Precipitating factors of somnambulism
- 10 June 2008
- journal article
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Neurology
- Vol. 70 (24), 2284-2290
- https://doi.org/10.1212/01.wnl.0000304082.49839.86
Abstract
Objective: Experimental attempts to induce sleepwalking with forced arousals during slow-wave sleep (SWS) have yielded mixed results in children and have not been investigated in adult patients. We hypothesized that the combination of sleep deprivation and external stimulation would increase the probability of inducing somnambulistic episodes in sleepwalkers recorded in the sleep laboratory. The main goal of this study was to assess the effects of forced arousals from auditory stimuli (AS) in adult sleepwalkers and control subjects during normal sleep and following post-sleep deprivation recovery sleep. Methods: Ten sleepwalkers and 10 controls were investigated. After a baseline night, participants were presented with AS at predetermined sleep stages either during normal sleep or recovery sleep following 25 hours of sleep deprivation. One week later, the conditions with AS were reversed. Results: No somnambulistic episodes were induced in controls. When compared to the effects of AS during sleepwalkers' normal sleep, the presentation of AS during sleepwalkers' recovery sleep significantly increased their efficacy in experimentally inducing somnambulistic events and a significantly greater proportion of sleepwalkers (100%) experienced at least one induced episode during recovery SWS as compared to normal SWS (30%). There was no significant difference between the mean intensity of AS that induced episodes during sleepwalkers' SWS and the mean intensity of AS that awakened sleepwalkers and controls from SWS. Conclusions: Sleep deprivation and forced arousals during slow-wave sleep can induce somnambulistic episodes in predisposed adults. The results highlight the potential value of this protocol in establishing a video-polysomnographically based diagnosis for sleepwalking.Keywords
This publication has 24 references indexed in Scilit:
- Factors that predispose, prime and precipitate NREM parasomnias in adults: Clinical and forensic implicationsSleep Medicine Reviews, 2007
- Violent Parasomnias: Forensic Medicine IssuesPublished by Elsevier BV ,2005
- Sleepwalking Violence: A Sleep Disorder, a Legal Dilemma, and a Psychological ChallengeAmerican Journal of Psychiatry, 2004
- Auditory arousal thresholds after selective slow-wave sleep deprivationClinical Neurophysiology, 1999
- Night Terrors, Sleepwalking, and Confusional Arousals in the General PopulationThe Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 1999
- Arousal Fluctuations in Non-Rapid Eye Movement ParasomniasJournal of Clinical Neurophysiology, 1995
- Paradoxical timing of the circadian rhythm of sleep propensity serves to consolidate sleep and wakefulness in humansNeuroscience Letters, 1994
- Sleep Stages, Auditory Arousal Threshold, and Body Temperature as Predictors of Behavior Upon AwakeningInternational Journal of Neuroscience, 1985
- Sleep Disorders: Disorders of Arousal?Science, 1968
- Responses to auditory stimulation, sleep loss and the EEG stages of sleepElectroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 1964