SLEEP WALKING

SLEEP WALKING

Have you seen people walking in sleep? I remember  my grand father relating a story about a  sleep walker who was a relative of him.  According to him the sleep walker gets up from his sleep in the midnight, unlocks the door and walks in the garden until he treads on water or crosses a waterway.As soon as the sleep walker touches water he wakes up from his sleep and screams in fear till someone hears his cry and comes to help. He said that  he placed a gunny bag soaked in water near the door where he slept, for the walker to touch and wake up and thereby prevent him from sleep walking.

However the story, sleep walking is a sleep disorder. It is also called somnambulism.In this disorder the walker not only walks in sleep but also tries to do some works like combing hair ,waring clothes and arranging bed as he is in full consciousness.
The danger for the sleep walker lies in the performance of hazardous activities like plugging in irons, switching on gas cookers and trying to cut vegetables. Some even tend to do hallucinate activities.

According to scientists sleep walking occurs in the third stage of NREM sleep when the sleeper is in low consciousness,when walk in sleep, his eyes are open but facial expression is not normal. According to doctors immaturity in the central nervous system in childhood, alcohol, excessive tiredness, fever, are some causes for sleep walking. Sleep walking usually lasts from thirty seconds to a half an hour or so. This little time is enough for some thing dangerous to happen. So we should be vigilant , if there is someone who walks in sleep around us or in our households. There are medical treatments for sleep walking ,so we should not hesitate to consult doctors in such cases.