sleepwalked

30% of U.S. adults have sleepwalked, study finds

5/15/2012

By Janice Lloyd, USA TODAY

To sleep: perchance to sleepwalk, ah, that is not unusual after all, finds a study Monday in Neurology.

About 30% of adults in the USA have experienced nighttime wanderings, and those with sleep apnea or psychiatric disorders such as depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder are at higher risk, finds the study of 19,136 Americans ages 18 and older. Antidepressants, sleeping pills and certain other medications can increase the risk, but they appear to bring on events in people with a history of sleepwalking.

"I would like to correct the impression that sleepwalking is rare," says study author Maurice Ohayon, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford Sleep Epidemiology Research Center. "This is a huge number of people."

Participants were asked in phone surveys about their sleep habits, general health, medications and mental disorders. People who wandered at night at least once during the year were more likely to have a family history of sleepwalking — and often tread on quality sleep for household members. Ohayon says that's how most know of their somnambulism. "Their partners will wake up in the morning and tell them about it. It can be very disruptive to others, while the person walking at night can be quite unaware."

Ohayon says this is the first study to look at how many people sleepwalk, how often, and why. Men and women are just as likely to do it. Other findings:

•30% of all respondents have sleepwalked.

•3.6% of those sleepwalked at least once in the past year.

•2.6% had between one and 12 episodes in the past year.

•1% had two or more episodes in a month.

"I think this study shows we don't recognize nighttime wandering as often as we should," says neurologist Jan Brandes of Vanderbilt University in Nashville. "We need to encourage people to keep track of their sleep and tell their physician if they do."

She adds that no studies have determined longtime health implications of sleepwalking, "but most of us would say going to bed at 10 and waking up at 6 — rather than roaming the house — would be the ideal."

People with depression were 3.5 times more likely to sleepwalk; those with obsessive-compulsive disorder were four times more likely to do so.

Most sleepwalking occurs during deep sleep, according tothe National Institutes of Health.

Bottom line, Ohayon says: It needs to be identified and treated because of the risk of injury, the importance of a good night's sleep and disruption to others. "You can't have anyone, especially older people, wandering around because they could fall and hurt themselves," he says.