Background: Long before being described as a disorder, sleepwalking was considered as a mysterious phenomenon inspiring artwork. From the early beginning of cinema, sleepwalkers were shown to populations, playing a crucial role in storytelling and collective knowledge.Objective: We characterized how sleepwalking has been portrayed in a large number of movies from the origins of cinema to recent years.Methods: Movies containing the words "sleepwalking" or "somnambulism" were searched for in International Movie Databases. Types of movies, sleepwalking characters, postures and behaviors during episodes, triggers, and suggested treatments were collected.Results: Production of 87 movies and 22 cartoons portraying sleepwalkers was clustered around two peaks, in the 1910s and 2010s. Comedies predominated before 1960, and thriller/horror movies as a dominant genre after 1960. In contrast with real-life sleepwalking epidemiology, sleepwalkers are more often portrayed as women than men (and often wearing a transparent white nightgown), as adults more than children on-screen, and 23% suffered psychiatric comorbidities. The unrealistic posture of outstretched arms and eyes closed was found in 20% of movies and 79% of cartoons. Night terrors, sexsomnias (kissing, having sex, initiated pregnancy), sleep-related eating and sleep driving were also featured. Homicides and falls while sleepwalking were recurrent fear-inducing topics. The first sleep EEG was featured in a sleepwalking movie in 1985, and a sleep specialist gave his first advice in 1997.Discussion: The representation of sleepwalking on the screen seems to have evolved from popular, unrealistic stereotypes of somnambulism towards a medical condition, paralleling the development of sleep medicine.

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