Repeated episodes of rising from bed during sleep and walking about, usually occurring during the first third of the major sleep episode.

While sleepwalking, the person has a blank, staring face, is relatively unresponsive to the efforts of others to communicate with him or her, and can be awakened only with great difficulty.

On awakening (either from the sleepwalking episode or the next morning), the person has amnesia for the episode.

Within several minutes after awakening from the sleepwalking episode, there is no impairment of mental activity or behavior (although there may initially be a short period of confusion or disorientation).

The sleepwalking causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

The disturbance is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition.

 

 

Criteria summarized from:
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fourth edition. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

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Last reviewed:
  On 7 Sep 2006
  By John M. Grohol, Psy.D.