Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Sleep

Sleepwalking: Why does it happen??

Research has not been able to identify the cause of sleepwalking, medically known as somnambulism.  According to the National Sleep Foundation, fifteen percent of the general population engage in sleepwalking.  Although it is more common in children, sleepwalking is still a condition found in adults and elderly. There is no specific treatment for sleepwalking.
 
Sleepwalking is described as walking, eating, dressing and reportedly even driving without any recollection of the events after waking up. During a sleepwalking episode, a person may have their eyes wide open, have a blank facial expression or  may speak incoherently  It can be quite dangerous because a person who is engaging in sleepwalking may hurt themselves by falling, hitting, or walking into others.  There have been cases of people walking out of their homes in the middle of the night and wandering off. The video below describes this condition in children and some of the triggers for sleepwalking.

According to the video, research suggests that fatigue and sleep deprivation  may be some of the triggers of sleepwalking in children. 

Have you ever woken up and someone tells you that you were walking while being asleep?  If you have feel free to share your experience..

2 comments:

  1. My mom once told me that one night she found me sitting on my bed with a blank stare in the middle of the night and that I wouldn't lay down even when she was telling me to. She also said that I told her I was cold and she covered me up. The next day she told me about it and I had no recollection of it. I guess that counts as sleep walking even though technically I didn't walk.

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  2. I literally have to lock my door at night to avoid falling off my stairs, I have a very bad tendency of getting up walking around and having conversations with my dreams, or at least thats what my parents tell me, but i'd never really tried to understand why I do those things, but it make sense that sleep deprivation would be the cause because i've always had a hard time getting to sleep and staying asleep.

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