Sleepwalkers have better multi-tasking skills when awake

People who sleepwalk are more likely to go operate on ‘autopilot’ even when they are awake, a new study has found.

Researchers made the discovery after testing the ability of sleepwalkers – medically known as somnambulists – to ignore distractions while walking.

Those who tended to sleepwalk were found to be less affected by having to count backwards while getting to a target object.

Instead, they were able to carry on walking as normal while those who did not sleepwalk were more likely to be thrown off the task by the counting. This suggests they have multi-tasking advantages over non-sleepwalkers.

Sleepwalking – which can involve small gestures, to complex actions such as walking and even getting dressed, driving a car, or playing a musical instrument – is believed to affect between 2-4 per cent of adults.

Sleepwalkers, believed to make up 2-4% of adults, were found to be more likely to go on ‘autopilot’ even when they are awake (stock photo)

More than 10 per cent of children sleepwalk though most will grow out of it by the time they reach puberty.

Study leader Dr Oliver Kannape, a lecturer in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Central Lancashire, said: ‘Traditionally, little has been known about daytime markers of sleepwalking, mostly because of the difficulty in investigating this condition experimentally.

‘Our research offers novel insight into this common sleep disorder and provides a clear scientific link between action monitoring, consciousness, and sleepwalking.’

THRASHING AROUND IN BED IS AN EARLY SIGN OF PARKINSON’S

Kicking, punching and moving around during sleep might be an early sign of Parkinson’s disease, recent research suggests.

Moving around in sleep, and seeming to ‘act out’ dreams is a characteristic of a condition called rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder (RBD).

Researchers have discovered about half of people with RBD will develop Parkinson’s disease or another neurological disorder within a decade of being diagnosed, LiveScience reports.

Ultimately, 81 to 90 per cent of patients with RBG with develop a neurodegenerative disorder, they found.

‘If you get this disorder and live long enough, you will almost certainly get Parkinson’s disease or a condition similar to it — it’s an early warning sign,’ said Professor Michael Howell, of the University of Minnesota, and co-author of the study.

Key findings

Sleepwalking and non-sleepwalking groups were instructed to wear a virtual reality headsets and walk with an ‘avatar’ towards a visual target.

They were told to then repeat the task while counting backwards in steps of seven.

Scientists recorded their walking speed and accuracy of movement while they did this.

Non-sleepwalkers slowed down significantly when having to count backwards, but sleepwalkers were not affected by the distraction, reported the study which was published in the journal Current Biology.

Co-author Professor Olaf Blanke, head of the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, said: ‘We found that sleepwalkers continued to walk at the same speed, with the same precision as before and were more aware of their movements than non-sleepwalkers.

‘The research is also a first in the field of action-monitoring, providing important biomarkers for sleepwalkers while they are awake.’

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