Daytime somnolence in adult sleepwalkers

Sleepiness in sleepwalking and sleep terrors: a higher sleep pressure?

“…The ESS was higher when the sleep onset latency at night was shorter on Night 1 (r = -0.19; P = 0.02) and on Night 2 (r = -0.28; P = 0.002), when the latency from sleep onset to Table 4 - The high frequency (46.8%) of patients with excessive daytime sleepiness among adult sleepwalkers found here corroborates recent observations in large groups of sleepwalkers, which have also reported that 41-47% of patients had ESS greater than 10 [5,6,8]. This frequency was systematically higher than the frequency in age-matched healthy controls [5,6,8]. Because it exceeds the 10% of naturally hypersomnolent subjects found in the generally healthy population [14,15], this high frequency could not result from an overlap between natural hypersomnolence and sleepwalking.…”

“…Sleepiness in our sleepwalkers group was not linked to age, gender, arousal index, wakefulness after sleep onset, periodic leg movements, or sleep-disordered breathing, as already observed in a smaller group [8]. More surprisingly, it was not associated either with more severe forms of the parasomnia (as measured by the frequency of SW/ST episodes, the complexity of nocturnal behaviors or their association with injuries), or to specific forms including some degrees of sleep terrors, sleep-related eating disorder or sexsomnia.…”

“…Excessive daytime sleepiness is in particular a recent matter of concern in sleepwalking. Indeed, a score greater than 10 on the Epworth sleepiness scale is reported by 47% of 43 patients with SW/ST in Paris, France [6], 42% of 100 adult sleepwalkers in Montpellier, France [5], 41% of 71 patients with SW/ST in Paris, France [7], 46% of 70 adult sleepwalkers in Montreal, Canada [8], but only 15% of 32 young subjects with sleepwalking in Prague, Czech Republic [9]. This increased feeling of sleepiness is substantiated by a mean daytime sleep onset latency shorter than 8 min on multiple sleep latencies in 7/10 sleepwalkers in a small series [10], whereas only the first morning nap of 4 naps occurred more rapidly in patients than in controls in a larger series [11].…”

“…Recently, some of these questions were examined in 70 patients with SW studied during a single night. No common sleep characteristics, including the intensity of slow wave activity (a marker of sleep restorative properties that may be altered in sleepwalking/sleep terrors) or the number of N3 awakenings, predicted the daytime level of sleepiness [8]. We aimed to replicate this study in a larger sample, taking advantage of retrospective analysis of routine patients charts in our unit, who underwent not one but two consecutive nights of polysomnography (a routine procedure which increases the chance of findings markers of SW/ST, and could allow to avoid first night effects and post-deprivation sleep rebound), and to examine, in addition, whether the characteristics and severity of SW/ST, measured using the Paris Arousal Disorder Severity Scale [7], would determine the level of daytime sleepiness in adults with SW/ST.…”

Schlafwandeln und andere Non-REM-Parasomnien

“…Schläfrigkeits-Skala (mehr als 10 von 24 möglichen Punkten) angaben [ 38 ] . Diese Daten wurden in einer Studie von einer kanadischen Arbeitsgruppe um Montplaisir ebenfalls bestätigt, in der gefunden wurde, dass 45 % der Patienten mit Schlafwandeln eine relevante, in der Epworth-Schläfrigkeits-Skala gemessene Tagesschläfrigkeit hatten [ 39 ] . In unserem eigenen Kollektiv sehen wir auch regelmäßig eine relevante signifi kante Tagesschläfrigkeit bei der Patienten mit Arousalstörungen (Schlafwandeln, Pavor Nocturnus und Schlaftrunkenheit).…”