While it might seem funny at the time, and while your friends might egg you on, pranking sleeping people is a recipe for disaster. Everyone loves a prank every now and then, and it's true that a lighthearted and innocent prank can at times be funny. However, when you prank someone who is asleep, safety issues are always a concern.
Why Pranking Sleeping People is Dangerous
Pranking sleeping people is rarely safe. A person's body has difficulty adjusting to being awake after having been asleep for some time. By the time your friend finally wakes up, chances are good that he will be harmed by the prank that you've pulled, or he will have accidentally harmed himself as a result of your games.
It is also important to consider the consequence of pranking someone who is asleep. Because he will be caught in his most unaware and vulnerable state, the victim of the prank might become angry and in his tiredness make irrational decisions on how to get revenge.
Camping Pranks
Some of the most common pranks on sleeping friends involve placing them in a different situation than that in which they fell asleep. These pranks occur commonly while camping. Heavy sleepers are often moved from the bedroom or from a sleeping bag to a remote location and left alone.
While it seems funny to have a friend wake up in the middle of the night outside, he or she risks exposure. In the summertime heat exposure is possible; in cooler weather, hypothermia could occur. Placing a friend next to the water outside could also result in accidental drowning.
Another popular prank involves zipping a friend up in a sleeping bag and dousing him with water, so that he will be unable to move despite his discomfort. At the very least, such a prank should be avoided because, in his surprise, your friend could pull a muscle or break a bone. Drowning may also occur in some cases, due to the practical jokers' miscalculation of how much water is being placed into the sleeping bag.
The outdoors are a wild place, and pranking sleeping people while camping could result in them experiencing the very worst of the wild.
Sleepovers
Similar to pranks done while camping, pulling a prank during a sleepover can be extremely dangerous. As many individuals sleep with their mouths open, it is rather common to place something into their mouth while they are asleep. Tabasco sauce, toothpaste, and other items - some of them indigestible - are often squeezed or placed into a friend's open mouth in the hopes that they will awaken and provide a moment of comic relief.
Such a prank can result in the individual accidentally choking. Asthmatic friends will have a particularly difficult time with this type of prank, and a friend with an allergy risks his throat closing as the result of an allergic reaction.
Giving a friend a "wedgie" or gluing things to his body can also result in serious injury, and of course, there's always the possibility that your friend will wake up and harm you in his anger.
Drunk Friends
One of the most dangerous times to pull a prank on a friend is when he or she falls asleep after drinking. While these people seem more vulnerable than the average sleeping friend, it is because their body is trying to process the alcohol that they have consumed, and they are less responsive to external stimuli.
Those who are drunk often act irrationally, and pranking them while they sleep will likely result in an injury to themselves, if not also to others around them. Moreover, if your friend is truly, dangerously drunk, he or she could vomit as a result of the prank and choke. It is hard to conceive of a prank pulled on a drunk, sleeping friend that will turn out well. Instead try to take care of your friends if they've had too much to drink. Check on them frequently and get them medical care if you think, even for a moment, that they might need it.
Fun Pranks
Pranks, at times, can be fun if you engage in safe prank playing. However, the victim of the prank should also be awake. Not only does this make the prank more fun, but it also gives the victim of the prank a chance to laugh at himself.
