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Anectodal. Feel free to shoot it down.

Walking is an acquired skill; As far as I'm concerned exhaustion causes disorientation. Even after waking up it sometimes takes a second or so to get balanced.

How is it sleepwalkers don't stumble around when walking?

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Balance is maintained by the cerebellum, not by any of the cortical areas that are less active during sleep. Thus, there's no reason sleep should affect your ability to balance. Being asleep doesn't mean that you're fatigued. I wouldn't be surprised if a highly fatigued person who was sleepwalking did have poor balance. – octern Nov 4 '12 at 20:30
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In fact, repetitive actions like riding a bike or playing the piano (when experienced) are also stored in the cerebellum so should in theory be possible for sleepwalkers to do :D – Armatus Nov 4 '12 at 22:00
An interesting question. When a person is asleep and dreaming, the person's brain is fairly active, similar to the waking state levels. The person is not exhausted, and sleepwalking is when muscle atonia is lost, and the dreamer is acting out actions in the dream. Maintaining balance in a dream might translate to maintaining it in a waking world (we all walk on floors after all, not mountain slopes :) ) – Alex Stone Nov 4 '12 at 22:13
@AlexStone: Agreed. But the floor is not a plain surface. There're various pieces of furniture on it. Perhaps even a step between one room, and another – Everyone Nov 12 '12 at 19:34

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

Balance is mediated by 3 things: the cerebellum, vision and the ear via the semicircular canal + vestibular nerve (i.e. the ear).

Sleepwalkers lack the visual feedback, but they have a functional cerebellum and semicircular system which is sufficient.

As for waking up and feeling disorientated, if that's when you get up fast that's because your semicircular system hasn't yet reset (as well as your blood pressure has just dipped).

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The part of the brain that maintains balance acts subconsciously, and so while you are sleeping in the behavioral sense, you part of your brain (the cerebellum) do not necessarily have to be asleep. And so it can still maintain balance.

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