2. Somnambulism – a disease
• Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism, is a sleep
disorder belonging to the parasomnia family.
Sleepwalkers arise from the slow wave sleep stage in a
state of low consciousness and perform activities that are
usually performed during a state of full consciousness.
These activities can be as benign as sitting up in bed,
walking to the bathroom, and cleaning, or as hazardous
as cooking, driving, violent gestures, grabbing at
hallucinated objects, or even homicide
Example of sleepwalker.
3. Sleepwalking - unconscious
activities during sleep.
When a human is sleepwalking, he does not necessarily
walk, but can eat, dress or wash himself. However, his
mind is not aware of it, and is still in a dreaming stage.
Every sleepwalker does something else during the time of
sleepwalking. Although the brain is in low level of
consiousness, a sleepwalker can listen to proposals and
suggestion of the others, and do them. Sleepwalker's
eyes, despite misleading images (as in the picture page
2) are open.
John Everett Millais
Sleepwalker
4. Comunnication & Action
• Like we have said, sleepwalkers don’t
have their eyes closed during
sleepwalking. Thanks to that sleepwalker
can avoid obstacles. Sometimes, he can
also read and write… When brain is
waking up, the sleepwalker can answer
the questions, and talk, too. The level of
answers and conversation depends on
the level of conciousness of the brain.
5. When are the sleepwalkers
most active?
• Sleepwalking does not leave any trace in the
memory. It occurs 30-40 minutes before
waking up. Typical for sleepwalker is that his
dream is very deep. Efficient way of dealing
with the sleepwalking are shorter sleeping
periods.
6. Sleepwalkers can’t wake up!
• Sleepwalkers under no circumstances should be woken up.
As their brains are not working at the highest level when
they are sleepwalking, waking sleepwalker could cause
taking us by a somnambulist as thieves, monsters and others
alike. Somnambulist, taking us as a stranger and having
dangerous object nearby, can do harm, or kill. In other
circumstances, a sleepwalker can hurt himself. For example,
when the sleepwalker comes to the window sill, is about to
sit on a chair, or stands next to something sharp, screaming
is not a good idea, as we can scare the sleepwalker, and
as a result he may fall over.
7. Curing Somnambulism
• Currently, it is believed that difficulty in
breathing during sleep leads to
increased blood acidification, which
respond to serotonergic neurons in the
brain. These neurons also take part in
regulation of falling asleep and waking
up. Serotonergic neurons activated can
"try" to wake the person up, but their
activation is too weak to consider this
process being complete.
8. Quiz.
• Sleepwalker, during the attack, has his eyes:
A. Closed B. Opened C. depends of the somnambulist
• Sommnambulists during attack can:
A. Only Walk B. do other complex things
• Sommnambulists can avoid obstacles.
A. True B. False
• Somnambulism always leave traces in the memory.
A. True B. False
• Effective method of controlling the attacks of sleepwalking:
A. pouring water onto sleepwalker B. drinking strong energy
drinks C. shorter sleeping periods
• How can we cure sleepwalking?
A. take special medications B. treat breathing disorders during
sleep
9. Crossword Across
4. Woken up sleepwalker is
6. Eyes of the somnambulist are…
Down
1. Colloquial name of
somnambulism
2. Activities done during sleep.
3. For kids, the possibility of
occuring of the somnambulism
is…
5. Method of controlling the
attacks
