Some sleepers wish to put these strange behaviors to sleep.
It is widely known that people walk and talk in their sleep, and some even have sex. These are just a few examples of parasomnias. Abnormal movements and behaviors that occur during sleep.
New research from Semmelweis University It was discovered in Budapest, Hungary. Women are twice as likely as men to handle electricity, kitchen tools, or perform similar complex activities while sleepwalking.
Young adults and children are also more likely to sleepwalk than older adults.Survey results announced Published in Clinical Neuroscience Journal in November.
From January to July 2022, researchers tested YouTube for abnormalities such as “sleepwalking,” “sleepwalking,” “sleep eating,” “sleep sex,” “sleep talking,” and “sleep aggression.” We searched for terms related to sleep behavior in various languages. , including English.
Their search yielded 758 video results, of which they selected 224 for study. The video featured 68 children, 116 adults, and 40 elderly people.
The most common behaviors observed during sleep were sleepwalking, crying or laughing, moving hands, and speaking in sentences or gibberish.
Researchers found that older men were 40 times more likely to be physically aggressive during sleep and 70 times more likely to perform complex movements in bed compared to adults and children. did.
Older adults were less likely to cry in their sleep than younger adults, and women cried in their sleep twice as often as men.
Older people are also less likely than younger people to put themselves at risk by falling asleep at the wheel or leaving their homes.
On the other hand, adults speak in complete sentences more often than older adults and children.
There are various causes of parasomnias. Reasons include incomplete transition from wakefulness to another sleep stage, insufficient sleep or irregular sleep cycles, certain medications, genetics, health problems or mental illness, stress, alcohol or drug abuse, According to the Cleveland Clinic.
Parasomnias affect approximately 10% of Americans and are more common in children than adults. According to Northwestern Medicine.
Sexsomnia in particular can cause problems for sleepers and their bedmates around issues of consent.
People who don’t mind their partner initiating sex in their sleep, like one woman who talked about her husband’s sexsomnia on a 2022 episode of the podcast Healthy-ish and joked that it improved their relationship. There may be some.
Some people go to prison because of sexsomnia.
Dr. Guy Leszziner, a neurologist and author of The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep, once detailed the case of Tom, a patient with sexomnia. He tried to initiate sex with his partner Sarah, who described the encounter as “awkward and annoying” more than anything else.
But then she tied him to the time he spent in prison – three and a half years for raping his ex while he slept.
Tom and Sarah were able to consult a sleep doctor to resolve the issue, but not everyone is so lucky. In the most extreme cases, this ultra-rare condition can be used as a legal defense for rape suspects.