[Significance of EEG findings in pavor nocturnus]

Sleep disorders have an incidence of approximately 65 percent in early childhood. Etiologic there are constitutional and neurotic factors in night terror. Neurophysiologically it occurs at fast arousal out of non-REM-sleep. There are no relations to epilepsy, also not at existence of spike potentials in the EEG. At a cross-sectional examination of 20 children with pavor nocturnus 14 exhibited sharp waves and one SW. The EEG can hint at constitutional factors, retardation of cerebral maturation, but psychological examination is in severe cases more useful for effective therapy.