It's All in the Family: Children's Parasomnias Are Often Familial, Decrease over Time

Although clinicians and many families are aware of the familial nature of parasomnias, prospective longitudinal data have been scarce until this publication. As part of a longitudinal child development study that recruited a representative sample from the Quebec birth registry, these investigators provided annual self-administered questionnaires to mothers on children's sleep terrors starting at age 1.5 years and somnambulism starting at age 2.5 years; assessments ended at age 13. At age 10, mothers were asked about parental sleepwalking.

At baseline, 1940 children were enrolled; attrition led to 1010 cases by age 13. Prevalence of sleep terrors decreased from 34% at age 1.5 to 5% at age 13. Prevalence of sleepwalking increased from 4% at ag…