Sleepwalking

Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism or noctambulism, is a phenomenon of combined sleep and wakefulness. It is classified as a sleep disorder belonging to the parasomnia family. It occurs during slow wave stage of sleep, in a state of low consciousness, with performance of activities that are usually performed during a state of full consciousness. These activities can be as benign as talking, sitting up in bed, walking to a bathroom, consuming food, and cleaning, or as hazardous as cooking, driving a motor vehicle, violent gestures and grabbing at hallucinated objects. Although sleepwalking cases generally consist of simple, repeated behaviors, there are occasionally reports of people performing complex behaviors while asleep, although their legitimacy is often disputed. Sleepwalkers often have little or no memory of the incident, as their consciousness has altered into a state in which memories are difficult to recall. Although their eyes are open, their expression is dim and glazed over. This may last from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. Sleepwalking occurs during slow-wave sleep (N3) of non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM sleep) cycles. It typically occurs within the first third of the night when slow-wave sleep is most prominent. Usually, it will occur once in a night, if at all. Sleepwalking is characterized by: partial arousal during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, typically during the first third of the night dream content that may or may not be recalled when awake dream-congruent motor behavior that may be simple or complex impaired perception of the environment impaired judgement, planning and problem-solving. Despite how it is portrayed in many cultures (eyes closed and walking with arms outstretched), the sleepwalker's eyes are open but may appear as a glassy-eyed stare or blank expression and pupils are dilated. They are often disoriented, consequent to awakening: the sleepwalker may be confused and perplexed, and might not know why or how they got out of bed; however, the disorientation will fade within minutes.

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Sleep medicine

Sleep medicine is a medical specialty or subspecialty devoted to the diagnosis and therapy of sleep disturbances and disorders. From the middle of the 20th century, research has provided increasing knowledge of, and answered many questions about, sleep–wake functioning. The rapidly evolving field has become a recognized medical subspecialty in some countries. Dental sleep medicine also qualifies for board certification in some countries. Properly organized, minimum 12-month, postgraduate training programs are still being defined in the United States.

Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder

Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder or REM behavior disorder (RBD) is a sleep disorder in which people act out their dreams. It involves abnormal behavior during the sleep phase with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The major feature of RBD is loss of muscle atonia (i.e., the loss of paralysis) during otherwise intact REM sleep (during which paralysis is not only normal but necessary). The loss of motor inhibition leads to sleep behaviors ranging from simple limb twitches to more complex integrated movements that can be violent or result in injury to either the individual or their bedmates.

Night terror

Night terror, also called sleep terror, is a sleep disorder causing feelings of panic or dread and typically occurring during the first hours of stage 3–4 non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and lasting for 1 to 10 minutes. It can last longer, especially in children. Sleep terror is classified in the category of NREM-related parasomnias in the International Classification of Sleep Disorders. There are two other categories: REM-related parasomnias and other parasomnias.

Sleep disturbance-related depressive symptom and brain volume reduction in shift-working nurses

Chang-Hyun Park

Disturbed sleep is the most common effect of shift work. A large corpus of research indicates an association between sleep disturbance and depressive symptom in shift workers. In this study, we proposed the mediating role of grey matter (GM) structure in t ...

NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP2020

Distinct locomotor control and awareness in awake sleepwalkers

Olaf Blanke, Oliver Alan Kannape

Sleepwalkers’ complex nocturnal behaviors have inspired fictional characters from Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth to Polidori’s Vampyre to Cesare, the homicidal somnambulist in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. Yet although the underlying pathophysiology of sleepwalk ...

Elsevier2017

Sleep-dependent consolidation of face recognition and its relationship to REM sleep duration, REM density and Stage 2 sleep spindles

Christian O'Reilly

Face recognition is a highly specialized capability that has implicit and explicit memory components. Studies show that learning tasks with facial components are dependent on rapid eye movement and non-rapid eye movement sleep features, including rapid eye ...

Wiley2017

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Explores the force-extension characteristic of polymers, focusing on the behavior of polymers under force.

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