Even if the sleepwalker does not react aggressively, he can still easily harm himself or a person close by. For example, sleepwalkers often drive their cars or walk into the kitchen to cook something, with all of the following consequences.
Experts recommend not waking up the dream visitor, but helping him to return slowly
and carefully to his bed.
Causes of sleepwalking
Why do people become sleepwalkers?
Researchers explain somnambulism by pointing out that the brain has a sleep center, which directly controls the body's sleep and awakening and blocks certain nerves and a specific part of the brain during sleep.
Typically, the center of sleep is closely related to the body, but sometimes it happens that during cerebral sleep, the body decides to be awake.
But when it comes to a particular case, science makes a helpless gesture.
Our bodies function in cycles called circadian rhythms, which are cyclical variations in the activity of various biological processes associated with day and night changes.
Experts say that certain variations in these cycles are related to the development of sleepwalking.
On the global network, you will find many cases where people who were sleepwalking did very difficult acts and deeds.
They sat behind the wheel of a car, drove planes, were near a partner, and even robbed and killed people.
In reality, the crazy man can get into the car and start it, but he can't drive more than a few meters because he's blocking all reflexes.
There is another myth that dream walkers are very flexible, like cats. As if they could walk on a rope and fall from a great height, they could land on their feet without scratching.
Of course, a very beautiful myth must also be dispelled. During night walks, about a quarter of sleepwalkers injure themselves in various ways.
Often, a sleepwalker mixes a window with a door and falls out of the window.
But what are we to believe? What do we know about this disease or disorder?
It is more correct to call sleepwalking somnambulism, which comes from the Latin ambulance—I walk—and Somnus—a dream. The word "crazy" comes from the Latin lunatics-crazy.
Sleepwalking for adults
However, quite often, somnambulism is associated with the effect of the moon on humans, but there is no scientifically proven evidence of this.
Experts believe that we are unknowingly overly reliant on the Moon, particularly during the full moon and peregrine (the Moon's closest approach to Earth).
Open if you want consistent and better sleep
In fact, sleepwalking is not a rare mental illness, as many people believe. Sleepwalking is one of the nervous system disorders to which teenagers and young children are most prone.
Dream walkers are extremely rare in the adult population--one in every 1,000. About 2 percent of the world’s adult population walks from time to time in their sleep.
In the past, experts believed that a person suffering from sleepwalking dreamed and behaved according to their dreams, but studies performed could not prove this assumption.
During sleepwalking, a person is in an unchanging state of consciousness that appears hypnotic.
This condition manifests as an increase in the sensitivity of certain sensory organs, a lack or decrease in skin sensitivity, and a person’s susceptibility to suggestions.
Note that about 40 percent of sleep visitors cause various injuries.
Usually, sleepwalking occurs about 2-3 times a month. A person begins to walk about an hour after falling asleep, just in the slow wave of the sleep phase, also known as delta sleep.
The expression of people sleepwalking expresses nothing, it freezes, the eyes are open, and the pupils have contracted.
While walking a little in the apartment, a sleepwalker can feed a pet, drink water, go to the toilet, "talk" to the household, and then return to his bed and sleep until morning.
In the morning, of course, he doesn’t remember anything; he can even say you’re calling him on purpose, that he didn’t have such eccentricities at all.
Sleepwalking with children
what causes sleepwalking in children
Usually, children experience this condition when they have been in a state of tension and anxiety for a long time.
It is added that this problem comes mainly from affected children, whose brains tend to have arousal targets.
When a child begins to worry about something, these moments show signs of sleepwalking, even though the child is mentally completely healthy.
It’s all because the baby has a pretty hard time digesting a large number of impressions and information. After all, the brain doesn’t rest even at night, but continues to work.
Moreover, in sleep corridors, the stages of sleep do not change smoothly, as in an ordinary person, but rather quickly and suddenly.
Only with a sharp change in phases will our brains withstand heavy loads. When everything is normal, the child has dreams with images full of different actions, while the center of the brain is blocked.
For those who suffer from sleepwalking, this barrier has been completely disabled. Nerve impulses begin to flow into the muscles, and the child gets up, walks, sits, etc.
As he ages, the nervous system adapts to the world around him, and sleepwalking phases gradually disappear. Experts say that at the age of about 13, children are completely free from this scourge.
Adults face a slightly different situation, as sleepwalking can already be a precursor to the development of serious diseases such as epilepsy. If you hike at night, be sure to see an expert.
Go through the examination, including a brain encephalogram. You need to make sure there is no epileptic readiness in the temporary block.
But there are other options for developing events. Occasional sleepwalks can be triggered by a high fever, chronic sleep deprivation, or severe stress.
Sleepwalking has an unusual variation called sexsomnia. This is a mental disorder that causes a person to start showing sexual activity in their sleep, all the way to intimacy.
In the Middle Ages, they tried to hide the dream walk from the public because the sleepwalker’s relatives and friends were very afraid of persecution by the Inquisition.
There was even an instruction in "The Witch's Hammer," which said that sleepwalkers are people ruled by evil spirits and must be executed by fire or drowning.
Today, experts say that this is an inherited disease that develops as a result of specific disorders of certain genes. They have not yet found the gene responsible for the occurrence of sleepwalking in humans, but experts still have some assumptions. They say the culprit may be the adenosine deaminase gene, which determines the slow phase of sleep (it involves sleepwalking attacks).
Note that parents of children with somnambulism should remember that this need not be feared, just as there is no need to wake up the child. If he wakes up suddenly, he may be upset and very scared. Carefully take it to the crib. If the attacks are repeated too often, the child needs an eye during the day and an eye at night.
Walking at night can harm a child. Sleepwalking is not dangerous, but a child with somnambulism should not have access to glass windows and doors or stairs, and all cutting and stinging objects should be further removed.
Sleep disorders
We are talking about more interesting sleep disorders.
Many people in today’s world suffer from sleep disorders. This prevents them from looking fresh and flowering in the morning. It prevents a happy life. From a scientific point of view, a sleep disorder are called insomnia. There is a lot of insomnia, but we are talking about the most interesting things.
Disorders of falling asleep
Such violations are also called preventive. They are often due to fears or worries about the day’s events. Sometimes a person simply cannot fall asleep because, a hundred times a day, he or she scrolls the past day in his or her head, especially if an important decision was made that day or he or she attended a significant meeting.
Many have encountered such a situation—after an unpleasant conversation, we can’t sleep normally all night, thinking constantly about what words shouldn’t have been said, what had to be said, etc. With such reflections, we don’t notice how midnight flies past and we soon have to get to work.
It is also often caused by discomfort or pain caused by chronic diseases. In most cases, this cause of insomnia is characteristic of older people who have already developed illnesses during their long lives.
Open if you want consistent and better sleep
Intrasominal sleep disorders
These are disorders of sleep that occur during sleep itself. The person falls asleep quickly but wakes up in the middle of the night and can not return to sleep for several hours. Sometimes this can happen several times during the night.
The causes of such disorders are often poor sleep, nightmares, disorders of blood vessels, respiratory function (heavy snoring, asthma attacks, and shortness of breath), and heart work (pain, asthma). This may be due to, among other things, excessive sensitivity to external stimuli, such as sounds, music, or noise, the source of which may be in another room or in a neighbor’s apartment.
Postsomnnial sleep disorders
The person can fall asleep quickly. He sleeps for several hours but wakes up very early, about 4-5, and can no longer fall asleep.
However, at the same time, the feeling that he was resting or sleeping simply does not exist.
He feels overwhelmed, tired, and in a bad mood, and he also does not feel physical strength.
There are many causes of sleep disorders, but the most common are physical or mental fatigue.
Often during the day, a person suffers from the stress of driving a car, work situations, and problems in personal life, which in itself leads to sleepless nights and exacerbates the situation.
Keep in mind that certain diseases of the internal organs or the nervous system can also be causes of insomnia.
If you experience a problem with a prolonged sleep disorder, be sure to consult a neurologist, a psychotherapist, and a therapist to help you find the cause of your insomnia and prescribe the treatment you need.