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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffSleepwalking — also known as somnambulism — usually involves getting up and walking around while asleep. Most common in children between the ages of 8 and 12, sleepwalking often is a random event that doesn't signal any serious problems or require treatment.
However, sleepwalking can occur at any age and may involve unusual, even dangerous behaviors, such as climbing out a window or urinating in closets or trash cans.
If anyone in your household sleepwalks, it's important to protect him or her from sleepwalking injuries.
- Sleepwalking. National Sleep Foundation. Accessed May 26, 2009.
- Sleepwalking. Sleepeducation.com. http://www.sleepeducation.com/Disorder.aspx?id=14. Accessed May 26, 2009.
- Sleepwalking & sleeptalking. American Academy of Sleep Medicine. http://www.aasmnet.org./FactSheets/SleepwalkingTalking.pdf. Accessed May 26, 2009.
- National sleep disorders research plan. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. National Institutes of Health. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/prof/sleep/res_plan/section5/section5a.html. Accessed May 27. 2009.
- Guilleminault C, et al. Sleepwalking and sleep terrors in prepubertal children: What triggers them? Pediatrics. 2003;111;e17.
