COPING WITH PARASOMNIA

ADVICE ON How can you learn to live with this often troubling sleep disorder?

Unlike insomnia where you cannot get to sleep, in a parasomnia you fall asleep and stay asleep throughout whatever behaviour you carry out.

We all move about in bed but in a parasomnia there are complicated movements. Sleep walking is perhaps the most well known.

Sleep walking affects about 1 in 10 children, commonly between 4 and 8 years old, but it can persist into adulthood.

In sleep walking the person is asleep, but not completely, and this occurs due to not fully awakening from the nondream (non-REM) sleep.

A sleep walker may move around the home, or even out into the street, so ensure that the person is safe, for example by ensuring the front door is locked.

In sleep talking, the person may have a par tial conversation with you or simply talk to themselves, or whisper or shout!

Sleep terrors usually occur in childhood but can occur in adulthood. At about the same time every night the person appears to wake up terrified and may scream, kick and thrash about, all while asleep.

In REM sleep behaviour disorder the movement is associated with violent or aggressive nightmares and the person responds violently, for example as if running away or hitting back at an attacker.

Rarely there are forms of epilepsy where the seizures occur at night, with very quick, uncontrolled movements. This is treated with anti seizure medication.

They can be worsened by fatigue, or by alcohol, sedative drugs or stress so tr ying to avoid these may well help!

If your symptoms are badly affecting you or your family, your GP may refer you to a sleep clinic for assessment and advice.