Sleep Medicine
Volume 12, Supplement 2 , Pages S22-S26, December 2011

Arousal disorders

IRCCS, Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Received 29 July 2011; received in revised form 11 October 2011; accepted 11 October 2011.

Abstract 

Arousal Disorders (AD) are motor behaviours arising from NREM sleep. They comprise a spectrum of manifestations of increasing complexity from confusional arousal to sleep terror to sleepwalking. AD usually appear in childhood with a low frequency of episodes and spontaneously disappear before adolescence.

The advent of video-polysomnography disclosed the existence of other phenomena alongside AD, in particular nocturnal frontal lobe seizures, requiring a differential diagnosis from AD.

History-taking is usually sufficient to establish a correct diagnosis of AD even though viewing the episodes is essential for the clinician to distinguish the different motor events. Videopolysomnographic recording in a sleep laboratory is not always necessary and homemade video-recordings are useful to capture events closest to real life episodes.

Keywords: Arousal disorder, Confusional arousal, Sleep terror, Sleepwalking, Parasomnia, Motor behaviour

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PII: S1389-9457(11)00318-2

doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2011.10.007

Sleep Medicine
Volume 12, Supplement 2 , Pages S22-S26, December 2011

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