--- title: Sleepwalking May Be Hereditary description: Kids may be more likely to sleepwalk if their parents do, a new study suggests. canonical: https://time.com/3845530/sleepwalking-inherit-kids-parents/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-04T16:51:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:59.312Z article:section: Health og:title: Sleepwalking May Be in the Genes og:description: Somnambulant parents likely to have kids who walk in their sleep too og:url: https://time.com/3845530/sleepwalking-inherit-kids-parents/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sleepwalking May Be in the Genes twitter:description: Somnambulant parents likely to have kids who walk in their sleep too twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Parents May Pass On Sleepwalking to Their Kids > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin May 4, 2015 4:51 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin May 4, 2015 4:51 PM UTC Kids are more likely to sleepwalk if their parents also did, [a new study](http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2281574) suggests. The new research, published in the journal _JAMA Pediatrics,_ found that over 60% of kids who developed somnambulism had parents who were both sleepwalkers. The study authors looked at sleep data for 1,940 kids whose history of sleepwalking and sleep terrors (episodes of screaming and fear while falling asleep) as well as their parents sleepwalking were reported through questionnaires. The data showed that kids were three times more likely to become a sleepwalker if they had one parent who was, and seven times more likely to sleep walk if both parents had a history of it. The prevalence of sleepwalking was 61.5% for kids with dual parent sleepwalking history. The overall prevalence of sleepwalking in childhood reported among kids ages 2.5 to 13 years old was 29.1%, while the overall prevalence of sleep terrors for kids between age 1.5 to 13 was 56.2%. Kids who had sleep terrors were more likely to also develop sleepwalking, compared to kids who did not have them. “These findings point to a strong genetic influence on sleepwalking and, to a lesser degree, sleep terrors,” the study authors write. “This effect may occur through polymorphisms in the genes involved in slow-wave sleep generation or sleep depth. Parents who have been sleepwalkers in the past, particularly in cases where both parents have been sleepwalkers, can expect their children to sleepwalk and thus should prepare adequately.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3845530/sleepwalking-inherit-kids-parents/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3845530/sleepwalking-inherit-kids-parents/"},"headline":"Parents May Pass On Sleepwalking to Their Kids","datePublished":"2015-05-04T16:51:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:59.312Z","description":"Somnambulant parents likely to have kids who walk in their sleep too","url":"https://time.com/3845530/sleepwalking-inherit-kids-parents/","keywords":["Research","Living","Children","Parents","kids"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3845530/sleepwalking-inherit-kids-parents/","name":"Parents May Pass On Sleepwalking to Their Kids"}}]}] ```