A man cut his genitals while sleeping while dreaming about meat, it could be parasomnia.
- Patients with night terrors may scream, fuss, and be very active while appearing frightened.
- Nightmares occur more when a person has a fever, is very tired, suffers from mental distress or after ingesting alcohol.
- Most often, nightmares occur during the REM sleep phase, which corresponds to a period during which brain activity is close to that of the waking phase.
It’s an unusual but very real story: while sleeping, a 47-year-old farmer cut off his genitals in Ghana. Specifically, he was taking an afternoon nap in his usual chair.
He screams and feels pain in his genitals
During his dream, he imagined cutting meat for his family, but all of a sudden he started screaming. Her screams woke him up, he immediately tried to get up from his chair and that’s when the pain started in his genitals. “I don’t remember how I got this knife, I’m confused myself”he told the BBC.
Until he arrived at the hospital – where he is still being cared for – the man said he did not really realize what was going on. The pain was there but he didn’t understand. Since then, he has been receiving medication and should soon be operated on.
But how can an individual hurt himself while he sleeps? It could be parasomnia: “undesirable behaviors that occur when falling asleep, during sleep or during the waking phase, can we read on the website of the MSD-Manual. The diagnosis is clinical. Treatment may include medication and psychotherapy.”
Parasomnia to explain this behavior during sleep
Among the undesirable behaviors during sleep, there is somnambulism, night terrors, bruxism (grinding of the teeth), somniloquy (talking), nightmares, unconscious sexual behaviors – called sexsomnias – or even behavioral disorders in paradoxical sleep. These can be manifested by verbalization that can be vulgar and, often, aggressive movements.
As for the causes, some parasomnias have a genetic component. However, in most cases, they come from other factors such as stress, certain medications or diseases such as neurodegenerative ones.
Still, the manifestation of which this man was a victim is very rare… Nevertheless, if you suffer from parasomnia, avoid having knives near your bed or your nap place!
