人们睡着后所做古怪事情.docVIP

Sleep: Weird things people do in their sleep Increasing numbers of people are asking for help with sleep disorders and some of them are doing rather strange things during the night. Specialist sleep clinics are treating more people with sleep disorders than ever before. Its not surprising. More than 30% of the UK population currently suffers from insomnia or another sleep disorder, according to the Mental Health Foundation. This can have serious mental and physical consequences. Clinics say they are getting up to 50 new referrals a week. Its a fivefold increase in just a decade for some. This big rise has been put down to raised awareness of sleep disorders and more people reporting them. The clinics are also dealing with some strange new sleep behaviour, while other rather odd sleep disorders are becoming more common. So what are the weird things people do? Texting Technology now plays a huge part in our lives so its no shock that sleep experts are seeing new kinds of sleep behaviour related to it. More people are reporting sending text messages during their sleep, says Dr Kirstie Anderson, who runs the Neurology Sleep Service for the Newcastle Upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust. Considering the number of Britons who now own a mobile phone - 92% according to Ofcom - its not surprising. Many people also take them to bed. It is very common for people to do things in their sleep that they do repeatedly during the day, says Anderson. This is largely down to sleep disorders called parasomnias. These are unwanted behaviours that occur during sleep. They can be as small as opening your eyes while asleep or, at the very extreme end, driving a car while sleeping. Anderson has even treated someone who carefully dismantled grandfather clocks while asleep. What happens in our brains during such episodes is still something of a mystery. Not much research has been done, largely due to the fact that gathering data is very difficult. The problem is people rarely do such a