What is sleepwalking, causes and signs, at what age it manifests itself and how to treat such a disease. Sleepwalking (sleepwalking) is a special state when a sleepy person begins to walk and can do something that, when he wakes up, does not remember at all. This pathology is associated with a disruption in the work of the part of the brain that is responsible for the state of sleep.
Description and mechanism of development of sleepwalking
Everyone has heard chilling stories about sleepwalkers. Allegedly, on bright moonlit nights, they walk on the roofs and at the same time do not fall, but if they scream loudly, they will certainly wake up, fall and break. Some can even drive a car and do not have an accident.
Quite spicy stories are also known. For example, that after a party a sleepy man raped a sleeping girl. A lunatic woman left the house and had sexual intercourse with unfamiliar men. Such people do not remember their actions, their illness is considered a type of sleepwalking and is called sexomnia - sex in a dream. In Western countries, they are exempted from criminal liability.
There are many myths about sleepwalking. In the old days, it was believed that witches dance around the full moon. And then suddenly a creature with wide eyes appears on the street and goes somewhere detached. Such people were considered crazy and burned, poor fellows, at the stake.
Currently, medicine denies the relationship between the moon and sleepwalking. Although there is still a certain connection. The night star can be an irritant - a trigger that triggers the mechanism of midnight walks.
Sleepwalking or somnambulism, sometimes use the term "selenism" (from the ancient Greek "selenium" - "moon"), the phenomenon is not so rare, although it is not considered a serious mental disorder. Up to 10% of adults walk in a dream: both men and women. This is due to a hysterical type of character, nervous diseases, for example, stress, or chronic mental breakdowns, such as epilepsy.
Children suffer from sleepwalking more often, since their nervous system is still fragile. The child is mentally completely healthy, but experiences great anxiety, for example, when passing exams at school. Sleep becomes weak and disturbing. He may suddenly get up and, for example, go to the kitchen to drink water. And in the morning he will not remember it himself. For many children, this condition goes away with age. If it remains, then it is already necessary to talk about the pathological manifestations of mental development.
Sleepwalking depends on the work of a special part of the brain, which is responsible for the transition from fast to deep sleep. During the fast phase, the necessary information is put in order and memorized. In slow motion, the body recovers and grows. If there is a malfunction in the work of this organ, deep sleep is disturbed. This can manifest itself in a factor such as sleepwalking. The sleepwalker's speech is inhibited, he is not aware of fear and can do what he normally would never do. For example, walking along the edge of the roof and not falling.
However, more recently, American scientists have stated that "walking under the moon" is genetically predetermined. This is due to changes in some genes. It is their "wrong" work that causes the state when there is no way to completely "move away" from sleep. This is the whole point of sleepwalking. But what specific genes are responsible for sleepwalking is still unclear.
It's important to know! Somnambulism can be artificially induced. When a hypnologist, by suggestion, induces into a hypnotic sleep.
Causes of sleepwalking in children and adults
Doctors cannot pinpoint the reasons for sleepwalking. There are a number of assumptions why people do not behave quite adequately in their sleep. Perhaps this is due to a disorder of the nervous system. For example, a person has "restless legs syndrome": when falling asleep, unpleasant sensations arise in the lower extremities and you want to constantly move them, get up and walk. If the nerves are at the limit, fatigue and stressful situations can affect.
Sleep disorder - deprivation, when a person is not awake or asleep, and the reaction to external stimuli is weakened, also causes sleepwalking. Severe mental illnesses, such as Parkinson's disease, can provoke this condition. Recently, a version has been put forward that sleepwalking is a hereditary disease, its roots should be sought in genes.
As a result of research, it was possible to find out a number of patterns. First of all, they relate to the age of those suffering from walking in a dream. Sleepwalking is more common in children aged 4 to 10 years. This is due to the still fragile nervous system and heavy loads. Boys are more mobile than girls, because there are more sleepwalkers among them.
Adolescents in puberty - puberty, which begins at the age of 10 or a little later, are experiencing a real "emotional storm". This often provokes sleepwalking. However, by the age of 20, the reproductive system has already been formed, the "storm" dies down. The overwhelming majority of young people forget about their "night adventures".
Consider the causes of sleepwalking in children and adolescents in more detail:
- Impressionability … If the child is very emotional, the information received during the day does not allow him to fall asleep. The brain continues to work. This can lead to sleepwalking.
- Bad breathing while sleeping … May be associated with respiratory illness or shallow nervous sleep.
- Poor family environment … Parents quarrel among themselves or scold the child. His nervous system is upset, enuresis may begin, sleep is disturbed. This provokes sleepwalking.
- Bedtime games … The child runs, plays in the yard until dark. I came home excited and immediately to sleep. The nervous system did not have time to calm down, the legs in a dream "themselves ask to dance," and the child gets out of bed. Computer games until late, watching TV are also factors in sleepwalking.
- Hereditary predisposition … If one of the parents walked or walks in a dream, there is a high probability that the child will also be a sleepwalker.
- Fever sickness … This condition provokes restless sleep and sleepwalking.
- Headache … A special section of the brain, the hypothalamus, is responsible for rest. A severe migraine can interfere with its function and cause sleep disturbance. This often ends in sleepwalking.
If the child suddenly got up and went sleepy, you cannot shout loudly. This will scare him, he can make a careless movement and injure himself.
Sleepwalking in adults is much less common than in children. It manifests itself in both men and women. There is no big difference here. The causes of male and female sleepwalking are associated with a severe nervous or mental disorder, often of a chronic form.
Consider the main factors affecting the onset of sleepwalking in adults. These can be:
- Chronic sleep deprivation … A person works a lot, gets tired, sleeps little and does not sleep well. The nervous system is constantly in tension.
- Stress … It can be caused by various reasons. For example, constant turmoil at work or at home. Sleep is bad and disturbing. Various nonsense is dreaming, a sleepy person suddenly rises and begins to walk silently, terrifying everyone who sees him.
- Diseases of the brain … Let's say a tumor has formed, it presses, interferes with the normal activity of all brain departments. Insomnia sets in, her attacks alternate with memory lapses. A person gets up at night and starts walking around the room or even goes outside.
- Neurological disorders … There are diverse, and all may be related to somnambulism. If an obsessive state, when the same thought is spinning in the head for days, this can lead to psychosis and poor sleep. As a consequence, selenism.
- Severe anxiety … Confusion is accompanied by bouts of unexplained fear, which causes autonomic dysfunction - a violation of the normal activity of the body's vessels, due to which the general condition worsens.
- Chronic mental illness … It can be Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, senile dementia.
- Diseases of internal organs and blood vessels … For example, an aneurysm is a bulging or thinning of the artery wall due to stretching, or interruptions in the work of the heart. Diabetes mellitus and bronchial asthma can also cause night walking.
- Severe injuries … It can be cranial, when normal sleep is disrupted.
- Severe pregnancy … It is a factor leading to sleepwalking. Sometimes this condition develops in women during menstruation.
- Improper nutrition … Food unbalanced in the composition of trace elements, when the body is chronically lacking in magnesium, leads to poor sleep. A heavy dinner “for sleep to come” also negatively affects the night's rest. Anxiety and restlessness from heavy dreams can lead to sleepwalking.
- Increased emotionality … An unstable psyche is characterized by strong emotional outbursts: joyful or negative experiences. Anxious and impressionable personalities also fall into the category of "moon rovers".
- A conversation in a dream … It is not uncommon for people to talk in a sleepy state. This can make you get out of bed and go about your business.
- Forced sleepwalking … After excessive consumption of alcohol or drugs, hallucinations occur. They pick up on night walks. Large doses (overdose) of medications also cause this condition.
It's important to know! In a state of somnambulistic sleep, movements are inhibited, the pupils of the eyes are dilated. Such a person is not subject to feelings of fear and does not feel pain.
The main symptoms of sleepwalking
The main symptom of sleepwalking in all age groups is walking in a sleepy state. A man in the middle of the night suddenly rises with a detached gaze, his eyes are wide open, his gaze is "glassy". The movements are slow.
A sleepwalker can sit motionless on the bed, then turn on the light and go, say, to the kitchen. And there he will open the tap, drink some water and go back to sleep. If you tell him about this in the morning, he will be surprised, since he does not remember anything. The duration of such night "voyages" is from a few seconds to one hour, maybe 2-3 times a week or even a year.
The first symptoms of sleepwalking appear, as a rule, at an early age and become more frequent as the child grows up. The highest frequency is reached in adolescents, then in the majority, after the completion of puberty, they stop. According to statistics, only 1% of young sleepwalkers "cross over" with their illness into adulthood. This is quite a bit, but it speaks of chronic diseases, which in most cases were inherited and became the reason for "walking under the moon".
In children and adolescents, sleepwalking attacks more often occur in the first half of the night. Often the child just sits on the bed, if there is a toy nearby, plays with it, then goes to bed himself. If it does not fit for a long time, you need to silently take the hand and put you to bed. No shouting or noise. Often they obey unquestioningly, and in the morning they will not remember anything. And don't remind them about it.
Sleepwalking in childhood and adolescence in the vast majority of cases is not a disease. This is a manifestation of the "fatigue" of the child's body from excessive physical and mental stress. They should be limited.
Sleepwalking in adults is sometimes noisy. The sleepwalker can walk and wave his arms, even shout something, go out of the apartment into the street. If you ask him about something, the reaction will be inadequate. He mutters something, looks past with wide eyes, as if there is an empty space in front of him. Such people have always inspired fear. In the Middle Ages, they were considered evil spirits, pelted with stones and burned at the stake.
To people who have seen a somnambulist, it seems that they are making meaningless movements. However, this does not prevent them from showing the "miracles" of balancing act. Let's say you walk along the edge of a roof or a sheer wall and don't fall. But such cases are very rare, many of them are described in detail. Such "gymnastics" is associated with the fact that in a half-asleep state, all reflexes are inhibited, there are no emotions - a feeling of fear that can make you take a wrong step. And subconsciously, all movements are controlled, the instinct of self-preservation is triggered. If you shout loudly, the lunatic will shudder from surprise and stumble, fall from a height and crash.
In our time, no one is afraid of those suffering from sleepwalking, they are considered sick and try to help them. If you already happen to meet with a somnambulist, you cannot shout harshly so as not to cause unexpected injury or cause aggression of a suddenly awakened person.
In the morning the sleepwalkers don't remember anything. They are drowsy, inattentive and absent-minded, they have no "appetite" for work. So "night walks" affect the general condition of patients with sleepwalking.
It's important to know! Sleepwalkers are not as dangerous to others as they are to themselves. Often walking "under the moon" can result in trauma for them.
Ways to deal with sleepwalking
How to get rid of sleepwalking, doctors still do not really know, because the reasons for walking in a dream are largely unclear. Various psychotherapeutic methods and all kinds of medications were used: sedatives, antidepressants, tranquilizers, but all of them were not effective enough. Although there are still certain developments. Studies have found that often the cause of sleepwalking is stress, when sleep is disturbed, when they are asleep, they talk and often wake up in the middle of the night. If all these signs are present, it is necessary to contact a neurologist, he will conduct a comprehensive examination and prescribe the appropriate treatment.
How to get rid of sleepwalking in children and adolescents
Treatment of sleepwalking in children and adolescents, as a rule, is not medication in nature. With the exception of pathology, which can be hereditary and manifest, for example, as epileptic seizures. In this case, you need to undergo a special course of treatment in a neuropsychiatric hospital, where sedative (sedative) drugs will be prescribed in accordance with age. In most cases, sleepwalking in children is not a pathology.
So that a child or teenager does not harm himself during night walking, you just need to adhere to the following rules:
- If children are walking in their sleep, you should not yell at them. You need to try to calmly put them to sleep.
- It is recommended that you check your child's sleep more often to make sure everything is okay.
- To the room where the child sleeps, it is necessary to remove all sharp objects with which the child can accidentally injure himself during sleep.
- The light switch must be safe.
- Windows must be securely closed so that the sleepwalker does not fall out of the open window.
It's important to know! You should not be afraid of childish sleepwalking. However, you need to take precautions so that the child does not injure himself while walking at night.
How to treat sleepwalking in adults
Treatment of sleepwalking in adults often consists of eliminating the causes of a stressful situation. Here the help of a psychiatrist is needed. He will prescribe medication, which consists in the appointment of antidepressants, sedatives and tranquilizers.
After the course of treatment, the psychologist at psychotherapeutic sessions will try to develop a psychological attitude in the patient that will help remove the causes of stress and restore healthy sleep.
There are no effective cures for sleepwalking, but the fight against sleepwalking in adults still brings the desired result.
Since ancient times, people have believed that the phases of the moon affect human behavior. Walking in a dream was associated with this. However, it is unlikely that the night luminary makes you get out of bed and detachedly walk around the room or go out into the street, but you should not completely deny this. No wonder people called such an exotic disease "sleepwalking", and those suffering from it - "sleepwalkers". How to get rid of sleepwalking - watch the video:
Sleepwalking is based on the mechanisms of disturbance of the activity of the central nervous system, which are still not fully understood. But in the vast majority of cases, child and adolescent sleepwalking is not a disease. You just need to closely monitor its manifestations at this age. An adult "moonwalking" is more serious, but even here there is hope for recovery.
