The Scientific Reason Of Sleep Walking
Reason Of Sleep Walking: Sleepwalkers often navigate familiar areas, but because their perception and judgment are impaired, they are at risk from walking or falling.
Sleepwalking occurs when a person acts as if they are fully awake despite being in a deep sleep. Sleepwalkers walk, talk, and perform normal activities while asleep. Sleepwalking can occur due to stress, lack of sleep, certain illnesses, or medication.
Reason Of Sleep Walking
What Happens In The Brain Of Sleepwalkers?
Reason Of Sleep Walking, When people sleep, they enter different stages of sleep. Sleepwalking, like other sleep disorders, occurs when a person only partially awakens from non-rapid eye movement sleep. This stage is usually one to two hours after falling asleep. Most sessions last 5 to 10 minutes, but can be 30 minutes or more.
Reason Of Sleep Walking, According to research, during sleepwalking, the changes that occur in brain processes affect the space between sleep and wakefulness. When you sleepwalk, the frontal areas of the brain are asleep, but there is still activity related to wakefulness in the motor areas. In this condition, although you can walk, sensory perceptions do not work, the person is unaware of sights, smells, sounds or pain. Sleepwalking is much more common in children (5%) than adults (1.5%), and almost 40% of children sleepwalk, mainly between the ages of three and seven.
What Are The Reasons For Sleepwalking?
Reason Of Sleep Walking, Sleepwalking can have family roots. Research shows that genetic predisposition along with environmental factors can cause sleepwalking, but the reasons are not always clear and absolute. Some common sleep inducers are alcohol and certain medications. Certain prescription insomnia medications, such as Ambien (Zolpidem), Lonesta (Ezopiclone), and Sonata (Zalplon), as well as antidepressants and antipsychotics, may induce somnolence.
Other things that may cause drowsiness include:
Stress
Reason Of Sleep Walking, Research shows that stressful events during the day are one of the primary triggers of sleepwalking in adults. A stressful life also increases the risk of insomnia.
Lack of Sleep
Lack of sleep, irregular sleep and fatigue may lead to sleepwalking. Studies show that lack of sleep increases the frequency and complexity of sleepwalking events.
Migraine
Reason Of Sleep Walking, Migraine and sleep disorders such as teeth grinding and sleepwalking often go hand in hand, and therefore the rate of sleepwalking in people with migraine is higher.
Fever
Illness or fever, especially in children, can trigger sleepwalking. Fever also reduces the overall time of deep sleep (REM) and promotes strange dreams or nightmares.
Respiratory Disorders
Sleepwalking is more common in people with obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which a person’s breathing repeatedly stops and starts again. This may be due to the interruption of oxygen supply to the brain, but the exact connection is not known. According to research, people with severe sleep apnea are twice as likely to have sleepwalking than people with mild sleep apnea.
Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease
Reason Of Sleep Walking, Studies show that gastroesophageal reflux disease is associated with sleep disorders such as shorter sleep duration and poor sleep quality.
Parkinson’s Disease
Some research shows that about 10% of people with Parkinson’s disease face sleepwalking. This may be because the neurodegeneration associated with Parkinson’s disease interferes with the regulation of arousal during sleep.
Restless Leg Syndrome
Reason Of Sleep Walking, Restless leg syndrome is a movement disorder and sleep disorder and can seriously disturb sleep by moving the legs during the night.
In order to find out whether a person is walking in his sleep or awake, we can pay attention to several points.
In sleepwalking, the person’s eyes are open, but he does not show emotions and does not recognize you. He gives irrelevant and meaningless answers to your questions. Unusual behaviors such as urinating in strange places, preparing food in the middle of the night, or leaving the house in pajamas indicate that the person is asleep. Also, when you try to wake him up, he shows aggressive behavior. These sleepwalkers usually do not remember anything that happens.
Is Sleepwalking Dangerous?
Reason Of Sleep Walking, Poor sleep quality disrupts the body’s performance during the day. Sleepwalkers often navigate familiar areas, but because their perception and judgment are impaired, they are at risk from walking or falling. Sleepwalkers may put themselves in dangerous situations by doing things like cooking, climbing out of windows, or even driving.
Reason Of Sleep Walking, Sleepwalking is usually diagnosed based on a medical history and a discussion of symptoms. Eyewitness reports or video of the disturbance can be helpful. If the doctor suspects a sleep disorder or other conditions, a physical examination will be the next step.
It is very important to create a safe environment for sleepwalkers and remove any risk factor from the sleeping environment. Waking up a sleepwalker by yelling or shaking him may cause him confusion or anger. It is better to try to gently guide him to bed or wake him up if necessary.
Reason Of Sleep Walking, If sleepwalking is repeated frequently and is accompanied by dangerous behaviors and sleepiness during the day, you should consult a doctor or health care specialist.
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