Epidemiology

Confusional arousals: frequent in children aged <5 years and less common in older childhood (the prevalence of confusional arousals in adults is about 2% to 4%).[1]​ A strong familial pattern exists for idiopathic confusional arousals.

Sleepwalking: the prevalence among children is around 5%, but this is likely to be an underestimate.[7]​ One Canadian study reported a prevalence of approximately 29% for the entire childhood period (aged 2.5-13 years), with a peak prevalence of 13% at around 10-13 years.[8]​ Sleepwalking decreases significantly with advancing age.[7]​​​​ Sleepwalking occurs more often in girls during childhood but more often in men during adulthood.[5]

Sleep terrors: particularly common in early childhood.[6] One Canadian study reported a prevalence of around 34% for children aged 1.5 years. This rapidly decreased to around 13% at 5 years, and slowly tapered to around 5% at 13 years.[8]

Nightmares: it is important to differentiate the prevalence of nightmares from that of ‘nightmare disorder’.[9]​ Nightmares are common among children, beginning as young as 2.5 years and occurring in 60% to 70%.[1]​ Nightmare prevalence peaks between the aged of 10-14 years and decreases with age.[10] In contrast, nightmare disorder, characterised by recurrent nightmares causing significant distress or impairment, is less common. One international study estimated the prevalence of nightmare disorder in children at 3% to 6%.[10]

Recurrent isolated sleep paralysis: one study from Mexico reviewing the prevalence and characteristics of sleep paralysis in adolescents revealed a mean age of 15.9 years and a prevalence rate of 27.6%.[11]

Rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder (RBD): prevalence is around 1% to 2% in middle to older-aged individuals.[5] Once thought to occur exclusively in adults, RBD has now been reported in children and adolescents.[12][13] It is very rare in children, but its presence may be associated with narcolepsy, epilepsy, and the use of antidepressants.[12][13][14][15][16] The overall prevalence of violent behaviours during sleep in the general population is estimated at 2% (people aged between 15 and 100 years), and of these behaviours, about 25% were probably due to RBD, giving an overall prevalence of 0.5% for the disorder.[17]

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