Sleepwalking: causes, symptoms, treatment

The scientific name of sleepwalking is somnambulism (from Latin. Somnus - sleep and Ambulare - walk, walk), and the second "people's" synonym of this state is "sleeping". In fact, this pathology does not have any relation to the moon, but it is named so, probably because of what is often revealed in the bright moonlit nights. This is one of the forms of sleep disorders, the manifestation of which is unconscious walking in a dream.

Somnambulism is a very common phenomenon, according to statistics, every fifth inhabitant of our planet suffers from it. The overwhelming number of people suffering from sleepwalking are children aged 4 to 10-16 years. About why it arises, how sleepwalking manifests itself, how to deal with this state, and what will be discussed in this article.

Content

1Causes of conflict
2When there is sleepwalking
3Symptoms of sleepwalking
4Diagnosis of sleepwalking
5Principles of treatment of somnambulism
6How to avoid injuries

Causes of conflict

As it was said above, children often suffer from sleepwalking, especially boys. This is probably due to the functional immaturity of the central nervous system. Children are naturally emotional, impressionable, and the load on the nervous system is so great today, that, absorbing new information during the day, the brain continues to work actively and at night, during the sleep period of the child. Facilitate the emergence of nightmares of the child's quarrel with family members, feelings about the quarrel of parents, active games, games on the computer, viewing cartoons or TV shows before going to bed: under the influence of these factors, the nervous system tired by the evening is excited and does not have time to calm down to sleep. In such situations, sleepwalking can be accompanied by other disorders of the nervous system - involuntary urination (enuresis), obsessive-compulsive disorder, neurotic-like tics, restless legs syndrome.

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Other risk factors for the development of sleepwalking in children are:

genetic predisposition (it is known that if one of the parents of a child suffers or suffers from sleeping, the probability of developing symptoms of this disorder in a child is about 40%, and if both - increases to 65%);
high temperature during illness;
migraine;
epilepsy (somnambulism can both accompany epilepsy, being one of its symptoms, and be a predictor of this disease, developing even a few years before its appearance).

In adults, somnambulism develops much less frequently and, as a rule, is secondary. The main reasons for sleepwalking in adults are:

chronic lack of sleep;
acute and chronic stress;
migraine;
neoplastic diseases of the brain;
neuroses;
panic attacks;
Parkinson's disease;
senile dementia;
epilepsy;
craniocerebral trauma;
aneurysms of cerebral vessels;
cardiac arrhythmias (severe arrhythmias);
obstructive sleep apnea syndrome;
pregnancy and period of menstruation in women;
night attacks of bronchial asthma;
diabetes (due to nocturnal hypoglycemia, or lowering the sugar level below normal at night);
a hearty supper before going to bed;
inefficient nutrition, containing in its composition a large number of unrefined foods, leading to a deficiency of the trace element of magnesium in the body;
reception of alcohol and drugs;
taking certain medications (in particular, neuroleptics, sedatives and hypnotics).

When there is sleepwalking

As you know, sleep includes 2 phases: slow and fast. The phase of slow sleep consists of 4 stages - from falling asleep to deep sleep. The phase of fast sleep is accompanied by active movements of eyeballs, it is in this phase that a person sees dreams. The sleep cycle, which includes 2 large phases, lasts an average of 90-100 minutes and repeats overnight to 10 times. Sleepwalking occurs, as a rule, during the phase of deep sleep (that is, at the end of the first phase) of the first or second cycles. In the afternoon somnambulism occurs extremely rarely, since the duration of a day's sleep is not enough.

In young children, the phase of slow sleep is longer, and sleep in this phase is deeper than in adults: these features also increase the likelihood of their developing.

As for physiology, sleepwalking occurs when, during sleep, the inhibition of central functions The nervous system does not extend to the areas of the brain responsible for motor functions. That is, the overwhelming number of body functions is inhibited, and the function of motion is not.

Symptoms of sleepwalking

The main and main symptom of somnambulism is walking in a dream. The person seems to have fallen asleep, but suddenly he suddenly gets up and goes somewhere or performs certain actions. The duration of a seizure attack can be from a few seconds to half an hour, in rare cases - up to 50 minutes.

Some patients do not walk, but just sit in bed, sit for a few seconds or minutes and go to bed again.

Most people with sleepwalking get out of bed, then they can turn on the light, or they can walk around the room in the dark, making any actions, and even go beyond the home - in the entrance, into the yard, they can get into the car and even start it.

Some sources have information that, while in a dream, some "sleepwalkers" can drive a car, but this is a myth: the reflexes in the sleep period are dulled and the person can not adequately respond to events around him, which means that even if he manages to start a car, he will not go far: an accident will immediately occur.

In a number of cases a person does not even get up from bed, carries out certain stereotyped movements (corrects pajamas, rubs eyes and so on): this too can be a manifestation of sleepwalking.

During the conflict, the person's eyes are wide open, however they are like glass - the sight is directed into the void, he is "absent," the person does not express any emotion at all, the movements are slow, smooth. If you turn to the sleepwalker at this moment, he does not hear and does not answer the questions, but he himself can pronounce words and incoherent sentences or just mutter something to himself.

The episode of sleepwalking ends spontaneously: the patient returns to his bed or falls asleep in another place. In the morning he completely does not remember anything about his nightly adventures, and, waking up not in his bed, can be very surprised. If the phase of active sleep was prolonged, during the day a person feels weak, drowsy, broken, and disabled.

Episodes of sleepwalking are rarely daily: as a rule, they occur with frequency from several times a week to 1-2 times a month and less often.

During the episode of somnambulism all kinds of feelings are dulled, so the patient does not realize the danger: he can calmly stroll around the roof, use a knife or jump out of the window. A person can cause harm to himself (a quarter of somnambulists are injured during demotion), and to those around him, not suspecting, therefore, living under the same roof as a lunatic, one must take a number of measures to avoid this. About what kind of events, we'll talk below.

Diagnosis of sleepwalking

If the episode of the first time happened, and you can connect it with a stressful situation or overwork the day before, then you can wait for medical help. In a case where such episodes are repeated many times, you should nevertheless seek help from a neurologist, psychoneurologist or psychiatrist to determine the cause of these phenomena.

To help a specialist with a diagnosis, you or your relatives should:

to mark on paper the time of falling asleep, after what time the episode of the ascendant begins, how long it lasts, the behavior of the patient during this period, the morning awakening;
to think over and note the reasons that could provoke somnambulism (listed at the beginning of the article);
make a list of the most commonly consumed foods and regularly taken medications.

Going to the reception, it is very desirable to bring a witness with your nightly "journeys".

The doctor will talk with the patient, ask him a series of necessary questions, conduct an objective examination and prescribe additional methods of research, confirming or refuting the diagnosis. Typically, such studies are:

electroencephalography (determining the electrical activity of the brain, it is this method that makes it possible to diagnose the presence of epileptic foci in the brain);
polysomnography (the patient spends the night in a special sleep laboratory where the sensors are connected to him before falling asleep and the changes that occur in the nervous system during sleep are traced);
ultrasound examination of cerebral vessels (determine the nature of the blood flow in them);
computer or magnetic resonance imaging (detect neoplasms, if any, or changes of any other nature);
consultations of related specialists (endocrinologist, cardiologist, pulmonologist) for the diagnosis of somatic diseases that could provoke the development of a dream.

Principles of treatment of somnambulism

Most children have this disorder on their own, as the child grows up.

If there is no frequent occurrence of diarrhea and no pathological changes are detected in the body, the treatment consists in modifying the lifestyle, namely minimizing the impact of risk factors:

regular, long (7-8 hours) night sleep;
before going to bed - a relaxing ritual (for example, you can take a warm bath with relaxing oils, listen to calm music, hold a soothing massage, drink tea with mint, etc.);
To exclude viewing of telecasts and work behind a computer not less, than for 2 hours prior to a dream;
to exclude the use of alcohol;
avoid stress at work and at home, and if they do happen, then try not to carry them into the house, but, so to speak, leave behind the door;
if the child suffers from sleepwalking, then it is important to ensure that the regime of the day is observed; watch out so that he sleeps enough to sleep; restrict watching TV and games at the computer, before going to sleep do not play active games, but play quiet (for example, desktop), paint, read a book or listen to pleasant music.

In the case where the cause of the seizures are any medications taken to patients, you should cancel them or at least reduce the dosage.

If sleepwalking arose against the background of epilepsy, the patient will be prescribed antiepileptic medicines, and when the cause is neurosis - tranquilizers and antidepressants.

With a non-neurological nature of the disease, the disease that is the cause is treated (with arrhythmia, antiarrhythmics are prescribed, with diabetes mellitus - adequate hypoglycemic therapy, and so on).

If, even against the background of the treatment of background diseases, episodes of ascendancy do not stop, disrupting the daily activity of the patient, and there is a risk of injury to him at this time, the patient may be prescribed drugs that affect sleep phases. They are prescribed in low doses, the duration of treatment is 3 to 6 weeks.

Wake up somnambulist during the period of the dream does not follow - it can scare him, provoking the development of other mental disorders. It should be quietly take him by the hand or by the shoulders and, speaking in a low voice, lead to the room and put him to bed.

Sometimes as a method of treating sleepwalking, psychiatrists and psychotherapists use hypnosis.

How to avoid injuries

Above we have already written that sleepwalkers during the course of a dream can damage their health and the health of others. To avoid this, the following measures should be observed:

do not leave the patient at night alone in the room (if you are nearby, then on time note the beginning of the episode and put the patient in bed);
To remove two-story beds, having arranged a patient a sleeping place on the first floor;
in the period of sleep, remove all light sources (floor lamps, nightlights, curtains, so that the moonlight does not pass through the window);
lock the doors and windows of the bedroom before going to bed, and if it is not possible, install it on the grill windows (patients can confuse the window with the door and try to "exit" through it);
if possible, "smooth" the sharp corners of the furniture;
Before going to bed, remove from the feet objects that the patient may stumble, sharp and fragile objects, which he can be injured;
switch off electrical appliances before bed, do not leave electric wires underfoot;
hide the keys from the front door and from the car;
in severe cases, you can even tie a patient to a bed, but sometimes sleepwalkers somehow unfasten themselves in a dream;
Also, you can put a basin of cold water before bed or bed a rag soaked in cold water - getting up, a person will dip his feet into the water and from this will wake up.

In conclusion, I want to reiterate that in the vast majority of cases, sleepwalking is not dangerous and ends recovery even without treatment, but sometimes it accompanies a course of serious enough diseases. Therefore, in order not to miss these most serious diseases and to prevent trauma of a person during demotion, one should not "Wait at the sea for the weather" or treat the sleepwalker yourself: the right decision will be to seek help from a doctor.

The first channel, the program "Live Healthily" with Elena Malysheva on "Sleepwalking: Symptoms and Treatment": "

Sleepwalking - symptoms and treatment. To live healthy (11/22/2013) Elena Malysheva.