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).
