Parasomnias are sleep disorders that involve undesirable events and experiences. These behaviors are very common in children. For the most part, they are a normal part of childhood.

Some of these disorders are similar to one another. They share some common features. The following chart will help you distinguish one parasomnia from another.

Although they tend to be common and harmless, parasomnias can be a severe problem for some children. You should contact an accredited sleep disorders center if a sleep problem greatly disturbs your child.

.	Nightmares	Sleep terrors	Sleepwalking	Confusional arousals
How many children it affects	Almost all	Less than 10%	Less than 20%	Less than 20%
Age when it is most common	Between 6 and 10 years	Between 4 and 12 years	Between 8 and 12 years	Under 5 years
Time when it tends to occur	Last half of night	First half of night	First half of night	First half of night
Primary emotion	Fear	Fear and confusion	Confusion	Confusion
Behavior	Wakes up suddenly	Sits up and screams	Gets out of bed and walks	Sits up and stares ahead, thrashes around in bed
Appearance	Afraid and alert	Terrified and confused, shaking and sweating	Calm	Agitated and confused
Sounds	Cries and describes a dream	Loud scream or cry	Quiet	Confused speech, cries or yells
Response	Seeks comforting	Unresponsive or resists comforting	Unresponsive	Agitated and resists comforting
Return to normal sleep	Delayed	Rapid	Rapid	Rapid
Memory of the event	Clear recall	No recall	Little or no recall	Little or no recall

More Information
Afraid and Confused: Understanding Childhood Parasomnias

Parasomnias: Tips for Parents

Reviewed by Rose Franco, MD
Updated July 11, 2007