Sleepwalking In Children
Sleepwalking in children is four times more likely than in adults and is known as somnambulism. It usually affects children between the ages of five and twelve years old and approximately one quarter of them will have frequent episodes.
Sleepwalking is more common in boys, and most of them will outgrow the symptoms in adolescence as their nervous systems develop.
Sleep walking in children is thought to be the result of the immaturity of the brain’s sleep / wake cycle. Normally the entire brain wakes up at the same time. However, in the case of a sleepwalker this doesn’t happen. The part of the brain responsible for mobility wakes up, while the portion responsible for cognition and awareness stays asleep.
The child is in a deep state of sleep while getting out of bed and walking around. Sometimes they even get dressed and go outside. Although asleep the eyes are open and they can see where they are going.
However a sleepwalker’s movements are usually very clumsy and they can trip over things such as furniture, or even knock things over. This could be very dangerous, so if a child is prone to sleepwalking it’s a good idea to make sure there isn’t anything they could trip over in the bedroom.
A sleepwalking episode usually happens one to two hours after the child goes to sleep. Most of these episodes last for fifteen minutes or less, but some can last for an hour or more.
Sleepwalking in children usually outgrows itself and no treatment is needed. In most cases all that’s needed is to gently guide the child back to bed without waking them up.
