Sleepwalking (somnambulism) is a series of complex behaviors that are initiated during slow wave -- deep -- sleep where the sufferer engages in activities that are normally associated with wakefulness while he or she is asleep or in a sleeplike state. About 20% of the population is prone to sleepwalking. While sleepwalking can affect people of any age, it is more common in children than in adolescents and adults.
Sleepwalking is a sleep disorder. It is more commonly experienced in people with high levels of stress, anxiety or psychological factors and in people with genetic factors or a combination of both. Sleepwalking is not a psychosis.
Activities such as eating (sleep-eating), bathing, urinating, dressing, or even driving cars (sleep-driving), whistling, and committing murder have been reported or claimed to have occurred during sleepwalking. Contrary to popular belief, most cases of sleepwalking do not consist of walking around; rather they occur when the person is awakened at which time the person may sit up, look around and immediately go back to sleep.
Sleepwalking has in rare cases been used as a defense (sometimes successfully) against charges of murder. In 1997, a Phoenix man who claimed to be sleepwalking when he brutally stabbed his wife 44 times to death was convicted of first-degree murder and her body was found in the family swimming pool. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Sleepwalking has been found as a theme in many dramatic works.
* It is a major plot element in the classic silent German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 1920. The title figure uses a haunting, zombie-like character-a somnambulist-as a circus attraction.
* Shakespeare's Macbeth, Lady Macbeth sleepwalks because of her overwhelming guilt and insanity.
* Vincenzo Bellini's opera La Sonnambula is named after its heroine, a sleepwalker.
* In the film adaptation of Silent Hill, the protagonist's daughter suffers from sleepwalking.
* In the "House" episode Role Model, a woman has sex with her ex-husband while sleepwalking and gets pregnant.
Sleepwalking episodes can range from sitting up in bed to walking, and can even lead to frantic attempts to escape as if threatened or fleeing. During an episode, a sleepwalker exhibits behaviors such as sitting up with glassy eyes, picking at the blankets, making body movements and walking around the house. Sleepwalkers may also urinate, defecate or avoid looking at another person who attempts to communicate with them. Exiting through a window is not an uncommon practice, either.
Symptoms include asleep with eyes wide open, doesn't remember the episode when awakened, getting out of bed and walking around the room, mumbling incomprehensible phrases or talking nonsense, performing other acts--turning on the TV, even cooking, while asleep--sitting up while asleep, walking around with a blank expression, and when awakened, seems confused and disoriented.
Causes of sleepwalking include alcohol consumption, fatigue, previous sleep loss, worry and anxiety, various medical conditions, rapid eye movement disorders, and drugs -- prescription or recreational. Drugs that can give rise to somnambulism are: alcohol, Ambien, chloral hydrate, fluoroquinolones, Inderal, lithium, Paxil, Trilafon, Risperdal, phenothiazines, Vestra, Restoril, Melleril, Thorazine, Topamax, Halcion, Depakote, Toprol, Remeron, Wellbutrin, Sonata, Zyban, and Zyprexa.
