Sleepwalking or somnambulism is a disorder of consciousness that occurs in a small percentage of adult men and women. This condition is manifested by a person walking around a room or house, performing any actions, while the sleepwalker is in an unconscious state, and after waking up he remembers absolutely nothing about what he did. Sleepwalking occurs quite rarely in adults; most often this problem appears in children. This article will talk about why somnambulism occurs, how it manifests itself, how it is diagnosed, and what can be done to treat this pathology.
Information about the disease
In patients over 16 years of age, this disorder is quite rarely observed; sleepwalking in adults is diagnosed in isolated cases. Mostly children aged 5 to 12 years suffer from this problem; most often, somnambulism occurs in boys and young men. During this pathology, people talk in their sleep, walk from room to room, and in the morning they cannot remember anything about their “nightly adventures.” Usually the cause is some kind of hormonal or emotional disorder, so the symptoms of sleepwalking often appear during puberty, it is during this period that the teenager’s body is completely rebuilt.
Some adults experience symptoms of this pathology. If they appear in an adult, they are most likely caused by mental disorders, and urgent treatment is necessary.
If the patient does not go to the hospital in time, and the cause of the deviation is not identified, and effective treatment is not carried out in a timely manner, then the pathology may worsen, the consequences can be disastrous - the frequency of attacks increases significantly, additional disorders and diseases appear.
What is sleepwalking?
Sleepwalking, or somnambulism, is a sleep disorder in which a person can perform unconscious actions: sitting on the bed, getting up, walking, crying, talking, leaving the room, or even automatically doing minor housework. There are cases when, in a state of sleep, people left home, started a car, stole some objects, or even committed crimes.
When they woke up in the morning, they did not remember anything or, in some cases, mistook vague memories for dreams. According to various estimates, sleepwalking affects from 2 to 2.5 percent of the entire world population - in other words, at least every 50th representative of humanity. The vast majority of them are children and adolescents from 4 to 16 years old. This is due to the fact that the psyche of children is more vulnerable, their entire body is growing and forming, and compared to adults they are more impressionable and emotional.
Contrary to popular belief, somnambulism is not a disease at all. This is a disorder that can only be a symptom accompanying some serious diseases, most often epilepsy, but in some cases, for example, diabetes or migraines. Most often, sleepwalking occurs as a temporary disorder of the human psyche against the background of strong emotional experiences, fear, anxiety, due to fatigue associated with systematic overload, lack of sleep, rest, poor diet, lack of substances necessary for the body, in other words, due to stress. The situation can be aggravated by character traits such as vulnerability, emotionality, increased responsibility, and the desire to take on too many things. As a result, the body does not have time to restore its physical and mental resources.
Main reasons
Many people wonder: why do people sleepwalk? There are certain factors that increase the likelihood of sleepwalking in childhood. Babies roam at night and talk in their sleep for the following reasons:
- excessive physical fatigue;
- strong emotional stress;
- sleep disturbance, insomnia;
- An anxious state that lasts for several weeks or months.
In adults, signs of sleepwalking appear due to serious factors, these include the following:
- systematic abuse of alcoholic beverages, alcoholic sleepwalking occurs;
- intoxication of the body of varying degrees;
- psychoorganic syndrome, manifested by various lesions of the brain and nervous system;
- addiction;
- various malfunctions of the brain.
In many cases, it is difficult to independently determine the cause of the disease. As soon as the relatives and friends of the sleepwalker saw that he was walking in his sleep, it was important for them to immediately tell him about it. The patient should seek medical help, qualified specialists will determine the cause and prescribe effective treatment for this disease.
Manifestations of somnambulism
Sleepwalking attacks are one of the most common sleep disorders. There are certain symptoms or signs of sleepwalking. Often the pathology manifests itself in this way: adults, being in a good mood and considering themselves healthy, go to bed, but at night, in their sleep, seemingly for no reason, they get out of bed and begin to walk unconsciously. Sometimes this pathology manifests itself with open and sometimes with closed eyes.
The attacks are accompanied by coordinated and clear movements; people usually avoid any obstacles in their path without any problems, sometimes they only walk around their bedroom, and sometimes they can walk around the entire house or apartment in an unconscious state.
In most cases, adults with symptoms of this disorder do not threaten other people; sleepwalkers are often calm. However, there may be negative and even dangerous consequences for the sleepwalker himself, because he can go out onto the balcony, onto the roadway, climb onto the roof, fall out of the window and be seriously injured.
In most cases of sleepwalking, the symptoms are similar - a person walks in a dream, sometimes talks, if you try to talk to him, his speech will be slurred, he will answer off-topic, or will be silent altogether. You should not try to awaken a patient with somnambulism, sometimes it is useless, and in some cases it can cause fear and panic in him.
This pathology most often manifests itself during shallow sleep; in the first third of the night, attacks in most cases last 10-15 minutes. However, if you do not start medical therapy, the consequences will be negative - attacks of somnambulism can appear longer and longer, and reach 40-60 minutes, their frequency will increase, they will become systematic.
Sleepwalkers usually wake up spontaneously; in the morning they feel full of strength, well-rested, and do not even realize that they were unconsciously walking or talking in their sleep.
Doctors do not consider somnambulism as a disease, because the symptoms of this phenomenon in many cases disappear on their own, and the patient does not experience a deterioration in the quality of life or sleep. However, if attacks of sleepwalking are systematic, repeated quite often, and become longer and longer each time, then consultation with a doctor is required. The doctor will diagnose and prescribe treatment.
Features of the behavior of sleepwalkers
Some people just sit on the bed, think, looking into space, they can straighten their pajamas and immediately lie down, falling asleep soundly again. Others walk around the house, bumping into objects, go out into the yard, and not always through the door, and can injure themselves without always feeling pain. Despite the fact that his eyes are open, he has a “glassy”, absent look. At the same time, he does not react in any way to words addressed to him, although he himself can pronounce words and entire phrases, often seeming incoherent.
The thing is that somnambulism is a condition in which some parts of the brain are in an active state (for example, those responsible for movements), and some are in a state of sleep. We can say that this is half-dream, half-reality, while “reality” is not realized: consciousness is asleep. His perception of reality is “turned off” - it may even seem to a person that he is not in the room in which he fell asleep, but in a completely different place. Exactly the same thing happens in dreams. After awakening, a person usually does not remember his actions. It happens that, having wandered around the house, he does not return to his bed, but falls asleep in the place where he fell into a deep sleep, and later, when he finds himself not in bed, he is extremely surprised.
Diagnosis
If a person exhibits somnambulism, the first step is to contact a therapist, who will write a referral to a neurologist. The patient should tell this doctor about all his symptoms and manifestations, as well as whether his relatives and friends had similar abnormalities.
To make a high-quality diagnosis, the patient will be scheduled for examination by highly specialized specialists. In each individual case, you need to visit certain doctors. For example, an electrophysiological study may be prescribed, which allows an analysis of the characteristics of the deviation; thanks to this diagnostic method, the doctor will make a presumptive or accurate conclusion about why the pathology appeared.
One or more nightly polygraphic diagnostic studies will be prescribed, thanks to which it will be determined at what period of sleep the attack occurs. Additionally, a consultation with a psychiatrist is sometimes prescribed. This doctor will examine the patient's condition and determine whether there is any mental illness.
Prevention
To minimize the risk of unconscious walking and talkativeness in your sleep, you must adhere to the following simple recommendations and tips:
- try not to be nervous, protect yourself as much as possible from various stressful situations, scandals, especially in the evening;
- stop taking medications that stimulate the nervous system;
- strictly adhere to the regime of wakefulness and night sleep, it is important to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day;
- stop drinking alcohol and taking drugs;
- in the evening, before going to bed, do not watch aggressive, tense and stimulating movies; it is better to give up TV and the Internet altogether a couple of hours before bedtime;
- Sleep hygiene must be a must - you need to sleep in a dark room in which there are no light sources. There should be no sounds or noises at night;
- in the evening it is recommended to take a warm bath with the addition of natural soothing infusions, for example, chamomile, mint, valerian root, hawthorn, hops, linden, twigs and pine cones.
If preventive methods do not give a positive result, then you must contact a qualified specialist who will study the problem in detail, find the cause of the deviation and prescribe effective treatment therapy.
How to deal with sleepwalking and protect the sleepwalker
What to do if someone in your household suffers from sleepwalking? Here are some simple recommendations:
- Place a wet rag on the floor next to the bed. Standing on it with bare feet, the sleepwalker will immediately wake up and go back to bed.
- Set an alarm every two hours before bed. By turning off your alarm and waking up accordingly, you can control your sleep cycles.
- Install bars on the windows to prevent sleepwalkers from falling out with frequent episodes of illness.
- Before going to bed, unplug all electrical appliances, make the gas stove valve removable, and put it away at night.
- Lock the front door with all the locks (install a lock with a key on both sides, hide the key at night).
- Do not watch horror films or TV shows with a negative broadcast format (descriptions of tragic events and sad news) before going to bed.
- Avoid exercising and eating any food late before bed.
Important! You can't wake up a sleepwalker. You need to silently take him by the hand and take him back to bed.
Sleepwalking is a common phenomenon; it does not always require medical intervention; sometimes it is enough to observe a person and establish the reasons for his not entirely adequate sleepy behavior. If there are no aggravating factors in the form of stress and concomitant mental pathologies, the disease goes away.
Treatment
The causes and treatment of sleepwalking in adults are closely related to each other; therapeutic therapy is not prescribed until the root cause of the disorder has been established. If sleepwalking occurs only occasionally, treatment is usually not prescribed, and the problem goes away on its own. However, if the pathology begins to develop due to a mental disorder or serious injury to the nervous system, then it is imperative to consult a neuropsychiatrist who will conduct an examination and tell you how to treat sleepwalking.
In many cases, before the doctor prescribes treatment, he directs the patient to undergo a Doppler ultrasound and electroencephalogram. In addition, a fundus examination is sometimes required. Thanks to these procedures, the cause of the pathological condition will be established, after which the specialist will tell the patient how to get rid of sleepwalking. In any case, treatment will depend on the cause of somnambulism. For example, if a patient has alcoholic sleepwalking, then one treatment will be prescribed, but if the problem arose due to a neurotic disorder, then completely different medications will be prescribed.
Only the attending physician should prescribe any drug therapy; self-medication can have a detrimental effect on the patient’s health and condition. Adults must be registered and periodically examined in a hospital, and, if necessary, undergo medical therapy to maintain a normal condition.
Although today there is no specific technique that can completely eliminate somnambulism, however, thanks to medical assistance, it is possible to minimize the frequency of attacks and significantly reduce their duration.
