Sleepwalking: When Good Sleep Goes Bad | Vitals

Sleepwalking is surprisingly common, affecting 1 in 25 adults and nearly a third of pre-teen children. Sleepwalking, sleep-talking, and other parasomnias (like sleep-eating) are signs of disregulated sleep patterns, where the normal sleep state is disrupted. Sleepwalking and sleep-talking involve non-REM sleep; other parasomnias, like sleep paralysis, involve REM sleep, where the body is unable to move but the rest of the mind is terrifyingly wide awake. Not surprisingly, all these disorders are associated with daytime exhaustion and insomnia, not to mention potential embarrassment and hazards like falls. But sleepwalking is also a source of deep fascination—just check out this Tik-Tok account, where a woman’s (PG-rated) videos of herself sleepwalking regularly draw more than 2 million views.