Rosanne Tolws, age 15, of Linden, Alberta, Canada, for her question:

Why do people sleepwalk?

Medical scientists cannot explain all the secrets of normal sleep and oddities such as sleepwalking are even more mysterious. Most experts suspect that it may be caused by half buried worries and unsolved emotional problems. Statistics indicate that it is more common among children. Almost always it stops when they become adults, capable of solving their daily frustrations before bedtime.

We hear all sorts of fanciful tales about sleepwalking. Most of them are wildly exaggerated, the rest never happened. The very idea of walking around while fast asleep in the dead of night tends to be scary. So let's tackle the problem by first removing the panic. Naturally, nobody wants to go sleepwalking. But medical experts assure us that the event is almost always quite harmless. In most cases, the person merely gets up and stands or sits near the bed.

However, it is possible to stumble, perhaps down the stairs or even out of an open window. After all, the person is asleep and unaware of his or her surroundings. People used to believe that a sleepwalker never stumbles or falls. There were dizzy tales of sleepers balanced on lofty heights and walking safely across rooftops. Old timers were sure that there was no danger if the sleeper were not awakened.

Modern researchers say that sleepwalkers rarely if ever take long hazardous trips in the dead of night. They also assure us that the person does not suffer a shattering shock if awakened before getting back into bed. In fact, if we speak softly, we can talk with a sleepwalker. However, the answers we get may be fanciful and unrelated to our conversation. This suggests that the unconscious sleeper is dreaming.

Sleep is a major mystery because the conscious mind is not on duty to report what goes on. Until recently, nobody could explain it. Then new instruments and techniques were devised and the investigation of sleep became a promising branch of medical science. So far, most of the probing has been into normal sleep.

However, these findings already suggest a few ideas about odd sleep habits. We know that normal restful sleep occurs when a person closes out the excitements and problems of the waking hours. If the emotions refuse to calm down, restful sleep is difficult and often impossible. The experts suspect that sleepwalking occurs when a person goes to bed burdened with unsolved problems of the day.

Naturally we cannot solve all the world's problems before bedtime. If we even imagine that this is possible, we have a serious problem of our own. Actually, the usual things that disturb sleep are nagging frustrations    and the weary old head cannot set them aside until tomorrow. For some strange reason, it helps to share a troublesome problem with a trusted friend or relative. Sharing reduces a problem and two heads are better than one.