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The clinical presentation of childhood partial arousal parasomnias

Mehlenbeck1, Spirito, Owens

  • 1Department of Child and Family Psychiatry, Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University, School of Medicine, 593 Eddy St, RI 02903, Providence, USA

Sleep Medicine
|October 21, 2000
PubMed

Insights

Children with parasomnias experience more sleep disturbances, including difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. Sleepwalking children also showed higher rates of bedwetting compared to those with sleep terrors.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Sleep Medicine
  • Child Neurology
  • Developmental Psychology

Background:

  • Childhood parasomnias, such as sleep terrors and sleepwalking, affect up to 15% of children.
  • Empirical data on childhood parasomnias remains limited.
  • Frightened awakenings are common in children, warranting further investigation into their underlying sleep characteristics.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare sleep characteristics of children with partial arousal parasomnias to a community sample.
  • To investigate differences in sleep patterns between children with sleep terrors and sleepwalking.
  • To identify specific sleep disturbances associated with childhood parasomnias.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSH) completed by parents of children aged 2-12 years.
  • Matched children diagnosed with partial parasomnia to a community sample for comparison.
  • Compared sleep characteristics between children diagnosed with sleep terrors and sleepwalking.

Main Results:

  • Children with parasomnias exhibited increased bedtime resistance, delayed sleep onset, and more frequent night awakenings.
  • Reduced total sleep duration was observed in children with parasomnias compared to controls.
  • Sleepwalking children reported more sleep onset problems and higher rates of nocturnal enuresis than children with sleep terrors.

Conclusions:

  • Children diagnosed with partial arousal parasomnias demonstrate significantly more disturbed sleep patterns than their healthy peers.
  • Sleepwalking is associated with specific sleep onset difficulties and a higher prevalence of nocturnal enuresis.
  • Further research is needed to understand the nuances of sleep disturbances in pediatric parasomnias.

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