Parasomnias
Parasomnias are undesirable and sometimes dangerous conditions.
Symptoms are experienced during a period of partial awakening. This
means that the person will be partially awake and partially asleep
at the same time. Parasomnias can occur during REM sleep or non-REM
sleep.
Although parasomnias can have many different causes, stress, depression
and biological factors are known to be the major causes. Parasomnias
can run in families and children are more likely to be affected
by them than adults. The causes of some types of parasomnias such
as teeth grinding, bedwetting or sleep talking are more well-known
but other types have no known cause.
Cure
Insomnia
Stop Daytime Tiredness and Sleepiness with a Good
Night's Sleep
There are also many different types of parasomnias. These types
include:
- Bruxism. This is a condition
where the person will grind their teeth during sleep. It can cause
worn and damaged teeth and the person afflicted with it will usually
be fitted for a mouth guard.
- Confusion Arousals. This occurs when a person is awakend
from a deep sleep during the early part of the night. When the
person wakes, they are confused, they will move and react very
slowly and they may have memory lapses.
- Nightmares. These frightening events occur when the individual
is wakened from REM sleep by something that is causing fear and
anxiety. The person will often find it hard to go back to sleep.
- Night Terrors. These
occur when the person wakes suddenly feeling frightened and confused.
These episodes will usually only last about fifteen minutes and
most commonly occur in children. Again the individuals experiencing
night terrors will not remember them in the morning.
- Nocturnal Leg Cramps. This also happens during sleep
and involves a sharp cramp in both calf muscles during sleep.
The cramp can last for as long as ten minutes but the resulting
pain from the cramp can last much longer. This type of parasomnia
tends to happen more in adults.
- REM Sleep Behavior
Disorder (RBD). This type of parasomnia occurs during
REM sleep and causes the person to act out in violent behaviors.
Although this type usually occurs in men, it can be seen in women
as well.
- Sleep Enuresis. This is more commonly known as bedwetting
and happens when the person has involuntary urinary functions
during sleep.
- Sleep Paralysis.
This occurs when the individual experiences the inability to move
upon just going to sleep or just waking up. In both cases, the
person will be fully conscious. These episodes usually occur for
very short periods of time and will discontinue with the voice
or touch of another person.
- Sleep Talking. This will occur during a sleep-wake cycle
of sleep. The person will utter sounds or entire sentences and
have no recollection of it in the morning.
- Sleepwalking. This is
also known as somnambulism and occurs when the person moves around
while they are sleeping. This parasomnia does tend to run in families
and can be very dangerous as the person is unaware of what's going
on around them. It's also very dangerous to wake a sleep walker
during an episode.
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