Bruxism the phrase "wailing and gnashing of teeth" is used to describe the fate of sinners in hell (). In David Lynch's 1977 film "Eraserhead", Henry Spencer's partner ("Mary X") is shown tossing and turning in her sleep, and snapping her jaws together violently and noisily, depicting sleep bruxism. In Stephen King's 1988 novel "The Tommyknockers", the sister of central character Bobbi Anderson also had bruxism. In the 2000 film "Requiem for a Dream", the character of Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) begins taking an amphetamine-based diet pill and develops bruxism. In the 2005 film "Beowulf & Grendel", a modern reworking of
Bruxism then observed high levels of bruxism-like muscular activity in rats that were allowed to watch this treatment compared to rats that did not see it. They proposed that the rats who witnessed the electrical shocking of other rats were under emotional stress which may have caused the bruxism-like behavior. Some research suggests that there may be a degree of inherited susceptibility to develop sleep bruxism. 21–50% of people with sleep bruxism have a direct family member who had sleep bruxism during childhood, suggesting that there are genetic factors involved, although no genetic markers have yet been identified. Offspring of people