On the contrary, rousing a sleepwalker could save their life
Sleepwalkers do the strangest things. Many accounts attest to a somnambulist leaving their house clad only in underpants, or rising to cook a meal and returning to bed without so much as tasting it. A stern warning is frequently tacked onto these tales: waking a sleepwalker could kill them. The chances of killing a sleepwalker due to the shock of sudden awakening, however, is about as likely as somebody expiring from a dream about dying.
While it is true that waking a sleepwalker, especially forcefully, may distress them, it is an absolutely false statement that someone would die from shock, says Michael Salemi, general manager at the California Center for Sleep Disorders. "You can startle sleepwalkers, and they can be very disoriented when you wake them up and they can have violent, or confused reactions, but I have not heard of a documented case of someone dying from being woken up."
Sleepwalking's hazard is more closely linked to what the sleepwalker may encounter when roaming about in a nocturnal reverie.
Sleepwalking, or "somnambulism," is part of a larger category of sleep-related disorders known as parasomnias, which include night terrors, REM behavior disorder, restless legs syndrome and sleepwalking. For the majority of people, sleepwalking consists of mundane activities such as sitting up in bed, ambling around the house or dressing and undressing. A minority of sleepwalkers, however, perform more complex behaviors, including preparing meals, having intercourse, climbing through windows and driving cars—all while actually asleep. These episodes can be as brief as a few seconds or can continue for 30 minutes or longer.
"In sleepwalking you are half asleep and half awake," says Carlos Schenck of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center at the University of Minnesota Medical School, "The brain produces delta waves and theta waves, which really demonstrates that the person is in a twilight state." Sleepwalking commonly occurs during the third and fourth stage of non-REM sleep—the deepest stage of sleep—characterized by slow-wave, or delta, sleep and little to no dreaming.
"Children developmentally are much more at risk of sleepwalking," Schenck says. "If a child does sleepwalk, waking up the child 45 minutes after going to sleep can interrupt the cycle. In general, soothing and leading them back to bed is the best way to handle the situation." Up to 17 percent of children have at least one sleepwalking episode. They peak between the ages of 11 and 12 and then decline during adolescence. Though rarer in adults (2.5 percent of the population), episodes could be caused by stress, lack of sleep or irregular sleep.
Still, more disconcerting than the occasional nocturnal stroll is the potential peril caused by sleepwalking. "Sleepwalkers can harm themselves and others, and even kill themselves and others, and they can engage in highly complex behaviors such as driving long distances, and hurt others with sleep aggression and violence," Schenck says. "So there are a number of ways that sleepwalkers can be dangerous to themselves and others during their episodes." For example, he notes, Sandy, a slender female in her teens, tore her bedroom door off the hinges one night. She was unable to replicate that strength when awake. And a young man frantically drove to his parent's house 10 miles away. He woke to the sound of his own fists beating on their front door. In dramatic cases like these, doctors will prescribe benzodiazepines to ease a patient's nighttime activity.
Typically, though, sleepwalking is a moderate, infrequent occurrence most easily managed by leading a sleepwalker back to bed by the elbow. One final caveat: if spectators are still chuckling about the episode in the morning, they may be alone. Somnambulist's memories snooze through the whole event.
译文:
事实或虚构？惊醒梦游者可能导致他们死亡
相反，唤醒梦游病者能拯救他们的生命
梦游病者做最奇怪的事。许多报道证实梦游症患者把他们的衣服穿在内裤里，或是烹调膳食然后回到床上但并不去品尝它。一次严厉的警告频繁地添加这些传说：惊醒梦游者可能导致他们死亡。引起梦游者死亡的可能性是由于震动突然唤醒，但是，梦游者在梦里也同样会有从断气到死亡的挣扎过程。
当梦游者在现实生活中醒来，特别强有力地，可以困厄他们，这是某人会死于震动的绝对假话。总经理迈克尔・Salemi在失眠的加利福尼亚中心说：“你能惊醒梦游者，并且当你把他们吵醒和他们非常狂暴的情况下他们可能非常迷失方向，或迷茫的反应，但我从未听说由于吵醒他们会导致死亡的案例。”
梦游病的危险是当他们在夜间做梦并且游走时他们可能会与危险越来越靠近。
梦游病或是梦游病患者是以parasomnias著名，其中大部分是与睡眠混乱有关，它包括夜间的恐怖行动，睡眠中的快速眼动行为混乱，不安定的腿综合症状和梦游病。为多数人，梦游病由世俗活动组成例如在床上熬夜，在房间里漫步或是穿着衣服睡觉或是裸睡。少数的梦游病患者，然而，会进行更加复杂的行为，包括准备食物，自言自语，爬出窗口和驾驶汽车——这些所有的行为都是在睡眠中进行的。这些情节可能是简短的几秒钟或是连续30分钟甚至更长。
梦游病是在半睡着半醒的情况下形成的，在明尼苏达医学院大学里的Carlos Schenck说尼苏打地方是失眠中心，哪些真正地显示出, 人是在一个暮色状态里脑子生产三角洲波浪和希腊字母的第八字波浪。梦游病通常在非快速睡眠的第三和第四阶段形成——睡眠的最深刻阶段——特征为慢速进行，或是三角形之物，少数人在睡眠中是不做梦的。
Schenck说：“在许多的危险中梦游病会影响孩子的发展。”如果一个孩子有梦游病，45分钟之后叫醒孩子这时可能是睡眠的中断周期。总之, 安慰性和带领他们回到床上是最佳的处理方式。百分之十七的孩子至少都有一次梦游病的情节。他们的高峰期是在11岁和12岁然后下降到成人期间。成人之后就比较罕见（人口的百分之2.5），情节可能是由压力，缺乏睡眠或不规则的睡眠造成。
但是，困惑比偶尔在夜间溜达要好因为潜在的危险是由梦游病导致的。Schenck说：“梦游病者能危害自己和其他人, 甚至自杀和其他人，并且他们能参与高度复杂行为譬如开车开出很长的距离，以睡眠侵略和暴力刺伤其他人。”因此有数据表明，梦游人在他们犯病期间很有可能伤害他们自己和其他人。例如，他所关注的一个人，Sandy, 一位苗条女性在她的十几岁内，撕毁了她的卧室门铰链一夜。当她醒来以后她已经不记得晚上所发生的一切了。另外一个年轻男人疯狂的驾驶车到他父母家房子的10英里外。他醒来之后在他父母的门前用拳头击打地面。像这样的疯狂案例，医生将病人在夜间活动现象诊断为夜游症。
典型的，虽然梦游病是适度的，偶然发生的，处理梦游病最好的处理方法是的带领梦游者回到床上去。最后一个的警告：大清早如果旁观者仍然暗自发笑梦游者，他们可能是孤单的。梦游病患者的记忆打瞌睡是通过整个事件形成的。