Sleep Walking

Sleep walking is the popular name for somnabulism, which is a real disorder that involves actions during sleep that are not typical for people who should be asleep. At the low end of the spectrum, it includes people who talk in their sleep. But some folks get up and walk around.

More kids suffer from somnabulism than adults and of these, more boys than girls sleep walk. Sleep walkers can grow out of their condition but rarely does an adult become a sleep walker if he or she hasn't done it as a kid.

There are some myths about sleep walking. One holds that a sleep walker is somehow immune or safe from harm. That simply isn't true. In fact, one of the biggest dangers for sleep walkers isn't the condition itself but it's tripping over something or walking into a wall or falling down stairs during an episode.

Another myth says not to awaken a sleep walker. It's true, waking a sleep walker can startle or even upset him, but it's safer to wake the person than let him wander around the house and get banged up. And don't assume a sleep walker will stay within the house. There have been cases (rare) of sleep walkers who go out the front door and wander around in the street.

No one knows exactly why sleep walking occurs. It seems to run in families, although it's unclear if it is truly hereditary. While stress may seem to make sleep walking events more likely, there is no absolute proof that it's a stress-related condition.

Most sleep walkers do not remember their sleep strolls.

Sleep Deprivation

Everybody knows that, as a nation, America is sleep deprived. The weird thing is that most of this sleep deprivation is self inflicted.

True, there is sleep deprivation that can occur for people who get insomnia or those who have new babies or those luckless individuals who get stranded for long periods of time at airports. But the majority of sleep deprivation occurs because people figure it's easier to give up sleep than other stuff.

The new medical name for this is volitional sleep deprivation. Like all medical terms, it sounds harder than it is. It means self-inflicted lack of sleep.