Somnambulism (Sleepwalking)
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A parasomnia characterized by a partial arousal that occurs during stage IV of non-REM sleep. Affected individuals exhibit semipurposeful behaviors such as ambulation and are difficult to fully awaken. Children are primarily affected, with a peak age range of 4-6 years.
Sleepwalking; Sleep Walking; Sleep Walking Disorder; Sleep Walking Disorders; Wandering, Nocturnal; Nocturnal Wandering
Networked: 126 relevant articles (7 outcomes, 5 trials/studies)
Relationship Network
Disease Context: Research Results
Nervous System Diseases: 6158
Sleep Disorders: 1194
Parasomnias: 83
Sleep Arousal Disorders: 6
Somnambulism: 126
Mental Disorders: 2989
1. Night Terrors (Sleep Terror)
2. Parasomnias (Parasomnia)
3. Schizophrenia (Dementia Praecox)
4. REM Sleep Behavior Disorder
5. Dementia (Dementias)
1. Guilleminault, Christian: 4 articles (05/2005 - 01/2003)
2. Kotagal, Suresh: 2 articles (12/2012 - 12/2008)
3. Juszczak, Grzegorz R: 2 articles (08/2011 - 01/2005)
4. Hafeez, Zeba Hasan: 2 articles (12/2007 - 01/2007)
5. Kalinowski, Constance M: 2 articles (12/2007 - 01/2007)
6. Sharma, Ajitha: 1 article (10/2015)
7. Rama, Prakash S: 1 article (10/2015)
8. Chiaro, Giacomo: 1 article (08/2015)
9. Provini, Federica: 1 article (08/2015)
10. Caletti, Maria Turchese: 1 article (08/2015)
Drugs and Biologics
Drugs and Important Biological Agents (IBA) related to Somnambulism:
1. Clonazepam (Rivotril)FDA LinkGeneric
01/01/2012 - "Clonazepam 1.0 mg at bedtime decreased nocturnal eating frequency from 1 to 2 times per month, though sleepwalking remained. "
11/01/1984 - "Clonazepam in the treatment of neuroleptic-induced somnambulism."
12/01/2012 - "Clonazepam provided in a low dose at bedtime can also alleviate sleep walking and confusional arousals. "
06/01/1995 - "Case 2, a 46-year-old woman without psychiatric disorder, presented with a 5-year history of sleep terrors and injurious sleep-walking that initially was not menstrually related, but beginning 8 months prior to referral, she developed an exclusively premenstrual parasomnia that, after polysomnography, was partially controlled with bedtime self-hypnosis and clonazepam, 0.25 mg."
10/01/2009 - "The RBD and sleepwalking did not improve with clonazepam, but improved with melatonin 9 mg/d. "
2. quetiapine (Seroquel)FDA Link
06/01/2011 - "The presence of high voltage delta waves in sleepwalkers has been offered as a possible explanation for the patho-physiology of sleepwalking Quetiapine has been reported to decrease brain delta activity, and we postulate that this may be the mechanism on how it was beneficial for our patient."
03/01/2013 - "Sleepwalking in four patients treated with quetiapine."
06/01/2011 - "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the use of quetiapine for the treatment of somnambulism in the literature. "
06/01/2011 - "Low dose quetiapine in the treatment of an adolescent with somnambulism: a case report."
12/01/2007 - "Somnambulism, a previously unreported side effect of quetiapine, is described in two cases. "
3. Diazepam (Valium)FDA LinkGeneric
01/01/1984 - "The results of this double-blind, crossover study suggest that diazepam is effective for the treatment of adult sleepwalking in some individuals. "
01/01/1984 - "Nightly ingestion of diazepam, 10mg, alleviated some or all symptoms of intractable sleepwalking in several otherwise healthy adults. "
01/01/1984 - "Diazepam in intractable sleepwalking: a pilot study."
05/01/1987 - "This paper describes two patients with night-terrors and somnambulism who responded to imipramine but not to diazepam. "
05/01/1987 - "Treatment of coexistent night-terrors and somnambulism in adults with imipramine and diazepam."
4. olanzapine (Zyprexa)FDA Link
01/01/2012 - "A case report of somnambulism associated with olanzapine."
07/01/2001 - "Olanzapine-induced somnambulism."
01/01/2012 - "The following article is a case report of somnambulism seen in a patient with schizophrenia, which occurred after remission of an acute episode following treatment with olanzapine. "
02/15/2008 - "Somnambulism secondary to olanzapine treatment in one patient with bipolar disorder."
5. MelatoninIBA
11/01/2004 - "'A child with severe night terrors and sleep-walking responds to melatonin therapy'."
6. pramipexol (pramipexole)FDA LinkGeneric
01/01/2012 - "Administration of pramipexole 0.125 mg relieved all symptoms including SRED, RLS, and sleepwalking. "
08/01/2015 - "In particular, RLS-related SRED is best treated with dopamine agonists such as pramipexole, while sleepwalking-related SRED benefits from low-dose benzodiazepines such as clonazepam. "
7. Biperiden (Akineton)FDA Link
12/01/2012 - "The adjunctive use of biperiden was associated with reduction or remission of sleepwalking episodes in four consecutive treatment-refractory cases of arousal disorder with sleepwalking and confusional behavior. "
12/01/2012 - "A putative cholinergic mechanism of arousal disorders, including sleepwalking, provides a reasonable hypothesis why the anticholinergic agent biperiden might work. "
12/01/2012 - "Although our observations do not and cannot establish the efficacy or safety of biperiden, it may be useful to consider biperiden for treatment of sleepwalking, if needed. "
12/01/2012 - "Biperiden for treatment of somnambulism in adolescents and adults with or without epilepsy: clinical observations."
12/01/2012 - "We assessed in a follow-up study of 4 years (medium, range: 2-7 years) the usefulness of the antiparkinsonian drug biperiden (Akineton©), an acetylcholine antagonist with high affinity for muscarinic M1-type receptors, in four consecutive cases of arousal disorder with sleepwalking and confusional behavior in adolescents and adults with or without epilepsy who did not respond to diazepam, clonazepam or amitriptyline. "
8. Triazolam (Halcion)FDA LinkGeneric
10/01/1991 - "Extensive polysomnographic studies, clinical evaluations and treatment outcome data identified three etiologic categories for the sleep-related eating: (a) sleepwalking (SW), 84.2% (n = 16); (b) periodic movements of sleep (PMS), 10.5% (n = 2) and (c) triazolam abuse (0.75 mg hs), 5.3% (n = 1). "
08/01/1993 - "Sleep-related eating disorders distinct from daytime eating disorders have recently been shown to be associated with sleepwalking (SW), periodic limb movement (PLM) disorder and triazolam abuse in a series of 19 adults. "
07/01/1985 - "Side effects involving agitation, e.g., sleepwalking, anger, and panic, were observed in 10 insomniac patients treated with temazepam or triazolam but not other benzodiazepines. "
10/01/1986 - "A 39-year-old man with schizoaffective disorder experienced somnambulism only when taking a combination of lithium carbonate, chlorpromazine, triazolam, and benztropine. "
9. zaleplon (Sonata)FDA LinkGeneric
12/01/2014 - "This study underscores the importance of monitoring for zaleplon-induced somnambulism, even when administering low-dosage to those without risk factors or history of somnambulism."
12/01/2014 - "This patient is the first case without history of somnambulism, who developed zaleploninduced somnambulism after taking low-dose of zaleplon. "
12/01/2014 - "Somnambulism did not reoccur after discontinuing zaleplon. "
12/01/2014 - "This report describes a patient without history of somnambulism, who developed amnesic somnambulism after taking low-dose of zaleplon. "
12/01/2014 - "Few reports discuss zaleplon-induced somnambulism. "
10. Serotonin 5-HT2 Receptor AntagonistsIBA
01/01/1992 - "Study of the 5-HT2 antagonist ritanserin on sleep-walking cycle in the rat."
Therapies and Procedures
1. Hypnosis (Mesmerism)
01/01/1975 - "Of 12 otherwise health individuals facing honorable discharge from the military because of intractable sleepwalking, six chose to participate in a short-term treatment program involving hypnosis. "
06/11/1954 - "[Dreams, somnambulism, hypnosis and onirism]."
09/28/1951 - "[Periodic somnambulism and medical hypnosis in the 1920's]."
01/01/2008 - "This includes a variety of books and journals covering automatic writing, hypnosis, mediumship, multiple personality, trance, somnambulism, and other topics. "
04/01/1991 - "A retrospective outcome study and review of hypnosis as treatment of adults with sleepwalking and sleep terror."
2. Phototherapy (Light Therapy)
01/01/2014 - "Light therapy has shown great promise as a nonpharmacological method to improve symptoms associated with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD), with preliminary studies demonstrating that appropriately timed light exposure can improve nighttime sleep efficiency, reduce nocturnal wandering, and alleviate evening agitation. "
3. Witchcraft (Sorceries)
01/01/2015 - "In the former, the sleepwalking scene is faithful to what Shakespeare's had written early in the seventeenth century, a time of witchcraft, superstition, and the belief that nocturnal wanderings might be caused by guilt. "
01/01/1984 - "He issued medical opinions about magic, witchcraft, the bubonic plague, hysteria, unconscious fits, sleepwalking, smoking, the "King's Evil", and many other medico-psychological symptoms and treatments which caught his imagination. "
4. Drug Therapy (Chemotherapy)
10/01/2004 - "However, recurrent sleepwalking with a risk of injury to self or others mandates immediate treatment with pharmacotherapy while awaiting work-up. "
01/01/2013 - "Several sleep disorders, including obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, restless legs syndrome, periodic limb movement disorder, sleepwalking, REM sleep behavior disorder, and narcolepsy, may be comorbid or possibly mimic numerous psychiatric disorders, and can even occur due to psychiatric pharmacotherapy. "
5. Anesthesia
01/01/2008 - "In contrast, voxel-based analyses identified a systematic impairment of associative frontoparieto-cingulate areas in altered states of consciousness, such as sleep, anesthesia, coma, vegetative state, epileptic loss of consciousness, and somnambulism. "
10/01/2014 - "An unexpected increase of entropy in a sleepwalking disorder patient during propofol and remifentanil anesthesia: a case report."