h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

See, I've only ever done it while I was awake and it seemed pretty involuntary then, and would it wake you up? I was just wondering.

I think sleep paralysis would prevent it. Similarly one does not cough in one's sleep either, afaik.

It may interest you to know, then, that my partner, in her sleep, frequently yawns, coughs, scratches, and she often blows forcefully on each exhalation - on the other hand, I fart a lot.

Hmm...

I had a partner who talked in her sleep. Sat up, opened her eyes, stated quite clearly and distinctly that stuffed plums was true, fluffy socks would get you but you'd be alright, and that he'd got a big cake and she didn't like it one bit, then lay back down and went back to sleep.

I suspect that it's possible to do almost anything while nominally asleep, as long as the brain first gets itself into an *almost* conscious mode, does it's thing, then reverts to sleep mode.

Mrs. D often coughs in her sleep. She's defintely not in a deep sleep when she does, but she's nowhere near awake either.

True - and conversely you can 'awaken' and still be unable to move. Which is scary. A6092471 It happens to me sometimes, so I can vouch for the truth of this.

I always wondered about the coughing thing Twiggster - your explanation makes sense - coughing can keep you awake, and also everyone else within earshot. Similarly, the never-ending sneezes of colds and hayfever cease when you finally manage to nod off.


Thanks!

"you can 'awaken' and still be unable to move."

*Shudder*

It's been a loooong time since that happened to me but I can still vividly remember how frightening it was.

Even better though is to waken when you're actually dreaming. Lucid dreams can be fun - although there is a tendency to wake up properly when you get to the really interesting bits

Topic drift, I fear, has taken hold without answering my question.

Let me give it some context to see if I can help.

This morning I woke up and within a minute of waking up or thereabouts sneezed. And I just wondered - could I have had the sneeze reflex 2 minutes earlier? Because I've only ever knowingly sneezed when I'm awake I don't know if it's impossible (for as the 2nd post suggested through something like sleep paralysis) but sneezing to my mind is like a reflex tingle-deep breath - aithchoo! Something you can consciously control - it's a reaction to an irritant - and I don't see why paralysis of gross movement would inhibit a sneeze.

can = can't.

Urh. keep doing that!

On a separate point I've done the whole waking up/not moving thing and found it very relaxing.

But then I've come to suspect I'm weird.

Just scanning the backlog - and realised this one never really got much of a discussion going. So how about it? Sneezing in your sleep yea or nae?

Sneezing, yes - I think so.
Coughing, yes - I think so.
- but can't be really sure of either.

I do wake up quickly and clearly twice or thrice a night feeling fully slept out - and sometimes lie awake for quite a while (in my lazy-boy by then).

So I looked it up. So as you probably know, sneezing is used to keep external stimulants from entering your nose. If they get passed your nose hairs and hit your mucous membrane, you sneeze. However, while asleep your mucous membrane swells, but there is less air flow to your nose and less stimulants around your nose. If there was some stimulant, the signal to your brain to sneeze wouldn't be passed because of something called REM astonia. If the stimulants were great enough to be passed, you would wake up to sneeze; so apparently the answer is no, but there seem to be a few personal stories on this thread of someone sneezing while asleep, so I don't know. Oh but I found out something pretty interesting. When I can't sneeze I always quickly look up to a bright light and then I can sneeze. Apparently this is because of a common genetic trait called "photic sneeze reflex."... Sorry if that was a bit much.

Welcome to h2g2 monkey lord, and thank you for answering our question.

Yes, indeed welcome and thank you.

And where does one look up such things?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8364393.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homicidal_somnambulism

And there's more: “Last night I dreamt I ate a ten-pound marshmallow. When I woke up the pillow was gone.”~Tommy Cooper

I've always thought that you must be able to cough 'in your sleep', or a lot more people would asphyxiate during the night. There are a number of different phases of sleep. It may be that you need to move from one into another before you can cough.

Haha, thank you, and the almighty Google helped to find the answer. And I guess it does seem weird if you could, but people snore in their sleep so it's not that strange. Although can't snoring be a sign of some other condition someone might have?