If you have ever experienced an episode of sleepwalking you will know how strange it can be, the amazement it produces and the expectation raised in whoever is at home and sees you.
It is more frequent in childhood, and it is known that when adulthood has reached only 3% of the population continues to live these situations , especially in those times when stress and anxiety They make a dent in us.
Now...How does this process work? What happens when our brain rests and our body acts of its own accord? Today in Lifestyle we want to bring you what the experts tell us on the subject.Share us!
The brain is very active at night
Unlike what we think, the "brain does not sleep" what it basically does is disconnect from our body to offer a physical rest, while the proceeds to classify information, memories and carry out processes of purification of the organism through the lymphatic system...
Therefore, it is not that the brain is asleep, it lies in a peculiar state of introspection where several cycles of de-incronized and synchronized sleep are established The sleepwalking, appears then during that dream in the NO-REM phase, in stage 3 or 4. We could say that the brain is not aware of what is or He is not in control before certain internal orders that arise almost automatically, and that guide our body to get up, walk and even perform simple tasks.With the risk that entails...
Did you know that there are cases of people who have come to enter and start their own car? Or children who have come out of the house? There are even those who have begun to prepare breakfast...
Who usually suffers sleepwalking?
- It is common that sleepwalking is hereditary .In fact, it is common for several brothers of the same family to experience it.
- It usually affects children in particular 5 and 12 years.
- Once we reach adulthood, we have data that almost 3% of the population continues to suffer, especially in nights of heat, during times of stress, or when we have been sleeping for a few days.
- The idea is usually that if we wake up to a sleepwalking, it can suffer a collapse, and therefore it is not recommended.Well, this idea is not true, nothing will happen if we try to wake them up, what we must take care is do it carefully and calmly, avoiding startling them. We must tell them where they are and «that they have risen in bed asleep ».
What happens in the brain of sleepwalkers?
You may think that the brains of people who get up sleeping at night should work differently, they are special.This is what they asked at the Center for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine in Montreal, and from there they will carry out an interesting study that was published this year in the magazine PLOS ONE
The results were as follows:
-When a person experiences sleepwalking episodes the blood flow of their brains decreases in various areas , such as the lower temporal gyrus of both sides of the brain.
-There is a imbalance between consciousness and unconsciousness. There are areas that should be inactive and that, however, are fully operational.
-Something curious is that the sleepwalkers do not need to open the lights to guide themselves through the house.They use their own environmental memory advancing automatically.And they do very well if there are no strange obstacles in between.The funny thing is that their areas for recent or short-term memory are not active, therefore, they will not be able remember what they do while they are sleepwalkers.
-Their gaze is abstracted, they do not look or attend, hence, it is very difficult to capture their attention. They usually react to the movement , to the shaking, but not to the visual stimulus or even to the auditory one.
At the moment the investigations are still underway, addressing above all that hereditary component and especially, the structures associated with memory.The subject is without Interesting doubt and we will be aware of it, asking you as always to explain your experiences, and also inviting you to know the paralysis of the dream.Your worst nightmare!
Image: Hartwig HKD, Sean MacEntee
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