{
  "slug": "child-sleepwalking-injury",
  "question": "What are the odds a sleepwalking child gets hurt, for example falling down stairs past an open gate?",
  "quick_answer": "About 29% of children in a Quebec cohort of 1,940 (per the press release) sleepwalked at least once between ages 2½ and 13, with a peak of 13.4% at age 10. How often a sleepwalking child is injured, on stairs or anywhere else, has never been measured. The only emergency department series found 11 sleepwalking injuries, with falls the leading cause, among about 620,000 visits, and it saw no one under 16.\n",
  "category": "health",
  "tags": [
    "kids",
    "household"
  ],
  "no_reliable_estimate": true,
  "perceived": {
    "description": "A child walking toward the top of the stairs at 2 a.m. while still asleep is a classic parental nightmare, and the forgotten or unlatched stair gate is the detail that makes it vivid. Pediatric safety guidance reinforces the image by recommending gates at the bedroom door or stair top and locked windows for children who sleepwalk. No survey has asked parents how likely they think an injury is per sleepwalking child or per episode, so the perceived side here is intuition only: the fear is shaped by the vividness of the stair-top scene rather than by any number.\n",
    "rough_estimate": "No survey data; no numeric perception has been measured",
    "kind": "intuition"
  },
  "sources": [
    {
      "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25938617/",
      "title": "Childhood Sleepwalking and Sleep Terrors: A Longitudinal Study of Prevalence and Familial Aggregation",
      "publisher": "JAMA Pediatrics (Petit et al. 2015; 169(7):653-658)",
      "source_type": "peer_reviewed",
      "statistic": "Prospective Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development cohort, N=1,940 children followed 1999-2011: sleepwalking prevalence peaked at 13.4% (95% CI 11.3%-15.5%) at age 10; childhood sleepwalking prevalence was 22.5% with no parental history, 47.4% with one sleepwalking parent, and 61.5% with two",
      "excerpt": "\"The peak of prevalence was observed at 1½ years for sleep terrors (34.4% of children; 95% CI, 32.3%-36.5%) and at age 10 years for sleepwalking (13.4%; 95% CI, 11.3%-15.5%).\" ... \"The prevalence of childhood sleepwalking increases with the degree of parental history of sleepwalking: 22.5% (95% CI, 19.2%-25.8%) for children without a parental history of sleepwalking, 47.4% (95% CI, 38.9%-55.9%) for children who had 1 parent with a history of sleepwalking, and 61.5% (95% CI, 42.8%-80.2%) for children whose mother and father had a history of sleepwalking.\" [Abstract text; PubMed and JAMA Network were not directly reachable in-session, so the wording was confirmed via exact-phrase search of the indexed abstract]\n",
      "source_date": "2015-07-01",
      "source_accessed": "2026-09-26",
      "calculation_notes": "Used only as context for exposure: how many children sleepwalk at all. The 13.4% peak at age 10 is a point prevalence in that year; the 22.5% / 47.4% / 61.5% figures are cumulative childhood prevalence stratified by parental history. No injury outcome is reported, so nothing is converted to a native or normalized probability. The parental-history gradient is described in prose rather than as personal_factor_multipliers because this entry carries no_reliable_estimate and the gradient shifts the chance of sleepwalking, not the chance of injury given sleepwalking.\n"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/768832",
      "title": "Kids likely to sleepwalk if parents have history of nocturnal strolls",
      "publisher": "JAMA Pediatrics press release via EurekAlert! (AAAS)",
      "source_type": "news_article",
      "statistic": "Overall childhood prevalence of sleepwalking, ages 2½ to 13, was 29.1% in the Quebec cohort",
      "excerpt": "\"The overall childhood prevalence of sleepwalking (ages 2½ to 13 years) was 29.1 percent.\"\n",
      "source_date": "2015-05-04",
      "source_accessed": "2026-09-26",
      "calculation_notes": "The journal's own press release for Petit et al. (2015), cited because it states the cumulative 2½-to-13 figure in one line. The 29.1% could not be found in the indexed abstract text via search, so it rests on this release rather than the peer-reviewed abstract; the abstract's parental-history strata (22.5% to 61.5%) are consistent with it. Rounded to \"about 29%\" / \"about 3 in 10\" in the quick answer and prose. Exposure context only; no injury figure.\n",
      "independence_note": "Not independent of Petit et al. (2015); it summarizes the same study.\n"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0164769",
      "title": "Prevalence of Sleepwalking: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis",
      "publisher": "PLOS ONE (Stallman & Kohler 2016)",
      "source_type": "peer_reviewed",
      "statistic": "Meta-analysis of 51 studies (N=100,490): lifetime sleepwalking prevalence 6.9% (95% CI 4.6%-10.3%); 12-month prevalence 5.0% (95% CI 3.8%-6.5%) in children versus 1.5% (95% CI 1.0%-2.3%) in adults",
      "excerpt": "\"The estimated lifetime prevalence of sleepwalking was 6.9% (95% CI 4.6%-10.3%). The current prevalence rate of sleepwalking within the last 12 months was significantly higher in children [5.0% (95% CI 3.8%-6.5%)] than adults [1.5% (95% CI 1.0%-2.3%)].\" [Abstract text; PLOS and PMC were not directly reachable in-session, so the wording was confirmed via search of the indexed abstract; dash and bracket punctuation may differ slightly from the published typography]\n",
      "source_date": "2016-11-10",
      "source_accessed": "2026-09-26",
      "calculation_notes": "Supplies the pooled 12-month figure: roughly 1 in 20 children sleepwalk in a given year. The pooled lifetime figure (6.9%, mixed ages) is far below the Quebec cohort's 29.1% because most pooled studies used single retrospective questions rather than repeated prospective parent reports (an interpretation, not a finding of either paper), which suggests sleepwalking counts are sensitive to method. Exposure context only; no injury figure.\n",
      "independence_note": "Independent research group and methodology (pooled cross-sectional studies) from the Quebec cohort.\n"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5102596/",
      "title": "Somnambulism: Emergency Department Admissions Due to Sleepwalking-Related Trauma",
      "publisher": "Western Journal of Emergency Medicine (Sauter et al. 2016; 17(6):709-712)",
      "source_type": "peer_reviewed",
      "statistic": "11 sleepwalking-related trauma presentations among about 620,000 ED admissions at Inselspital, Bern, 2000-2015; falls were the leading mechanism; 4 of 11 (36.4%) were hospitalized; no deaths; adult department treating patients aged 16 and over (two of the 11 were 16)",
      "excerpt": "\"Of 620,000 screened ED admissions, 11 were associated with trauma and sleepwalking.\" ... \"Although sleepwalking seems benign in the majority of cases and most of the few injured patients will not require hospitalization, major injuries are possible.\" [First sentence from the abstract; second from the full-text Conclusion (the abstract reads \"did not require\"). Both checked against the Europe PMC full text, 2026-09-27]\n",
      "source_date": "2016-11-01",
      "source_accessed": "2026-09-26",
      "calculation_notes": "The only systematic count of sleepwalking injuries located. It cannot anchor a pediatric estimate: the adult department treats patients aged 16 and over, there is no denominator of sleepwalkers in the catchment, and cases were found by chart search, which misses injuries not recorded as sleepwalking-related. 11 / 620,000 is a share of ED visits (about 1 in 56,000), not a probability per sleepwalker, and is shown for scale only. This is the reason for no_reliable_estimate.\n"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/sleepwalking.html",
      "title": "Sleepwalking (for Parents)",
      "publisher": "Nemours KidsHealth",
      "source_type": "reputable_reference",
      "statistic": "Pediatric safety guidance for sleepwalking children: gates at bedroom door and/or stair top; locked windows and doors",
      "excerpt": "\"Install safety gates outside your child's room and/or at the top of any stairs.\" ... \"Lock the windows and doors in your child's bedroom and throughout your home in case your young sleepwalker wanders.\" [kidshealth.org was not directly reachable in-session; wording confirmed via exact-phrase search of the indexed page]\n",
      "source_date": "2026-09-26",
      "source_accessed": "2026-09-26",
      "calculation_notes": "Establishes that stairs and windows are the hazards pediatric guidance singles out. Guidance, not evidence of frequency: it gives no injury rate and no data on how much gates or locks reduce injury among sleepwalkers. source_date set to access date because the page shows a rolling review date.\n"
    }
  ],
  "comparison_anchors": [],
  "short_label": "Child sleepwalking injury",
  "outcome_severity": "moderate_harm",
  "exposure_pattern": "recurring",
  "outcome_type": "recoverable_injury",
  "valence": "negative",
  "caveats": "This entry is flagged no_reliable_estimate. The exposure is well measured (about 29% of children sleepwalk at least once between 2½ and 13 in the Quebec cohort; about 5% in any 12 months in pooled data), but the outcome is not: no study located reports injuries per sleepwalking child, per episode, or per sleepwalking night, and no pediatric injury data located separates sleepwalking from other causes of falls.\nThe one systematic injury count, Sauter et al. (2016), came from an adult department that sees no one under 16 and had no denominator of sleepwalkers, so it cannot be scaled to children. Its patients are also unlike ordinary sleepwalking children: the most common co-morbidity was epilepsy (6 of 11), and only 2 of 11 had a known NREM parasomnia, so some of these night-time injuries may have followed seizures rather than sleepwalking. Adult sleep-clinic case series also describe injuries in referred parasomnia patients, but they have no general-population denominator and were not used here. Individual case reports, where they exist, are selected for being unusual and say nothing about frequency.\nThe chance of sleepwalking at all varies sharply by family history: 22.5% of children with no sleepwalking parent, 47.4% with one, and 61.5% with two (Petit et al. 2015). Whether injury risk per episode also varies (by age, household layout, or presence of stairs and gates) has not been studied. Stair and window falls in children generally, whatever the cause, are covered in [[toddler-stair-fall-injury]] and [[child-window-balcony-fall]]; those figures do not separate sleepwalking from waking falls.\nSafety guidance to gate stairs and lock windows (Nemours KidsHealth) is precautionary and not backed by effectiveness data specific to sleepwalking.\n",
  "quality_score": {
    "d1": 4,
    "d2": 4,
    "d3": 5,
    "d4": 4,
    "d5": 4,
    "d6": 4,
    "d7": 4,
    "d8": 3,
    "avg": 4,
    "scored_by": "claude-code-8d",
    "scored_at": "2026-09-27",
    "methodology_version": "1.2"
  },
  "reviewer": "8d-eval-2026-09-27",
  "last_reviewed": "2026-09-27",
  "reviewed": true,
  "generated_at": "2026-09-26",
  "image": {
    "alt": "A quiet upstairs landing at night with a closed safety gate at the top of the stairs and moonlight through a window, flat vector illustration in muted blue tones."
  },
  "attribution": "Likelier — https://likelier.app",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
  "support": "https://buymeacoffee.com/kgluszczyk?via=likelier&utm_content=api-fear-single",
  "canonical_url": "https://likelier.app/child-sleepwalking-injury"
}