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Some people seem to get in bed, fall asleep and barely move until their alarm goes off in the morning, while others may talk, walk around or do some pretty strange things while fully asleep, including having sex. These unusual movements and behaviors are called parasomnias and they’re the subject of a new study from Semmelweis University in Hungary.
Researchers turned to YouTube for information, searching terms including “sleepwalking,” “sleep eating,” “sleep sex,” and “aggression in sleep” in several different languages. They narrowed down more than 758 results to focus on 224 videos to analyze the differences between age and gender groups in sleep-related behaviors and they found:
- The most common things people do while asleep are sleepwalking, crying or laughing, moving hands and speaking - in full sentences or gibberish.
- Women are twice as likely to do complex activities like handling kitchen tools or electricity than men while sleepwalking.
- Women also showed emotions twice as often as men when they were sleeping.
- Younger adults and kids are more likely to sleepwalk than older people.
- Elderly men are 40 times more likely to be physically aggressive while sleeping compared to other adults and children.
- They’re also 70 times more likely to perform complex movements in bed.
- Younger adults are more likely to cry in their sleep than senior citizens, and women do it twice as often as men.
- The elderly are less likely to drive in their sleep or leave their homes than younger adults.