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How Sleepwalking Works
Why People Sleepwalk
People used to think that sleepwalkers acted out their dreams. However, sleepwalking occurs during the deepest stages of sleep when you are not dreaming.
- Mental health professionals state that sleepwalking is an arousal disorder, meaning that something triggers the brain, so the person is in a transition state between sleeping and waking.
- Most sleepwalkers are children. It could be because their brains outpace others in development or that a child's brain is too immature to understand waking and sleeping cycles.
- Children tend to sleepwalk more when they are overly tired or stressed. The same factors affect adult sleepwalkers, as well as medicines, alcohol, and fever illnesses.
- Sleepwalking has been linked to seizures, REM sleep disorders, and brain disorders like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
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Defining Sleepwalking
Sleepwalking is known as somnambulism. It's classified as an abnormal behavior during sleep that's disruptive.
The handbook for mental health professionals, the DSM-IV, defines sleepwalking by the following criteria:
- You leave your bed while sleeping.
- Others find it difficult to wake you during an episode of sleepwalking.
- You can't remember what happened while you were sleepwalking.
- When you do wake up from an episode, you're confused.
- You don't suffer from dementia or another physical disorder.
- It impairs your work or social life.
When Sleepwalking Happens
During the first third of sleep, your body is in non-REM - your deepest stage of sleep. Your brain quiets down and you aren't dreaming. Your body is active, and you tend to toss and turn.
People usually sleepwalk during the first third of their sleep pattern. Sleepwalking episodes can last from a few seconds to half an hour. Sleepwalkers can perform many activities, from walking around to driving a car or playing an instrument.
Why People Sleepwalk
People used to think that sleepwalkers acted out their dreams. However, sleepwalking occurs during the deepest stages of sleep when you are not dreaming.
- Mental health professionals state that sleepwalking is an arousal disorder, meaning that something triggers the brain, so the person is in a transition state between sleeping and waking.
- Most sleepwalkers are children. It could be because their brains outpace others in development or that a child's brain is too immature to understand waking and sleeping cycles.
- Children tend to sleepwalk more when they are overly tired or stressed. The same factors affect adult sleepwalkers, as well as medicines, alcohol, and fever illnesses.
- Sleepwalking has been linked to seizures, REM sleep disorders, and brain disorders like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Sleepwalking and the Arts
In the arts, sleepwalking is linked to blood, danger, the occult, and loss of control.
- Shakespeare used a sleepwalking scene in Macbeth to reveal a key element in Lady Macbeth's character development. She plots a murder but doesn't want to pull it off. In a sleepwalking episode, she confesses her sins.
- In Bellini's opera "La Sonnambula," a sleepwalking woman is accused of being unfaithful to her husband when she innocently wakes up in another man's room.
- The plot of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" centers on the idea of a murderer sleepwalker controlled by an evil doctor.
- In "Dracula," the vampire sinks his teeth into Lucy during a bout of sleepwalking.
Other Parasomnias, Besides Sleepwalking
Sleepwalking isn't the only parasomnia.
- There is sleep sex - sexual behavior during sleep.
- Sleep-eating is associated with the sleep aid Ambien, where people eat anything, from tubs of margarine, eating cigarettes and raw meat.
- Bruxism is where some people clench or grind their teeth while they sleep. It can damage the teeth, give you headaches, and make your jaw hurt.
- Sleeptalking, also named somniloquy, is where the person could just make noises, or could have a long one-sided conversation.
- Sleep enuresis, or bed-wetting.
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The Science of Sleep
The average adult spends 36 % (or about one-third) of his or her life asleep.
Purpose of Sleep:
- Restoration
- Memory Consolidation
- Metabolic Health
Restoration
The first purpose of sleep is restoration.
Every day, your brain accumulates metabolic waste as it goes about its normal neural activities. Sleeping restores the brains healthy condition by removing these waste products. Accumulation of these waste products has been linked to many brain-related disorders.
Memory Consolidation
The second purpose of sleep is memory consolidation.
Sleep is crucial for memory consolidation, which is responsible for your long term memories. Insufficient or fragmented sleep can hamper your ability to remember facts and feelings/emotions.
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Our sleep-wake pattern
Our molecular clock inside our cells aims to keep us in sync with the sun.
When we disregard this circadian rhythm, we are at a greater risk for illnesses such as diabetes, heart...
The lifestyle imbalance
Thomas Edison said that sleep is "a bad habit." Like Edison, we seem to think of sleep as an adversary and try to fight it at every turn. The average American sleeps less than the recommended seven hours per night, mostly due to electric lights, television, computers, and smartphones.
However, we are ignoring the intricate journey we're designed to take when we sleep.
Stage One Sleep
When we fall asleep, the nearly 86 billion neurons in our brain starts to fire evenly and rhythmically. Our sensory receptors become muffled at the same time.
The first stage of shallow sleep lasts for about 5 minutes.
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Sleep stability
It's the key to a good night’s sleep. It means pinning your bedtime to the same time every night, even on weekends, and waking up at the same time every morning, even on weekends. ...
The "8-hour sleep" myth
8 hours of sleep/night is a useful goal, but it’s not true that everyone needs that.
A lot of people get obsessed with this goal of getting 8 hours of sleep every single night, and because they’re someone who just doesn’t need that much sleep, or they can’t reliably sleep that long, they get anxious about it and that actually creates issues with insomnia.
Basic sleep hygiene
- not drinking caffeine after midday;
- not exercising too late;
- not drinking alcohol before bed;
- eating sensibly;
- leaving mobile devices outside the bedroom (artificial light disrupts the brain).
If doing natural things like this doesn’t work, then it might be wise to consult with a specialist or a doctor.
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How alcohol affects sleep
A lot of the symptoms associated with a hangover are a product of sleep deprivation.
Alcohol affects our ability to get into what is known as rapid eye movement (REM...
Eating before bed
It is important to leave at least a couple of hours between eating and sleeping.
There is a whole raft of so-called sleepy foods – anything containing tryptophan, serotonin, melatonin, magnesium, calcium, potassium – often eaten in the hope they will aid sleep.
If you do want to eat these foods, do it because it’s a nice ritual, not because you need it to sleep.
A cure for sleepwalking
There isn’t a cure.
People who sleepwalk usually are advised to keep their room safe by locking windows and doors, and to maintain what’s called good sleep hygiene: keep to a regular sleep routine, turn mobile phones off, avoid stimulants, and so on. Sleepwalking can often occur as a result of poor or disrupted sleep.
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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
PTSD is a mental health disorder that begins after a traumatic event. Events may include:
- A natural disaster like a tornado
- Military combat
- Assau...
PTSD symptoms
Words, sounds, or situations that remind you of trauma can trigger your symptoms. Symptom categories:
- Intrusion: Flashbacks, where you relive the event. Clear, unpleasant memories or nightmares about the incident and intense distress when you think about the event.
- Avoidance: Avoiding people, places, or situations that remind you of the event.
- Arousal and reactivity: Trouble concentrating, easily startled, feeling of being on edge, irritability, moments of anger.
- Cognition and mood: Negative thoughts, feelings of guilt, worry, blame, trouble remembering parts of the event, reduced interest in activities you enjoyed.
PTSD treatment
If you're diagnosed with PTSD, you will likely be prescribed therapy, medication, or both.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or "talk therapy" helps you to process the traumatic event.
- Exposure therapy lets you re-experience elements of the trauma in a safe environment. It desensitizes you to the event and lessens your symptoms.
- Antidepressants, anti-anxiety drug**s, and sleep aids** may help relieve symptoms of depression and anxiety.
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Sleep deprivation
Willpower, memory, judgement, and attention all suffer when you are sleep deprived.
You drop things, crave junk food sugar, overeat, gain weight. You’re more irritable, negative, emotio...
Get through sleep deprivation:
- Stabilize your blood sugar, by eating hearty food (protein and fat) more often.
- Reduce refined carbs and increase fats and proteins.
- B-complex vitamin supplements can give you an immediate boost in alertness and mental clarity.
- Soak in an Epsom salt bath - might even help you get enough energy to exercise the next day.
- Drink more water than you usually do to help compensate.
- Exercise is the single best way to “take out the trash” in your body, and after staying up more hours than you should.
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Dealing with Anger According to Context
Sometimes suppression is the only thing you can do to avoid an escalation. And sometimes reappraisal can cause you to tolerate bad situations.
But that said, telli...
The Power of Forgiveness
Forgive. Research indicates that forgiveness makes you less angry and more healthy.
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The placebo effect
The placebo effect happens when a person takes medication that he thinks will help, but the medication has not been proven to be effective for the specific condition.
The subject-expectancy effect
When people know what the result of taking a pill is supposed to be, they might unconsciously change their reaction to cause that result or report that result has taken place even if it hasn't.
However, studies show that a placebo doesn't trick the brain - the brain reacts differently to a drug than a placebo. A 2004 study showed that the expectation of pain relief causes the brain's relief system to activate.
Placebos in research
Placebos are often used in clinical drug trials to determine how well a potential medicine will work.
- There are two different groups of subjects in a placebo-controlled trial - one receives the experimental drug and the other the placebo. Neither researchers nor subjects know which group is receiving the real drug or the placebo.
- Some researchers are questioning the placebo-controlled trial. Not everyone thinks a drug is ineffective if the placebo performs better.
- Other critics of the placebo-controlled trial state it's wrong to attribute all positive outcomes to the placebo because many illnesses can resolve without any treatment.
- When a patient takes a placebo and experiences adverse side effects, it's called a nocebo effect. Patients taking active drugs have also been known to have side effects that can't be directly attributed to the drug.
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Benefits of an evening routine
Haphazard evening routines can have serious effects on our sleep.
The right evening routine helps us wind down, relax, and get into a deep, restorative sleep—making us refreshed and ...
The science of sleep
When we close our eyes for the night, our mind cycles through different stages of sleep:
- Light sleep: Which is most similar to being awake
- REM (or Rapid-Eye-Movement): Where our minds are asleep but active and where dreams are most likely to happen
- Deep sleep: Where our mind is in “regeneration” mode
So many things can get in the way of us reaching deep sleep, from stress and burnout to late-night screen usage, eating late, and physical issues. To make sure we reach our deep, restorative sleep, we need a proper evening routine.
Create a “closing ritual”
For most of us it is the mind, rather than the body, that disrupts restorative sleep.
To cleanse our mind of the leftover responsibilities of the day, we need to bring a mental wind down into our evening routine.
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Snoring isn’t harmful
Although snoring may be harmless for most people, it can be a symptom of a life-threatening sleep disorder called sleep apnea, especially if it is accompanied by severe daytime sleepiness.
You can "cheat" on sleep
Sleep experts say most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep each night for optimum performance, health, and safety.
The resulting sleep deprivation has been linked to health problems such as obesity and high blood pressure, negative mood and behavior, decreased productivity, and safety issues in the home, on the job, and on the road.
Turning up the radio
... opening the window, or turning on the air conditioner are effective ways to stay awake when driving.
These "aids" are ineffective and can be dangerous to the person who is driving while feeling drowsy or sleepy.
It's best to pull off the road in a safe rest area and take a nap for 15-45 minutes. Caffeinated beverages can help overcome drowsiness for a short period of time.
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