The strangest things done by sleepwalkers
Sleepwalking is a sleep disorder classified amongst the parasomnias of motive character. As everybody knows, it consists of sitting, walking or doing some actions during sleep. Also the little Heidi, the cartoon star of the nineteen seventies, was suffering from sleepwalking and today the statistics report that the sleepwalkers are mainly children between the ages of 6 and 14 (at least one child out of 3 has a sleepwalking attack in his/her life).
What happens to a sleepwalker?
Usually, the sleepwalking attacks occur during the first 3 hours of sleep (non-REM phase) and generally do not last more than 5 minutes (but, as we will see, there are exceptions...). When an adult is suffering of it (you must have at least one attack per month to be defined a sleepwalker), sleepwalking is an alarm bell that reports excessive stress or a life with irregular timetables. In some cases, this phenomenon can be a symptom or rare pathologies (an Italian study found a link between sleepwalking and epilepsy). Sleepwalking has genetic roots (the sleepwalkers often have relatives suffering from the same disorder) and it is due to an anomalous activation of the nervous system that – preventing the REM sleep – does not inhibit the movements.Can a sleepwalker be waken up?
It is not good to wake up a sleepwalker because – since he/she is not conscious of his/her actions – the awakening might generate a state of confusion. In some cases, the sleepwalkers may have aggressive reactions mainly if – once they are awakened – they realize they are in danger.What may a sleepwalker do?
The most typical behavior is sitting or walking throughout the house. The are also some who dress up, eat, switch the TV on and then go back to bed. Yet, the reports are full with unbelievable things made by sleepwalkers:- In 1845, Albert Jackson Tirrell beheaded a woman
- In 1987, Ken Parks killed his parents in law after a 22-km drive
- In 2009, Brian Thomas strangled his wife
- The phenomenon of the so-called 'driving zombies' - an epidemic of sleep-walking drivers - was witnessed in the United States a few years ago. It seems that one of the factors was the consumption of the same medical drug
- There are case where the sleepwalker urinates on his/her relatives
- There is also the sleep-eating phenomenon, where the subject voraciously eats even non-edible things
- Sleep-sex is documented as well : actual sexual assaults made during sleep
- Last year, a man shot his own leg
- A British girl climbed up to the top of a crane
- A distinguished Australian lady used to go out at night and have sex with unknown men
- Musician Dion McGregor used to abundantly speak in his sleep and he published a record containing his speeches
- A German boy jumped out of a fourth floor window
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