Have you ever heard of the people who walk in their sleep? This means that they get up, perform some activities and then go back to sleep. When they wake up, they have absolutely no recollection of anything that they have done or spoken. This is called sleep walking, or somnambulism. It is a sleep disorder in which the afflicted person performs regular activities of his daily schedule without registering in his mind that he has done so. The action done by the person includes reflex actions as well. Only in extreme cases, such people can demonstrate complex human behavior such as sending emails, cooking, talking to friends or inviting them at home etc. During sleep walking, the eyes of the person are open but not fully and the expression on the face is of a dazed person. This state can either last for a short period say half a minute or as long as half an hour or even more.

Causes:

Experts and researchers over so many years have come up with several possible reasons but still there is no concrete evidence to show that these are the exact causes of sleep walking. These causes could be

• Cultural factors

• Affliction of one or both the parents of a person

• Deprivation of sleep

• High fever

• Extreme tiredness or fatigue

• Use of certain medicines which can cause hallucination or symptoms of hypnotism

• Insanity

• Seizure or fits of a certain kind

Treatment:

Though there are medications available for sleep walking, experts are of the opinion that if there is a person afflicted with such a disorder then he may be housed in a room where there are no dangerous objects for him to misuse. Also, the doors and the windows should be kept locked because in such cases, there is a high possibility that the afflicted person may jump out of the window or can pick up something or someone else in sleep and throw them out. Medicines like a very low dose of benzodiazepine or tricyclic antidepressants or even clonazepam are administered in such cases. But still the doctors who have years of experience in treating such patients feels that a good, undisturbed and stress-free mind are the keys to solve this riddle as to why people do sleep walking. They are also of the opinion to gently put a sleepwalker back to the bed without any kind of coercion or noise. Such activities can wake him up or the person may all of a sudden turn violent and harm others.

Sleep walking, though not a common disorder; is found in almost 15% of the total population of the world. One can see a lot of such afflicted person to be in their childhood and as they approach adolescence, it disappears. The most common age for this disorder to occur is between 4-8 years. However, if such is the case in adulthood, then it is a serious problem and needs urgent medical intervention. More often than not the occurrence of this disorder in adults can be due to wrong drugs or some kinds of seizures and not only psychological disorders.