Parasomnias manifest different phenotypes of sleep-related behaviors in age and sex groups. A YouTube-based video research highlighting the age slope of sleepwalking

Abstract

Study objective: Finding typical patterns - phenotypes - of sleep behaviors characterizing parasomnias in different age and sex groups.

Methods: We analyzed YouTube videos on sleep-related behaviors likely representing parasomnias. We applied the search terms "sleepwalking", "somnambulism", "sleep eating" "sleep sex", "sleep talking" and "aggression in sleep" in six languages. We classified those persons shown on the videos into estimated biological sex and age (child, adult, elderly) groups. We scored the activity types by a self-made scale and applied binary logistic regression to analyze the association between sleep behaviors versus sex and age groups by the STATA package, providing a 95 % confidence interval and the probability of statistical significance.

Results: 224 videos (102 women; 68 children, 116 adults, and 40 elderly people) were scored. Elderly people had significantly (P < 0.012) less odds of ambulation in sleep likely consistent with somnambulism compared to adults and children. Adult females performed complex manual activities during sleepwalking more often, than males (P < 0.012). Elderly males had 40-fold odds compared to adults and children, to perform aggressive movements and 70-fold odds of complex movements in bed, compared to adults. Elderly people presented emotional behaviors less frequently than adults (P < 0.004), and females showed them twice as often as males. Adults sleep-talked full sentences more often than children and elderly people (P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Our results support the existence of age- and sex-specific parasomnia phenotypes, denoting possible safety measures. The remarkably low odds of sleepwalking in the elderly highlight the possibility of different pathomechanisms in higher age groups compared to children.

Keywords: Age slope; Parasomnia; Risk of injury.