Incidence and Remission of Parasomnias among Adolescent Children in the Tucson Children’s Assessment of Sleep Apnea

Abstract

Background: Longitudinal assessments of parasomnias in the adolescent population are scarce. This analysis aims to identify the incidence and remission of parasomnias in the adolescent age group.Methods: The TuCASA study is a prospective cohort study that initially enrolled children between the ages of 6 and 11 years (Time 1) and subsequently re-studied them approximately 5 years later (Time 2). At both time points parents were asked to complete a comprehensive sleep habits questionnaire designed to assess the severity of sleep-related symptoms that included questions about enuresis (EN), sleep terrors (TR), sleep walking (SW) and sleep talking (ST). Results: There were 350 children participating at Time 1 who were studied as adolescents at time 2. The mean interval between measurements was (4.6 years). The incidence of EN, TR, ST, and SW in these 10-18 year old children was 0.3%, 0.6%, 6.0% and 1.1% respectively. Remission rates were 70.8%, 100%, 64.8% and 50.0% respectively.Conclusions: The incidence rates of EN, TR, and SW were relatively low moving from childhood to adolescence while remission rates were high across all parasomnias.