The human body is sometimes able to present real surprises to its owners. For example, a person feels absolutely he althy, no different from those around him, but this is during the day, and at night he suddenly gets up, starts walking like a somnambulist, performs some actions, and all this without waking up.
And then it turns out that he suffers from a mysterious ailment - sleepwalking. The article will talk about who sleepwalkers are, what are the causes of sleepwalking, whether there are methods for its treatment.
Sleepwalking - what is it?
Sleepwalking is the medical name for a painful psychological sleep disorder commonly referred to as sleepwalking. This term refers to the unconscious and purposeful movement of a person during sleep. When he wakes up, he has absolutely no memory of what he was doing. And he is very surprised when he hears from others about his nightly "walks".
There used to be a common belief that sleepwalking is closely related to the full moon. Butmodern medicine refutes this opinion. According to statistics, about one adult in a thousand manifests symptoms of somnambulism to varying degrees. And in children and adolescents, this disorder is even more common.
Causes of sleepwalking in adults
Doctors have been studying this problem for a long time, but still have not come to unambiguous conclusions about what exactly makes some people walk in an unconscious state. The following hypotheses are put forward:
- Disturbed phase of slow sleep. True, it is not clear what leads to these violations.
- Immaturity of the nervous system. This partly explains sleepwalking in children.
- Sleep deprivation (lack of the body's need for it). This assumption is considered the closest to the truth. With this type of disorder, the sleep phases seem to be layered on top of each other and thus may seem to be absent. In fact, sleep phases cannot disappear, just one phase exists against the background of another (slow phase on the REM phase and vice versa). As a result, the lines between sleep and awakening are blurred. That is, all the time while a person walks in a dream, he continues to wake up, but cannot do this.
- Emotional fatigue, too much nervous excitement, psychological disorders. These factors can cause sleep deprivation with all the ensuing consequences.
- Various mental disorders. It is known, for example, that the development of paranoid schizophrenia is often preceded by a severe sleep disorder. Such a person cannot fall asleep for days, from time to time fallingfatigue into a semi-comatose state.
Somnambulism symptoms
Who are sleepwalkers? What are the signs by which a person can be attributed to this category? This parasomnia (sleep disorder) is manifested by the following symptoms:
- periodic sleepwalking with eyes open or closed, performing simple, habitual actions;
- movements during walking in a dream are inhibited, robotic;
- noticeably constricted pupils;
- a frozen look, as if immersed in itself.
A sleepwalker may not show much physical activity. He sometimes just gets out of bed or sits without moving in space. In this state, the individual can be for several minutes, and even for an hour. Sometimes, in a state of somnambulistic activity, a lunatic is even able to conduct a simple verbal dialogue. The attack of activity ends with the fact that the person returns to his bed and already normally, calmly sleeps until the very morning awakening.
Manifestations of sleepwalking usually occur in the first third of the night, but sometimes (very rarely) cases of sleepwalking are still observed during daytime sleep. A lunatic cannot be awakened during his "journeys". Waking up suddenly, a person can be very frightened. It is recommended to simply take him to bed and sit next to him until he falls asleep normally. However, waking up a person in a state of somnambulistic activity is very difficult.difficult. He may not even feel strong pinches or hear loud sounds.
Is sleepwalking dangerous
Somnambulism itself is not some kind of dangerous disease, it does not negatively affect the body. Who are lunatics? Mentally ill people? Not at all! Often, their physical and mental he alth can be the envy of those who sleep at night with a heroic sound sleep. And yet, sleepwalking poses some danger both to the person suffering from such a sleep disorder, and to others.
Without being aware of their actions, a sleepwalker can cause serious injury to himself. There are cases when such people fell out of the window or fell from the roof. A number of scientific papers describe the facts when sleepwalkers even committed murders, fortunately, this happened extremely rarely.
Safety measures
If there is a person suffering from sleepwalking in the family, you need to take care of security measures for him. The following is recommended for this:
- close all windows tightly at night;
- turn off electrical appliances;
- remove all dangerous sharp objects;
- make sure that the sleepwalker is not disturbed by any source of light (night light or moonlight), this can provoke an attack of somnambulism.
Sleepwalking in children
Causes and treatment of sleepwalking - these topics are very important for parents. As mentioned above, children are more likely to "get sick" with sleepwalking. Therefore, parents are very worried when they notice that their child sleepwalks. But with ageit usually goes away. Most often, somnambulism is observed in children in the age group from 4 to 10 years.
Doctors attribute this to heavy loads that have a negative effect on the fragile nervous system. Teenagers are also prone to sleepwalking, because puberty is replete with strong emotional outbursts. As a rule, by the age of 20, when both the reproductive and nervous systems are fully formed, the emotional background returns to normal, and "night adventures" remain in the past.
What to do if a child sleepwalks
First, you need to analyze what can provoke such a state. If the child is overly emotional, and the family has a restless nervous environment, then this in itself can be a trigger for a sleep disorder. Medication is unlikely to help here.
Another provocative factor is outdoor games before bedtime. If a child runs late into the street, and then immediately goes to bed, his nervous system simply does not have time to turn on the brakes. Computer games and late watching movies or TV programs also contribute to sleep disturbance.
After drawing conclusions, you need to take action. It is necessary to improve the emotional climate in the family, replace active evening games with quiet reading of books, etc. And, of course, you need to discuss the problem with a pediatrician and a child psychologist.
How to treat
Treatment of sleep disorders in adults with somnambulism can be protracted, itdoes not always lead to success. This problem is poorly solved with the help of sedatives and antidepressants. Scientists believe that the best treatment is to equalize the overall emotional background. General dry recommendation: you need to avoid stress. Moreover, not only negative emotions, but also overflowing joy can bring the nervous system into excessive excitement.
In adults, the treatment of sleep disorders should consist of a whole range of measures:
- alcohol exclusion;
- no noisy parties with dance until you drop;
- Taking a relaxing bath before bed, etc.
Closing word
Now we know who sleepwalkers are. As you can see, it is quite possible to live with sleepwalking and feel good about yourself. You just need to follow a number of certain rules.
