Sleepwalking, night terrors, and consciousness.

OBJECTIVE

To determine some personality and psychoneurotic characteristics of adults who have the sleepwalking-night terrors syndrome.

DESIGN

Prospective assessment of two groups of consecutive patients with a firm diagnosis of either of two specific sleep disorders as established clinically and by polysomnography.

SETTING

Outpatient sleep disorders clinic and sleep laboratory in a tertiary referral centre.

PATIENTS

12 Patients referred consecutively to the clinic in whom a diagnosis of sleepwalking (six) or night terrors (six) was confirmed.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Psychological characteristics as measured at the time of clinical assessment by means of the Eysenck personality questionnaire, the hostility and direction of hostility questionnaire, and the Crown-Crisp experiential index.

RESULTS

Both groups scored exceptionally highly on the hysteria scale of the Crown-Crisp experiential index and the night terrors group also scored highly on the anxiety scale. The patients with sleepwalking also scored highly on a measure of externally directed hostility.

CONCLUSIONS

The physiological and psychological features identified in these patients, possibly reflecting different expressions of a constitutional cerebral characteristic, may be explored in terms of hysterical dissociation. The findings contribute to the debate concerning the nature of sleepwalking, in particular with and without the forensic aspects.