Name: What Happens in the Brain When you Sleepwalk?
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Neuroscientist and clinical psychologist Heather Berlin visits a sleep center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to learn what’s going on in the brain when someone sleepwalks.

Some people can do complex behaviors like walking and driving while sleeping.

What Happens in the Brain When you Sleepwalk?

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Neuroscientist and clinical psychologist Heather Berlin visits a sleep center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to learn what’s going on in the brain when someone sleepwalks.

Some people can do complex behaviors like walking and driving while sleeping.

Body & Brain

What Happens in the Brain When you Sleepwalk?Published: June 15, 2023Emmanuel During: Sleepwalking is a glitch in the system, because our identity is not in control. And that’s what a lot of my patients tell me. “I didn’t do that.” “That’s not possible.” “This is not me.” So, sleepwalking…very common condition or phenomenon. Simply said, it’s what the word is. So you sleep, but during your sleep you will walk. We take it for granted, right? But walking, it’s extremely complex. Just teaching robots all the inputs and outputs for a body to move forward on two legs without falling…all of this. You don’t even think about it. It works independently.Heather Berlin: How is it possible to do complex behaviors like walking, eating and sometimes even driving while sleeping? To find out, I am visiting a sleep center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Tell me a little bit about what’s happening with you at night and your sleepwalking.Myrta: Well, I’ve been doing some weird things. I painted a wall in my living room and one in my kitchen. I made a triangle, a perfect triangle, in my kitchen.Heather Berlin: What?Myrta: Yes.Heather Berlin: What do you think when you find that?Myrta: I don’t know. Just, I laugh, because I go, “How the heck I did this?”Heather Berlin: Emmanuel During studies what’s going on in the brain when someone sleepwalks. In the center, sleep patients are wired up with sensors that pick up eye and body movements, as well as their brainwaves, while they sleep. So, what are we looking at here, these blue lines?Emmanuel During: Those are the eye movements.Heather Berlin: And then the black lines?Emmanuel During: These are the brainwaves. So, this patient, obviously, he’s lying in bed and dozes off slowly, feels sleepy. And as we move on, later, he dives into deep slow-wave sleep.Heather Berlin: During sleep, your brain cycles through phases of high and low activity. When the brainwaves slow down, scientists call this deep sleep. But when someone sleepwalks…Emmanuel During: So, first of all, everything looks good. You see the brainwaves, everything is very, very monotonous slow-waves. And then it’s interesting, since there’s a buildup of slow-wave, that the amplitude goes up. And then, suddenly… So, he’s seemingly awake, looks like a sudden arousal.Heather Berlin: Looks sort of scared.Emmanuel During: Very brief, very fast, eyes open. There’s sort of a split then.Heather Berlin: The patient looks like they’re awake, but a couple of key brain regions seem to stay asleep.Emmanuel During: There’s part of the brain stays in slow-wave sleep. It’s such a deep stage of sleep, it’s hard to wake up. And the other part of the brain is already awake.Heather Berlin: One part of the brain that doesn’t wake up during sleepwalking is called the prefrontal cortex. It’s the region of the brain responsible for deliberate choices and self-awareness.Emmanuel During: This prefrontal cortex is the decision maker. The other areas of the brain can mostly work independently of that. So, essentially, so many parts of the brain can be engaged without conscious awareness of it.Heather Berlin: During sleepwalking, the motor cortex, which controls movement, the visual cortex, which processes visual information, and the parts of the brain that coordinate behaviors like balance and speech, can all become active, without engaging the prefrontal cortex.Man: And what exactly are you doing ma’am?Woman sleepwalking: It’s a special code.

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What Happens in the Brain When you Sleepwalk?

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Support Provided By

Explore More

Can We Build a Brain?

Your Brain: Who's in Control?

How Trauma Can Alter Your Biology