Diagnostic Classification Steering Committee, Thorpy MJ, Chairman. Kryger, Meir H., Roth, Thomas, Dement, William C. Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine, 2nd Edition. W.B. Saunders Company, 1994. The onset typically occurs in prepubertal children. It is more common in children than in adolescents and adults.
Boys are more likely to sleepwalk than girls.
Sleepwalking can have a genetic tendency. If a child begins to sleepwalk at the age of 9, it often lasts into adulthood. For some, the episodes of sleepwalking occur less than once per month and do not result in harm to the patient or others. Others experince episodes more than once per month, but not nightly, and do not result in harm to the patient or others. In its most severe form, the episodes occur almost nightly or are associated with physical injury.