We are sure that, although you know practically nothing about sleepwalkers , you will know that, at least according to popular belief, “waking a sleepwalker” is dangerous to their health. But is this belief something real or is it simply an unfounded “danger”? Is waking up a sleepwalker really dangerous or not?
Is waking up a sleepwalker really dangerous or not?
Is the belief that waking up someone who is a sleepwalker can be a danger has a true scientific basis? Sleepwalking is a sleep disorder that involves a partial awakening from deep sleep and is characterized by simple or complex motor activities . The disorder typically occurs during the non- rapid eye movement (NREM) phase of sleep , a phase also called “inactive sleep” that prevails during the early hours of the night.
This makes it not entirely recommended that if we find that someone is sleepwalking, we wake them up . But why exactly? Mainly for two reasons: the first is that, upon waking , the person affected by sleepwalking may be disoriented; while secondly, trying to wake him up, the sleepwalker might have a violent response . This is because the brain is in two different states : the parts that regulate the ability to move and those most related to primitive emotions are in a waking state, while other areas, including the one that regulates the consciousness of the self and the hippocampus, they are in a state of deep sleep.
However, although experts recommend that we do not wake someone who is sleepwalking and that we simply be alert to what they are doing so that they do not endanger their life, in certain circumstances it may be appropriate that we also gently wake someone who has completed an episode of sleepwalking and letting him fall asleep again to avoid immediately returning to another similar episode. That is to say, the best we can do is be attentive and if we see that the person returns to bed to continue sleeping, we gently awaken him so that he does not fall back into sleepwalking.
In fact, the best we can do is if we find out that someone is sleepwalking, instead of waking them up, we have to calmly take them back to bed to ensure their safety. So waking him up is not dangerous, but it is always better to take him back to bed and once there we can check if he is still sleeping or if the sleepwalking episode continues and we have to keep watching until it ends.
