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Sleepwalking: A Sleep Disorder That Involves Sleep Walking.

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Sleepwalking is a common parasomnia in children and young people. Discover its characteristics, risks and how to handle it safely at home.

Lack of sleep

Sleepwalking, one of the common parasomnias among children and young people.

Sleepwalking occurs when you get out of bed and walk even though you are still asleep.

Before walking, you can sit up in bed and look around in confusion.

At other times, people may run out of bed and walk or run frantically to escape a threat they dreamed or imagined.

The sleepwalker may talk or scream while walking, and even with his eyes open, his gaze is confused and glassy. You can begin to perform routine daily actions that are not normally performed at night, to more complex behaviors.

More often, it involves actions that are crude, strange, or in the wrong places completely because you are not fully aware of reality. This can include urinating into a trash can, moving furniture, or getting out of a window.

In the midst of sleepwalking episodes, people might even go a very long distance.

And although this disorder of the dream It occurs more frequently in children, sleepwalking in adults can also be experienced, they can dream, go to the kitchen to eat or hallucinate while walking asleep. Many of them can even have a fluent conversation that they won't remember the next day.

It can be very difficult to wake a sleepwalker. 

When you wake up, you can be very confused. This is because it usually has no memory of the event. Adults sometimes remember snippets of what happened in the same way that they sometimes cannot recall a previous night's dream. Less often, they will have a very clear memory of everything that happened.

Is it advisable to wake up a sleepwalker?

The person who is sleepwalking is not aware of what is happening, he is in the middle of a deep sleep and inadvertently can attack whoever wakes him up abruptly.

Men especially are often violent during these episodes as an automatic defense mechanism.

On many occasions, sleepwalkers tend to go back to bed while they are still asleep without being aware of having been around the house or having any recollection of it.

The preferable thing is to monitor the person, and try to take care that he does not hurt himself.

When it happens?

Sleepwalking occurs most often in the first third of a night's sleep or during other periods of prolonged sleep. This is during the slow wave or REM sleep cycle. Occasionally, it can occur during a nap during the day.

The episodes can occur rarely or very often. They can even occur multiple times a night for a few nights in a row.

What are the risks of letting a sleeping person walk around the house?

The main risk is injury to yourself, a partner in bed, or other people in the same home. The quiet sleepwalking child may walk silently towards a light or into the parents' room, others may suffer from night terror and show great agitation accompanied by uncontrollable screaming and crying.

Sometimes children walk to a window or go out a door. This can put them at great risk.

Older children can be more vocal and active while sleepwalking.

Generally, the way to treat the sleepwalker, especially when the episodes are aggressive or dangerous, requires sleep studies together with encephalograms to determine and exclude neurological problems such as epilepsy.

Sometimes doctors prescribe some drugs to calm the person because lack of sleep, anxiety, Stress and even tiredness cause these parasomnias before which the brain can be reacting or recreating distressing situations while you sleep.

If you have a person who sleepwalks at home, it is important to close doors and windows for their safety; and monitor the circumstances to support your family member and give the doctor as much information as possible.

Remember, he is asleep, and he could not remember anything that happened.

Try to dine light, and make a whole bedtime ritual to relax the body and mind for a restful and restful night

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Frequently asked questions from our readers:

Sleepwalking or sleepwalking is a sleep disorder in which a person gets up and walks while still asleep. During these episodes, the sleepwalker may perform activities such as talking, eating, or even driving without being aware of what they are doing. This disorder usually occurs during the deep sleep phase and can be triggered by stress, lack of sleep, or certain medications. Read more here: https://www.equilibriumx.com/psicologia/el-sonambulismo-o-caminar-dormido-un-trastorno-del-sueno
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Last modified: March 22, 2024