Sunday, May 20, 2012

Sleep walking and sleep apnea


I remember as a child having episodes of sleepwalking. It really didn’t seem to bother me much until I woke during a walk in the middle of night in another room in the house. It was very disorienting to slowly realize that you don’t know where you are. My parent didn’t seem concerned assuming that I would just outgrow it and I did. I wondered whether my other sleep problem, which is sleep apnea, might have something to do with that.

According to Science DailyNearly 1 in 10 patients with obstructive sleep apnea also experience "parasomnia" symptoms such as sleepwalking, hallucinations and acting out their dreams” which seems strange to me considering how little sleep folks with apnea get but there is a study from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine to back it up.

Sleepwalking occurs during the “deep sleep” stage of sleep. What causes it is unknown but it might be because of mental disorders, medications, fatigue and alcohol. The majority of cases happen to children. Folks would do sleepwalk have their eyes open and they may do a number of routine activities around the house, although they wouldn’t remember them later.

A recent study has suggested that nearly 30 percent of folks in a study have had some kind of sleep walking occurrence as an adult or child according to webmd.com. These numbers have dramatically increased over the past 30 years.

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