1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«[T]he aims of the present study were to assess the prevalence of sleepwalking and sleep terrors during childhood in a large prospective longitudinal sample of children; assess the probability of developing somnambulism later in childhood for children who had early sleep terrors; and assess the degree of association between parental history of sleepwalking and presence of sleep terrors and somnambulism in children.» (p. 654)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
L’étude est basée sur les données de l’Étude longitudinale du développement des enfants du Québec (ÉLDEQ). En tout, l’échantillon retenu compte 1940 enfants.

Instruments :
Questionnaire

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«Our study [shows] that the likelihood of being a sleepwalker as a child is largely associated with parental history (past or present) of sleepwalking. […] With our large cohort, we were able to estimate that children of parents who are or were sleepwalkers are 3 to7 times more likely to be sleepwalkers themselves depending on whether 1 or both parents had the sleep disorder. In this disorder however, parental history of sleepwalking does not seem to elicit an earlier age of onset in offspring as is observed in other diseases, such as Alzheimer disease or some cancers. [W]e showed that a parental history of sleepwalking can also predict the emergence of sleep terrors in children. These findings lend support to the notion that sleepwalking and sleep terrors represent 2 manifestations of the same underlying pathophysiological condition. Sleep-disordered breathing can be a triggering factor for sleepwalking and shows familial aggregation. It has been suggested that the genetic predisposition for sleepwalking and sleep terrors could be shared with sleep-disordered breathing. The fact that both childhood parasomnias had a strong association with parental history, while not associated with snoring in the child, suggests that this theory is not the case.» (p. 657)