Thread: Sleep Walking?

I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it said that sleepwalking usually happens "when an individual awakes suddenly from Slow Wave Sleep (SWS or sometimes referred to as "deep sleep"), causing the sleepwalking episode".

I sleep walk quite a lot though. I sometimes wonder downstairs and turn on the tv, then sit right infront of the screen with my legs crossed like a little kid. I often turn my alarm clock off in my sleep as well.

I remember sleepwalking as a youngster. I would stumble out into the kitchen, pull down my pants and have a piss into the bin. Once I pissed into the cutlery draw.

I was once looking for my sister all throughout the house while sleepwalking .. I even remember looking in the mirror .. it was like I was only half asleep ..
but that was the only event of SW I can remember, I am pretty quiet you know ..

Hello,

Consider this source from the Bryn Mawr College: ( http://www.brynmawr.edu )

Sleepwalking is a sleep disorder effecting an estimated 10 percent of all humans at least once in their lives (1). This widespread phenomenon varies in its intensity and frequency. While most sleepwalking incidents are short and not dangerous, some can involve self-injury and are much more dangerous for the sleeper. Also, most interestingly, the disorder seems to stem from many different sources, not from one definable cause such as a chemical imbalance. While it is predominantly pre-adolescents who suffer from somnambulism, it is also observed in adults, although the frequency and severity of incidents increase with age. The source of the disorder was once thought to be entirely psychological and an extension of dreaming. It is now understood to be a complex combination of one or more factors, such as psychological and physiological factors as well as chemical interference (such as alcohol and drug abuse) (3). The source of the sleepwalking behavior varies according to age with the younger sufferers having more physiological problems which they grow out of, while older somnambulists, stress and substance abuse play a larger role.

Somnambulism is most common among children from the ages of 4 to 12 (3). Estimates for the percentage of the population which will sleepwalk at least once in their lifetime range quite a bit. Some sources say that most children will walk in their sleep at least once, with 15% sleepwalking more regularly (3). Others claim that 18% of the population is "prone to sleepwalking" (9). There is consensus, however, on the fact that boys sleepwalk more frequently than girls and that it is between the ages of 11 and 12 that the most cases of sleepwalking are reported (9). The fact that most children grow out of it after puberty and that people who start sleepwalking later in life tend to have the problem for the rest of their lives (9) seems to suggest that there are at least two classes of somnambulism, which may stem from different sources.

Sleepwalking most often occurs at a certain point in the sleep "architecture" (6).This is the point where the sleeper's brain waves have become larger and he or she has moved into deeper sleep. This is not REM sleep, but deep non-REM sleep. The series of complex behaviors characterizing somnambulism includes "amnesia following an episode," and "difficulty in arousing the patient during an episode" (9). The patient can also have other REM disorders or psychiatric and medical disorders which do not account for the sleepwalking. While sleepwalking, the patients' brainwaves show a mixture of types of brainwave patterns, including ones similar to those observed in waking patients, as well as those found in deep sleep. It is the "awake" patterns which match the waking behaviors like walking and talking while the patient is still asleep enough so that he or she is not aware of what it happening and is not forming memories of their actions
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From: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neur...eb1/Howard.html

I hope this has been enlightening.

~

That was very enlightening O'nus, thanks.

Much more to it than I thought.
The brain is so complex, pinning something down to any one thing is almost impossible.

I have only see this occurrence twice in my life. What I find odd is that in BOTH cases, the adolescent was prescribed medication for ADHD. Which in my opinion, ADHD and the prescriptions that follow are vastly becoming over popular among hyper children.
Kids are hyper.
Sadly, also in both those case their family was quite pathetic. The first paragraph really grabbed my attention.

Hehe, these news articles unnerve me, even though I'm not a sleepwalker.

Teen sleepwalks to top of crane
and
Sleepwalker accused of murder.

They are rather extreme cases, though.

Apparantly, when I was little, I recited a butter commercial in my sleep, and then put myself to bed. (I had fallen asleep on the couch.)

I did recall dreaming about butter though.

I used to sleep walk as a very small child, but I grew out of it. It used to horrify my mother. And, I also used to get night terrors, which scared everyone, as I would go through the house, crying, screaming, and generally acting upset. The last time I sleep walked was at about 13 or 14. I was really tired, and when I finally awoke, my mom said I had really been creeping her out. I started eating cake, and I just shoved a piece in my mouth and fell over. Waking up with unchewed soggy cake in your mouth is really kind of gross. Lol

I didn't move much, but when I was young I would sleep-read and sleep-do my homework. Once in the morning my father said to my mum "I'm very angry, I saw light in her bedroom when I was going to the toilets, she was there reading at like midnight!" I couldn't remember it and more strangely I have no idea what I was reading (I was reading several books at a time) I was hoping rereading it IRL would make me remember, but it didn't work out.
But the funniest was those times the teacher wanted me to show my homework and I hadn't done it. I was like "Oh no, I'm so in trouble" and when I opened my copybook it was all neatly written in pencil in my own handwriting. I soon got the knack of it and stopped doing my homework altogether. And it was ALWAYS done in the morning. I suppose I felt so guilty unconsciously that I would get up at night to do it. What amazes me is that I kept all my mental faculties, however I forgot all about it.

I wish I did my homework in my sleep, that would be incredible.

Well, I suppose it could not be real sleep. More like amnesia maybe? I don't know the theory of sleepwalking, the level of consciousness and so on.