• Antonio Zadra, Alex Desautels, Dominique Petit, and Jacques Montplaisir.
• Center for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine, Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada; Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
• Lancet Neurol. 2013 Mar 1;12(3):285-94.

AbstractSomnambulism, or sleepwalking, can give rise to a wide range of adverse consequences and is one of the leading causes of sleep-related injury. Accurate diagnosis is crucial for proper management and imperative in an ever-increasing number of medicolegal cases implicating sleep-related violence. Unfortunately, several widely held views of sleepwalking are characterised by key misconceptions, and some established diagnostic criteria are inconsistent with research findings. The traditional idea of somnambulism as a disorder of arousal might be too restrictive and a comprehensive view should include the idea of simultaneous interplay between states of sleep and wakefulness. Abnormal sleep physiology, state dissociation, and genetic factors might explain the pathophysiology of the disorder.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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