Sleepwalking, Sleep Terrors May Be Hereditary

A new study suggests that children are more likely to develop sleepwalking if their family has a history of nocturnal strolls.

Canadian researchers found that there may be a strong genetic influence on sleepwalking, a common childhood sleep disorder that usually disappears during adolescence, although it can persist or appear in adulthood, and, to a lesser degree, sleep terrors.

Compared to children with no family history of sleepwalking, a common childhood sleep disorder that usually disappears during adolescence, children with both parents who used to sleepwalk were more than 60 percent likely to sleepwalk themselves. Children with only one parent who had used to sleepwalk were three times more likely to develop the sleep disorder, The Los Angeles Times reported.

"Parents who have been sleepwalkers in the past, particularly in cases where both parents have been sleepwalkers, can expect their children to sleepwalk and thus should prepare adequately," researchers said in the study.

For the study, researchers analyzed sleep data from a group of nearly 2,000 children born in the province in 1997 and 1998 and studied in 1999 to 2011. Sleep terrors and sleepwalking were assessed through questionnaires and parental sleepwalking was asked about.

The overall childhood prevalence of sleepwalking (ages 2½ to 13 years) was 29.1 percent. Sleepwalking was relatively infrequent during the preschool years but the prevalence increased steadily to 13.4 percent by age 10 years.

They also found an overall childhood prevalence of sleep terrors (ages 1½ to 13 years) of 56.2 percent. There was a high prevalence of sleep terrors (34.4 percent) at 1½ years of age but that prevalence decreased to 5.3 percent at age 13.

Study results show that children who had sleep terrors during early childhood (1½ to 3½ years) were more likely to develop sleepwalking later in childhood at age 5 years or older than children who did not experience sleep terrors in early childhood (34.4 percent vs. 21.7 percent).

The findings are detailed in the JAMA Pediatrics.