Fallacies

A common misconception that I have heard is that you shouldn’t wake a sleepwalker. According to John Mersch, MD, it is not dangerous to awaken a sleepwalker [|Medicine Net]. Waking a person who is sleepwalking will only cause them to be a little confused or disoriented [|Medicine Net]. Mark Mahowald, MD, suggests that “it can be quite dangerous not to wake a sleepwalker” [|Sleep Foundation]. In making this comment, Mahowald encourages us all to wake up sleepwalkers in case they cause any harm to themselves. I believe that people were making informal fallacies when spreading this misconception because some people who get woken up may be startled and go right into defensive mode. The person who is there to help may think that waking the sleepwalker was not such a good idea after all. I find this to be an example of an informal fallacy because //the definition of informal fallacies suggests that 1+2 does not always add up to 3 [|Logical Fallacies]////.// If I were to make up my own little math equation for this common misconception, it could be said like this: (1) I was nearly hit last time I woke my sister when she was sleepwalking + (2) my sister sleepwalks every night and the same thing happens each time = (3) you should not wake any sleepwalkers due to it being dangerous. Just because (1) and (2) may be what happens between my sister and I don’t mean that this is the case for everybody’s family. It may not be the most enjoyable experience waking up a sleepwalker, but it is definitely vital that they are woken up so that everybody stays safe.