Wake up to sleepwalk problems
ONE in 25 adults is prone to sleepwalking, twice as many as previously thought.
Research from Stanford University School of Medicine in the US has also found a link between nocturnal wanderings and disorders such as depression and anxiety.
Antidepressants can trigger sleepwalking but the exact causes are unknown.
Are the medical conditions provoking sleepwalking or is it vice versa? Or perhaps it’s the treatment that is responsible
Professor Maurice Ohayon, director of the Stanford Sleep Epidemiology Research Center, asks: “Are the medical conditions provoking sleepwalking or is it vice versa? Or perhaps it’s the treatment that is responsible.”
Sleepwalking occurs during non-REM (rapid eye movement/ light) sleep.
For this study the scientists examined almost 20,000 adults. They found the condition was mostly chronic with 80 per cent of sufferers having sleepwalked for more than five years. A third also had a family history of the disorder.