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Why Sleepwalkers Need Regular Sleep
Sleep deprivation may make sleepwalkers more likely
to foot it.
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical News
Sleepwalkers may want to take extra care to make
sure they get enough sleep. New research shows that
when sleep deprived, sleep walkers are more likely
to sleepwalk.
That
finding comes from a Canadian study of 40
sleepwalkers.
The
study supports recommendations for sleepwalkers to
"maintain a regular sleep cycle and avoid sleep
deprivation," write the University of Montreal's
Antonio Zadra, PhD, and colleagues.
The
sleepwalkers in Zadra's study spent a night at a
sleep lab. They were videotaped as they slept to
record any bouts of
sleepwalking. Sleepwalkers typically don't
sleepwalk every night.
That
night, 20 people sleepwalked, and some of them did
so more than once that night, for a total of 32
sleepwalking episodes.
Starting the next morning, the researchers kept
participants awake for 25 hours straight to see how
sleep deprivation affected the sleepwalkers.
After being awake for 25 hours, participants slept
for as long as they wanted at the sleep lab. They
hit the hay in the morning, so not only were they
weary, they were trying to sleep at an unusual time.
During their catch-up sleep, 36 people sleepwalked
for a total of 92 sleepwalking episodes.
Sleep deprivation may encourage sleepwalking in
sleepwalkers, Zadra and colleagues conclude.
This
study didn't include a comparison group of people
who've never sleepwalked. But in their past work,
Zadra's team found that healthy people with no
history of sleepwalking weren't more likely to
sleepwalk when sleep deprived.
The
new study appears in the March edition of the Annals
of Neurology.
©
WebMD. All rights reserved.
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Sleep deprivation may encourage sleepwalking in
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