Interictal electroencephalography in night terrors and somnambulism.

Night terrors and somnambulism (NTS) are defined as disorders of arousal occurring in children during Stage 3 to 4 of NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep. In this study, the interictal EEG recordings in 35 neurologically normal children with clinical NTS were studied. Sixteen children (47%) had disturbed records including: localized slow, spike or sharp wave activity; generalized bursts of high voltage, sharp waves, spikes and slow delta activity or spike and wave complexes; and episodic high-voltage delta activity during wakeful rest. This percentage represents half the incidence of interictal EEG abnormalities in childhood epilepsy, but far greater than the 10 to 15% found in healthy children.