London - Certainly, it was an unusual defence. Last week, a drunken driver who crashed his car at 100mph on the M5 told a jury that he had been asleep when it happened.
David Hamnett did not say he’d fallen asleep at the wheel. His claim was that he’d gone to bed as normal, then left his house, got into his car and driven 150 miles - while fast asleep.
So is “sleep driving” possible? According to doctors, and our legal system, the answer is most definitely yes.
In Hamnett’s case, the jury convicted him of dangerous driving but the judge spared him jail, and said Hamnett may have got into his car while still asleep.
Unwanted behaviours during sleep are called “parasomnias”. No one knows exactly why they happen, but scientists have established that the brainwaves of those prone to sleepwalking are unstable and prone to disruption when in deep sleep.
As a result, the parts of the brain that control movement can be awake, while the parts that govern reason and judgment are asleep.
Dr Irshaad Ebrahim, medical director of the London Sleep Centre, says: “Some somnambulistic behaviours can be mundane, such as gesturing, pointing or even urinating, but others are surprisingly complex and might necessitate high-level motor control - such as getting dressed, playing a musical instrument or driving a car.”
In other words, though your eyes are open and every part of your body is operating, the part of the brain that governs consciousness is not active.
Relatively complex actions that rely on ingrained memories, such as cooking or doing DIY, are possible - and indeed have been observed in sleep laboratories - but not actions that require on-the-spot decision-making.
Thus, though it is possible to talk while asleep, and to repeat often-used phrases or words, a sleepwalker is unable to have an intelligent conversation.
So what else have humans claimed to do when they are asleep - and are those who believe them being a little wide-eyed?
BECOMING AN ARTIST
Nurse Lee Hadwin, from North Wales, is “unable to do even a simple sketch” while awake. Once asleep he produces amazingly precise pencil drawings.
Inevitably, he’s been dubbed ‘Kipasso’ and ‘Vincent van Sloth’.
“It is the most extraordinary feeling to wake up and find myself surrounded by artworks, and have no recollection of having drawn them,” says Hadwin.
Now he leaves sketchbooks and charcoal scattered around the house, so he has materials to work with while asleep. “Often I’m amazed by what I’ve produced. I simply cannot explain where my art comes from. It’s as if another part of my brain kicks in when I am asleep.”
So, is his sleep-art genuine or a hoax? Hadwin submitted himself to tests at Edinburgh Sleep Centre, but they were inconclusive.
Dr Ebrahim says: “It’s not out of the question that he’s genuine. My view is that you can do whatever you do in sleep that you can do when you are awake.”
MAKING CHIPS
Chef Rab Wood doesn’t just take his work home with him - he continues cooking even after he’s gone to bed.
He achieved national attention a few years ago for cooking omelettes, chips and spaghetti bolognese while sleepwalking. But his nocturnal activities were a worry to Rab and his wife Eleanor, who live in Glenrothes in Fife.
He said: “I get up four or five times a week and I mainly seem to head to the kitchen. Eleanor has found me making omelettes, setting the table, peeling potatoes, even making chips.”
But the oddest thing? Rab never eats any of his creations.
MURDER
The most famous case was that of a Canadian, Kenneth Parks, acquitted of the murder of his mother-in-law and the attempted murder of his father-in-law in 1989. His story sounds unbelievable - but he persuaded the jury.
In 1987, he got in his car, drove 11 miles to his in-laws’ home and let himself in with a key he’d been given. Then he bludgeoned his mother-in-law to death and attempted to choke his father-in-law before returning to his car and driving to a police station, covered in blood. He told officers: “I think I have just killed two people.”
His defence? He had been asleep all along and was thus not aware of, or responsible for, his actions.
Ten sleep experts from Canada and the US agreed that Parks was a sleepwalker and that his actions fitted that of a sleepwalking episode. He was found not guilty of murder and walked free - to the astonishment of many.
Dr Ebrahim says: “In British law, if you are proved to be asleep, acts such as these come under the category of ‘automatism’. Your behaviour was that of an automaton: you weren’t aware of what you were doing.”
HAVING SEX
It is possible to have sex without being awake - it’s called sexsomnia - though, of course, not everyone who claims to suffer from this condition is telling the truth.
Last year, Simon Morris, a former Hollyoaks actor, was accused of raping a 15-year-old girl at a party. He said he had no recollection of having sex with her, telling the court: “I have a history of having sex with partners in my sleep.”
The jury did not believe him and he was found guilty. But others have been able to prove to the jury that they were, indeed, asleep during sex, and thus not responsible for their actions.
Last month, Andrew Machin, 40, was cleared of raping a 21-year-old woman at Butlin’s holiday camp in Skegness. After an evening of drunken dancing, they went to her room, where she went to sleep. She awoke to find him attempting to have sex with her.
Machin admitted having sex without the woman’s consent, but told the jury he could not be held to account for his actions, as he was not in control of them, and current and previous girlfriends testified his disorder was genuine.
The jury accepted his explanation: he was acquitted.
EMAILING FRIENDS
In 1999, the medical journal Sleep Medicine documented the case of a 44-year-old sleepwalker who logged onto her computer and sent several emails to friends.
The unnamed woman sent out three messages, the most coherent of which was “Come tomorrow and sort this hell hole out. Dinner and drinks, 4pm. Bring wine and caviar only.” The least coherent said just: “What the . . .”
The emailer had no recollection of typing or sending the messages - which were written two hours after she’d gone to bed.
CLIMBING A CRANE
In 2005, police and firefighters were called to a building site in South London. When they got there, they discovered a 15-year-old girl 130ft up in the air - on the arm of a crane.
They thought they’d been called to a potential suicide. But when they got to the top, they found the teenager, who was not named at the time, had made the perilous ascent while fast asleep.
She was woken up, taken to hospital and found to have suffered no ill-effects.
CHANGING A BULB
Josh Bliszko, from Milton Keynes, has a fondness for changing lightbulbs in his sleep - even when they don’t require it.
Dr Ebrahim describes one patient at his sleep clinic who would “get out of bed, unscrew the curtain rail from the wall, remove the curtains, and put the curtain rail back up.
“Then he’d unscrew it again, put the curtains back on, and screw in the curtain rail one more time. And he did that every night.” - Daily Mail