What does it reveal to us?

One in five Spaniards falls under the grip of insomnia each night. Among the culprits that our eyes go wide when trying to rest , the lack of exposure to natural daylight in schools and workplaces stands out, which delays the secretion of the hormone melatonin . The growing number of insomniacs can also be attributed to sedentary habits . In fact, practicing 20 to 40 minutes of aerobic exercise four times a week can make sleep problems a thing of the past, as Phyllis Zee and her colleagues at Northwestern University have recently shown.

On the other hand, depriving ourselves of sleep hours can precipitate another disorder, sleepwalking , especially in individuals predisposed to taking unwanted walks at night, according to new research from the University of Montreal (Canada). According to the authors, sleepwalkers should keep a regular bedtime schedule to avoid this.

More dangerous than taking walks in your sleep is suddenly falling into a deep sleep while walking, in the middle of a work meeting , over a plate of food, or behind the wheel of a car. This is what happens to patients with narcolepsy, a neurological disorder that affects one in every thousand individuals. Although its causes are not yet clearly known, research from Stanford University (USA) points to an autoimmune origin, which would predispose our own defenses to attack the brain neurons that regulate the rest / wake cycle through the production of a molecule called hypocretin.