Parasomnia Sleep Disorders
(HealthScoutNews) -- Does your spouse
or partner shriek, grind, mumble, thrash about or even eat in
their sleep?
These are all symptoms of "parasomnias,"
sleeping disorders that include sleep-talking, teeth grinding,
night terrors and, yes, even sleep-eating.
"Parasomnia really means a sleep-related
disorder, but one that seems to be associated with some possible
wakefulness or wakefulness-like activity such as eating or walking,"
says Gary Zammit, director of the Sleep Disorders Institute at
St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. "The person
has the sensation that something is real."
There is little to link the various
conditions, not even an underlying medical or psychological problem,
though they can worsen under stress.
"They commonly occur during slow-wave
sleep, which is a very deep sleep," Zammit says. "This
may be the one thread that runs through them."
Tooth-grinding is the exception: It
occurs during a different phase of sleep.
Sleep disorders affect adults, but
are much more common among children. The prevalence of sleepwalking
in children, for instance, is about 15 percent. Most will lose
the tendency as they grow older.
Sleep-eating is relatively rare and
involves both walking and eating while asleep.
These two behaviors -- walking and
eating while asleep -- can be hazardous, especially for adults
who no longer have a watchful parent living with them. Zammit
has had patients who were sleepwalking in the middle of a street
or who cut themselves after turning on the blender and putting
their hand in.
Sleep-eaters will arrive in his office
after consuming "non-nutritive" substances, he adds.
"One person was eating garbage
and not only from his own garbage, but he was walking out onto
the street on garbage night," Zammit says. "He was getting
pretty sick."
Treatment often involves common
sense.
"For a sleepwalker, one of
the first things a doctor may do is have the sleepwalker make
sure that his or her environment is a safe one at night. Make
sure doors are well-locked and that there's no debris on the floor
that they can trip on," Zammit says.
If you have a family member who
walks while asleep, don't try to wake him or her up as they're
likely to startle and strike out.
"Try to guide the person back
to bed, otherwise you could get a black eye," Zammit says.
Keep in mind that real sleepwalkers
don't look like they do in the movies, with hands stretched out
in front of them. Usually, they're fumbling around, their movements
much less coordinated than when they're awake.
Many sleep-eaters are "restricters,"
meaning they restrict their food intake during the day. Their
night eating may be an attempt to make up for the daytime deprivation.
"We know that night-eaters
tend to consume high-fat foods or high-carbohydrate foods during
the night, so we have them eat fatty or carbohydrate foods late
in the evening before they get into bed," Zammit says.
Another "treatment" is
to have the patient prepare a "safe" food tray with
carrots and celery sticks placed near the bed for their night-time
noshing.
"By altering food patterns,
we can sometimes take the behavior away entirely," Zammit
says. "The reward of getting up and eating is taken away
so the problem goes away."
Medications are a last resort,
though these are not usually recommended for children.
Most often people don't even know
what they're doing unless a roommate or a bedmate points it out
or until they fall off a step or watch the scale creep higher
and higher.
That's the really scary part. One
man walked out onto his New York City balcony one night and woke
up there. "He was very fortunate because when you're out
of touch with the environment, you're not reacting to the environment,"
Zammit says. "He could have tripped or leaned the wrong way
or fallen off."
What To Do
For more information on parasomnias,
visit Stanford
University. More general information on sleeping disorders
can be found at the American
Academy of Sleep Medicine or the National
Center on Sleep Disorders Research.
If you'd like to inquire about
ongoing clinical studies at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, call
212-523-1780.
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