What can a sleep study find when suspected sleepwalking has unusual features?
A sleep study can document features of sleepwalking or find a different explanation for a nighttime event. Fois and colleagues reviewed 124 adults referred for suspected non-rapid eye movement parasomnia and compared what the recordings added across different clinical histories.
What the recordings showed
Polysomnography supported the suspected parasomnia in 60.5% of patients and showed a different sleep disorder in another 16%. The study reported that a different diagnosis or an unsuspected contributor was more often identified when the history had unusual features than when it was clinically uncomplicated. The study also observed lower diagnostic yield among patients taking benzodiazepines or antidepressants during recording.
How to use the result in an event review
The percentages describe patients referred for testing. They do not give the chance that a particular nighttime act was sleepwalking. For a specific event, compare the witness account and medication timeline with what the recording actually captured, including whether the recorded behavior matched the event being investigated.
Source
Fois et al., Journal of Neurology (2015), full text · DOI
