It is known as sleepwalking or nocturnalism to a sleep disorder, which is classified as a parasomnia, this is manifested in people developing automatic motor activities which can be simple or complex while said individuals remain unconscious and without probability of being can communicate.
A person who suffers from sleepwalking can get out of bed, walk, urinate and even leave his residence, in general these types of individuals when they present this type of episodes, keep their eyes open, however, they do not see in the same way that they do it if they are awake, in addition to that they tend to believe that they are in other rooms of the house or in completely different places.
It should be noted that sleepwalkers generally tend to go back to bed on their own initiative and the next day they do not remember getting up the night before. These types of episodes usually occur during phases 3 or 4 of sleep, that is, the stage called slow sleep or slow wave sleep (SOL).
A normal sleep cycle must have different stages, from mild drowsiness to deep sleep. At the time of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the eyes move rapidly and vivid dreams are more common. While people sleep, they go through several cycles of desynchronized sleep and synchronized or deep sleep, the fact that a person walks in sleep, occurs more regularly during synchronized deep sleep, during the first hours of the night. However, if it occurs during sleep desynchronized such fact is part of the behavioral disorder that is related to REM sleep and usually occurs near the morning.
In general, the causes of sleepwalking in children are not known, however, experts believe that it may be associated with fatigue, lack of sleep, or also anxiety. While, in the case of adults, sleepwalking can be associated with various mental disorders, addictions to substances such as drugs and alcohol, medical conditions such as complex partial seizures.
