to pass through the gut, liver, blood etc), it's likely that the sleepwalking episode would end and the person would awaken before anything too strange would begin to happen. Especially anything "stimulating" like the 2C-series or LSD.

As a comparable gedankenexperiment, I'd expect similar stuff would happen if you injected a sleeping person with DMT or something - they'd come out of sleep and be tripping.

Yeah, I agree. It would be impossible for the sleepwalker to remain "sleeping" while under the influence of psychedelics. On one occasion, I did dose and then fall asleep. I had taken diphenhydramine prior to the psychs just to see what would happen, as I had heard that ayahuasca contains low doses of anticholergenic alkaloids. Just wanted to see what it would do and if it would produce a more visual experience as some claimed it might. I didn't fully fall asleep as you'd expect but lightly slept in my recliner for maybe a half hour to an hour before the psychs kicked in. As I was falling asleep, I kind of let myself start drifting off to sleep, and I figured that unfortunately I might end up somehow sleeping through the experience But at the time, I just didn't feel like getting up. Once I really started tripping though, I woke right up. So, I would imagine that the same would be the case if one were to sleepwalk and dose during their sleepwalking. It's unlikely that the sleepwalker would remain "asleep" after they dosed for very long.

And I tend to be quite a deep sleeper. In fact, once when I had work to do, I groggily got up and took an adderall and went back to bed without bothering to set my alarm thinking the adderall would wake me up once it kicked in and I'd be focused and also get to catch a half hour or an hour or so of sleep. Nope, slept right through it and essentially wasted the pill. I finished my studying later on but didn't wake up like I thought I would. I did have some crazy lucid dreams though....... but I didn't even have the dream recall in it to realize that I needed to wake up and also was wasting drugs 8). So, given the fact that I'm such a deep sleeper that I just kept sleeping after waking up and taking an adderall and didn't continue sleeping after I went to sleep after dosing I think it's probably safe to say that it's close to impossible that the hypothetical sleepwalker would keep walking around while "asleep" after dosing.

 

[shaneperera]

I went to sleep after dosing I think it's probably safe to say that it's close to impossible that the hypothetical sleepwalker would keep walking around while "asleep" after dosing.

just incase anyone was wondering (even though its been 4 years since this forum started), your third scenario which you listed is EXACTLY what happened to me, which was probably one of the most traumatic events i've ever experienced.

Just for a bit of context, i have never sleep walked prior to the event and i had taken acid multiple times before this.

Just to briefly give information surround my trip from my view (not dream):
- Took acid around 10pm with friends
- Tripping for 2 hours but got bored and tried going to sleep (even though it's been impossible for me to go to sleep on acid before, i managed to do it this time), my friends stayed up
- I 'went' to sleep around 12am
- I woke up the next day around 10am i think, on a different position to where i slept on the bed
- My friend was telling me bout how "last night was fkked" (thinking he was referring to our acid trip) and i responded with "yehh i had a really intense dream"
- He gave me confused and shocked looks and called his brother into the room, then made me take a shower so they can talk privately.
- I get out the shower, dress up, go out to the living room, where im met with my 2 friends, their dad, and 2 paramedics ppl in a circle. Which i was very very confused about.
- They asked me a few questions about personal details etc. and asked if i knew why they were here, and i didnt, and they asked if i remembered anything from last night, which i also didnt. That ended up shocking everyone in the room and now everyone was confused
- Took me outside to paramedic van? took my blood, asked me what i took, i was honest (tab of acid around 250ug), then informed me that my friends family were concerned because my BP was rly high last night (but i didnt understand how'd they know that)
- Paramedics just told me to get a drug testing kit if imma try something to make sure its not laced, and then left.
- I walked back in the house, met with 2 of my mates in the room and asked them to explain what the fuck happened the night before.
- From my point of view i took acid at night, slept, had a INSANELYY long dream, and woke up the next day.

idk if anyones active on this forum or not, but if anyone is somewhat interested on my experience just lmk and i can go deeper talking bout what my friends' point of view was of what happened in the 10 hours in which i thought i was asleep, aswell as what i was actually happening in my dream.

But just to reiterate on it being impossible for the third scenario to occur in which someone on acid went to sleep on acid and they go into a state of mind in which they are sleepwalking/tripping simultaneously IS COMPLETELY WRONG. But i still have trouble completing understanding how something like this was even possible as i had nobody to relate my experience to, even after searching thru the internet, reddit etc, nothing came even relatively close, which was shocking not only to me, but my school counsellor, my psychologist, and people who i tell this story about... but unfortunately it was very much real. But im so glad i found this forum after months of trying to find someone who "had" the same experience as me, even tho you were just speaking bout some hypothetical scenario.