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Sleepwalking, nightmares, night terrors… Sleep disorders can affect both adults and children. But in some serious cases, they can be dangerous, like the case of this Ghanaian farmer. Update on the question with Dr Julien Coelho, public health doctor and sleep specialist in Bordeaux.
The story is chilling. It is reported by our English colleagues from the BBC, last August. It is about a man victim of a self-mutilation during his sleep.
What happened to cause this man to self-mutilate like this?
During a siesta, a 47-year-old Ghanaian man dreamed of sharing meat with his family. When he woke up, he was seized with excruciating pain in the crotch because during his sleep he had attacked his genitals, which he mutilated with a knife.
Rushed to Assim Akomfode hospital, the farmer received painkiller treatment and underwent reconstructive surgery, due to the injuries he had unconsciously inflicted on himself. Doctors suspect a form of parasomnia, of which there are several types.
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What are parasomnias?
Parasomnias are abnormal manifestations during sleep or during the onset phase. They can be present in adults or children. Among the best known we find, for example, somnambulism, nightmares, bruxism (grinding your teeth at night), night terrors, but also somniloquy (talking while sleeping), sexsomnia (sexual behavior while sleeping)…
In this Ghanaian farmer, it is a rather violent parasomnia, for which the man blamed himself. In the most serious cases, like this one, a treatment based on melatonin and benzodiazepines can be started, to avoid a new crisis.
The opinion of Dr Julien Coelho, sleep specialist
“Parasomnias are events that occur during sleep, more specifically during the slow-wave sleep phase. It can be abnormal movements, for example, or more classically somnambulism. Patients affected by neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, may also be affected. In general, for the classic forms, patients are affected by amnesia. They don’t know at all what happened when they woke up. In addition, there is often also a kind of anesthesia, which means that the perception of pain is modified at the time of the facts.“.