You remember going to bed, like in your actual bedroom. However, you woke up this morning on the living room couch. What’s even more bizarre is that you’re grasping your car keys, you have on your winter coat and just your left winter boot, and your laptop is open to a travel article on the penguins of Antarctica.
Now you may still be dreaming, but chances are you were sleepwalking last night…
1. What Characterizes Sleepwalking
According to the American Sleep Association (ASA), sleepwalking is classified under parasomnia, which refers to a number of sleep-related abnormalities—including nightmares, sleep paralysis, REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), sleep aggression, sexsomnia, sleep-associated eating disorder, and sleepwalking.
Parasomnias typically occur in one of 2 ways—either during sleep or as an individual is about to fall asleep. ASA data shows that roughly 10-percent of Americans (mainly children) are inflicted with some form of parasomnia. In the majority of cases, sleepwalking doesn’t typically cause negative health consequences and will dissipate with maturity. However, sometimes sleep walking can cause harmful dream-enacting behaviors to the sleepwalker and others.
