Sleep Walking (Sonambulism) is very common in children. It is considered a Parasomnia and it occurs in many children and adults. A parasomnia is described as “an unpleasant or undesirable behavioral or experiential phenomena that occurs predominantly during the sleep period” (Mahowald, Chokroverty, Kader, & Schenck, 1997, p. 67). Simply stated, parasomnias like sleep walking are unusual movements or behaviors during sleep, many of which occur when the child is transitioning from the deepest sleep level of Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep into Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. It is believed that the parasomnia occurs when the child gets “stuck” between level 4 of NREM sleep (slow wave or deep sleep) and REM (dream state) sleep. As a result, the brain is not transitioning smoothly from one sleep stage to another. Sleep walking can occur about once every 60-to-90 minutes and last for 15-to-20 minutes. However, sleep walking often occurs in the first third of the night and about 60-90 minutes after the child falls asleep.

Results of one study in Stockholm reported the rate of sleep walking for children between 6-to-16 years to be as high as 40%, although only 2-to-3% had more than one episode per month (Klackenberg, 1982). Sleep walking persisted for at least five years in 33% of the children and for more than 10 years in 12% according to Klackenberg. In another study of 1,353 children in Quebec between 3-to-13 years of age, sleep walking was present in 13.8%, but did decrease as the child became older with only 3.3% of the 13 year olds still experiencing sleep walking (Laberge et al., 2000). For most children, sleep walking begins and ends between 3-and-10 years of age. There is often a family history of sleep walking suggesting a genetic component. Some children who sleep walk may have another major sleep disorder simultaneously.

If your child or adolescent is struggling with Sleep Walking, you can click the button below to SCREEN your child or teen for this problem and other common pediatric sleep disorders that can be related to sleep walking. This screening will give you intervention ideas to protect your child when s/he sleep walks or information and treatment possibilities if your child scores high on another major pediatric sleep disorder. Please click onto ”SCREEN CHILD” below to screen your child with the Sleep Disorders Inventory for Students (for use by parents of children between 2 years and 19 years) and get valuable intervention ideas.