Sleepwalking More Common in US Than Previously Thought

Sleepwalking may be more common in the United States of America than initially thought after a new survey revealed that nearly a third of the respondents had sleepwalked at least once in their lives. More than 19,000 people from 15 different states took part in the survey carried out by researchers from the Stanford Sleep Epidemiology Research Center in California. Over 29 percent of the participants admitted that they had sleepwalked at least once in their lives while around 3 percent said that they do it between once a year and once a month and 1 percent said that they sleepwalk at least twice a month.

The researchers also asked questions relating to the participants’ lifestyle and medications and found that those who took antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors were more likely to sleepwalk compared to others though researchers said that rather than medicines, the conditions that they treat, depression and OCD, bore a greater weight on the possibility of sleepwalking.

“There is no doubt an association between nocturnal wanderings and certain conditions, but we don't know the direction of the causality. Are the medical conditions provoking sleepwalking, or is it vice versa? Or perhaps it's the treatment that is responsible”, lead author Dr Maurice Ohayon wrote in the report, published in the journal Neurology.


Source-Medindia