While your not aware of your actions in the morning, I think your still responsible for them. My brother sleep walks all the time, usually just to go to the bathroom. But he's done other things as well. We've held conversations, he's cleaned his room (and made it messier), gone wandering outside, changed beds, and who know what else when I havn't been watching. Never remembers any of it in the morning. But it was still him that did it, so not holding him respondsible seems rather odd to me. If he had done anything 'bad' then maybe getting him help for his sleepwalking would be a better approach then to let him off without any respondsibility. Even if you have no control over what you've done (because you were asleep) you still did whatever it is and might do it again. It's actually worse then if you weren't and are respondsible. If you know what you did, how you did it, and that it was wrong you can work to correct your actions and not do it again. But if you weren't aware, well you can't correct yourself, and might well do the exact same thing again and again. If I was of the authority for government stance I'd say it sounds like someone should be locked up for their own protection...

sounds like another "twinkie" defense" What makes a lawyer "good" is there ability to circumvent the law.

If he had done anything 'bad' then maybe getting him help for his sleepwalking would be a better approach then to let him off without any respondsibility. Even if you have no control over what you've done (because you were asleep) you still did whatever it is and might do it again. It's actually worse then if you weren't and are respondsible. If you know what you did, how you did it, and that it was wrong you can work to correct your actions and not do it again. But if you weren't aware, well you can't correct yourself, and might well do the exact same thing again and again. If I was of the authority for government stance I'd say it sounds like someone should be locked up for their own protection...

Is there any effective treatment for sleepwalking? I admit a rather large bit of ignorance on the subject, but is there any method short of institutionalization and/or locking someone in a room when they sleep that would solve the situation?

sounds like another "twinkie" defense" What makes a lawyer "good" is there ability to circumvent the law.

What makes this different in my mind is that it sleepwalking would, I think, fall under the category of mental defect, in the sense that you are not in control, nor are you aware of your actions. As I mentioned above, I think that some sort of medical treatment would be better than jail, as they do with other individuals that base their defenses on insanity. I do not know, however, if sleepwalking can be treated, or how it is done.

I agree with Danny on this one. You should still be responsible, especially because it is much harder to control. Case in point: If I, like Danny's brother apparently does, make my or someone else's room messy while sleepwalking, I still have a responsibilty to clean it, even though I was asleep.

As someone who had dealt with dissociative disorders (the grandaddy of all "sleepwalking") I have to say that the dissociative must take responsibility for their actions.

If you have this problem, then you need to have safety mechanisms in place to keep you grounded.

See now I know the perfect excuse for my yet to be committed crimes.

Is there any effective treatment for sleepwalking?

I think hypnosis can stop sleepwalking. (for some reason i dont think this brings anything to the thread, sorry guys )

I agree that they should be held responsible but there has to be another alternative for their punishment/treatment than locking them up. The jails are way overcrowded right now. To be tossing someone in jail for sleepwalking would be obsurd. I think maybe treatment for this condition would be better. My mother-in-laws younger sister did try to stab her once while she {her sister} was sleepwalking. But I don't think this is a very good defense.