Thursday, June 11, 2015

What affects my sleepwalking?

Medical/scientific literature data suggest that sleepwalking is linked to both genetic and environmental factors. The interplay between those two type of factors will most likely be unique to each individual (each genetic combination, assuming sleepwalking is not link to just one gene).

The complexity (i.e. number of parameters) of what impacts my sleepwalking is such that collecting enough individualized data for each parameter requires an extended period of time.
For example if the day of the week, coffee and the time of falling asleep each have an impact this very quickly becomes dozens of different conditions. If setting a simple goal of collecting just 10 nights for 12 parameters that means 120 nights. So this is a long process and for some parameters I will probably need years to collect enough data.
Added to that the characteristics of my sleepwalking as well as what triggers it is most likely changing over time (let's call it aging, instead of a better definition at this point). So I am also trying to keep time as a factor in the equation, and inversely to see if time or other long term variables (seasons for example) have an impact.

My main goal being to find (at first) major contributors (increasing or decreasing) to my sleepwalking, I have looked at most of the parameters below in a binary way: was that factor present that day or not? For some I quantified the factor frequencies or occurrences that day but for most I did not keep track of the time or dose as I am, so far,  looking for factors that have a clear, significant impact.
It is possible that some factors have very small contributions and that all of those small contributions together might have a significant impact on my sleepwalking. This is of course an interesting idea but not the purpose of this blog (yet).

Below is a summary of the different non-genetic factors for which I have enough data so far to draw some conclusions. Significant effect (text in blue below) was determined by a p-value under 1% using t-test.
Click on the links below to get the details of a specific parameter.

Pharmaceutical drugs:

Environmental factors:
  • Type of mattress: no effect
  • Use of earplugs: renders my SW 15% more complex
  • Blue light: most likely no effect (need more data)
  • Influence of the moon: most likely no effect (need more data)

Lifestyle factors:

Psychological factors:

Physical factors:

Drinks:

Food:

Food supplements:

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for your sharing. It's very useful for me. My friend has problem same.I can get more knowledge about sleepwalking. Waitting for your new articles.
    Regards
    James

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  2. Thank you for your message. I am in the process of redoing that site and will have a lot more information, more data and more perspectives on sleepwalking. Come back in 2-3 months and hopefully the new everything will be there.

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