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r called “sleepwalking” and another by Thomas Clinker called “causes and effects of sleepwalking.” We found that sleepwalking occurs in approximately 15% of the population, but only one percent of the adult population. In some cases, such as the Kenneth Parks case, sleepwalking can result in violent behaviour, and as seen, sometimes murder. Although the direct external cause of sleepwalking in adults is uncertain, there are many factors that are believed to contribute to the disorder. These factors include fever, which directly affects the nervous system; general illness; alcohol; substance abuse; sleep deprivation and emotional stress, because it forces the body to go into a deeper sleep, allowing the dysfunctional transition into deep sleep to occur more readily, leading to somnambulism. The hormonal changes that take place during puberty, pregnancy or menstruation can precipitate sleepwalking as well. It seems that when the body is enduring physiological or psychological stress, sleepwalking is more likely to occur, perhaps coinciding with the body’s inability to rest. A recent study has also given reason to believe that sleepwalking may also be a genetic disorder. The study found that adult sleepwalking has a genetic component related to an element of the immune system called the HLA system, which is genetically determined. In this study completed at the University Hospital in Bern, Switzerland, sleepwalking had been occurring since childhood in 58 percent of the patients. For 24 percent of the patients, other family members were also sleepwalkers. This study was completed over a 30 year period and included 74 patients who had been diagnosed with adult sleepwalking. We had some difficulty finding the length of sleepwalking, as each case is unique. Sleepwalking can occur in time span of seconds to hours, but generally, most cases occur between five and twenty minutes, varying for all people who suffer this disorder. Overall we found that there was no direct answer to what external causes are known to create sleepwalking, though there was a variety of information surrounding the topic. As a result, the question was not overly difficult to answer. In this research, we learned about the genetic and biological link that may be present between sleepwalking and the body. There may not be a specific external cause of sleepwalking, but in our original set of research questions, we learned that there is most definitely an internal cause of sleepwalking, which leads us to our next research question: 2. What is the internal process of sleepwalking? (what are the signs and symptoms?) Jaime decided that she would be interested in finding our more about the biological and internal aspects of sleepwalking, and came back with what we understand to be a common problem in our research… there was a lot of information, but much of it is repeated or contains the same or similar points. She did a lot of research on the internet, looking for sites that were both reliable and informative, and came back with a couple very helpful sites; http://health.discovery.com/, www.crescentlife.com/disorders and http://serendip.brynmar.edu. These websites provided the scientific information regarding sleep and therefore sleepwalking. We found that sleepwalking is a complex behaviour that begins in a stage of sleep called the slow wave sleep. During this time, people undergo what is known as the rapid eye movement (REM) period of sleep. During this time the body secretes a chemical that paralyses the body so that the body does not act out the dreams. In a sleepwalking patients, this chemical is not secreted, and therefore, the body moves in response to the dreams. The actual physical act of sleepwalking often occurs in the early night, or early morning. Some of the symptoms of sleepwalking include difficulty arousing the patient during an episode, amnesia after the episode, fatigue, stress, anxiety, embarrassment, guilt, shame and confusion.
Approximate Word count = 2431
Approximate Pages = 9.7
(250 words per page double spaced)
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