An intoxicated man was found sleeping, slumped under the wheel of his Chevy Malibu on the onramp toward Highway 151 early Friday morning.

After knocking on the window of the car stopped at the intersection of Nelson Road and East Washington Avenue and receiving no response, a Madison Police Department officer searched the vehicle with takedown lights, according to MPD spokesperson Joel DeSpain.

He added the officer was still unable to see if the driver was unconscious or the car was vacant.

When suspect Bryant Williams, 22, of Sun Prairie, finally woke, he shifted the car into drive and pulled forward on the ramp to 151, DeSpain added.

Although the officer chased him, Williams sped northbound, refusing to stop the car, and crashed right off the exit ramp to Reiner Road.

“[The officer] followed him to the exit ramp and as he begins to slow down, he sees the suspect facing southbound toward oncoming traffic,” DeSpain said. “He then crashed into the curb.”

Williams was arrested and tentatively charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence, eluding and operating after revocation, DeSpain added.

According to Kevin Strang, faculty associate in the department of physiology, alcohol is an interesting global depressant. If a person has enough motivation to do something, alcohol can wake a person up, Strang said

However, sitting in a car after a party, a person’s neurotransmitter system turns down the excitatory one and turns up the inhibitory one, Strang said, attributing William’s brain activity to his explanation. In other words, brain activity goes down.

If a person drinks enough, they can pass out, said Nina Emerson, director of the Recourse Center on Impaired Driving.

She added it is not uncommon for the MPD to respond to people passing out in a car.

“They’re often pulled off side of road, at a gas station, and they’ve just passed out,” Emerson said. “Typically what happens is an officer [goes to] that scene … and tries to wake the person, which usually takes a while because people are usually passed out in a deep sleep.”

According to Strang, although alcohol is often a popular means to relax and fall asleep, it prevents a person from having a quality, good night’s sleep.

Strang said people need Rapid Eye Movement sleep to function properly.

REM sleep is when a person’s brain is actively dreaming in a light sleep, Strang said, adding a person needs to go to endure a light sleep to get to this point.

“You tend to remember dreams when awaken in Rapid Eye Movement sleep … [and] alcohol in your system prevents a person from this sleep,” he said.

Although alcohol can knock a person into an unconscious sleep for eight hours, a person will generally feel as if they didn’t sleep at all the next day, Strang added.

Strang said the time it takes a person to fall asleep is often mistaken for quality sleep.