Sleep Terror Disorder

You said that you were concerned about your child's sleep problems. You said that your child often gets out of bed while still asleep and walks around. You also said that when you child does this you notice some of the following things:

Your child:

• has a blank stare on his/her face
• seems not to hear you when you try to talk with him/her
• goes to the bathroom somewhere other than the toilet
• is hard to wake up
• does not remember getting out of bed and walking around, but otherwise acts normal after you wake him/her up
• may feel bad about sleepwalking

Some children who have the types of problems you reported have Sleepwalking Disorder.

Between 10% and 30% of children have sleepwalked one time. Only1%-5% of children sleepwalk often and have problems because of it.

Sleepwalking often starts when children are between the ages of 4 and 8. The most common age for sleepwalking is 12. Children who sleepwalk usually do it many times. This usually goes on for a few years. This problem often goes away by the time the child is 15. They could have this problem again as an adult.

Children are much more likely to sleepwalk if both their parents used to sleepwalk. This type of sleep problem runs in families.

Adapted in part from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) (1994) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Primary Care (DSM-PC) (1996).