Sleepwalking can be reduced or eliminated in most people through a combination of sleep habit changes, trigger management, and in persistent cases, medical treatment. About 2% to 4% of adults experience sleepwalking, and while it’s more common in children who often outgrow it, adults who sleepwalk regularly have several effective options to curb episodes.
Why Sleepwalking Happens
Sleepwalking occurs during deep, non-REM sleep, typically in the first third of the night when this stage of sleep is most concentrated. During an episode, your body partially wakes up enough to move and walk, but the parts of your brain responsible for awareness, judgment, and memory stay offline. Brain imaging studies show reduced blood flow to the frontal areas of the brain during episodes, which explains why sleepwalkers have no conscious control over their actions and rarely remember anything afterward.
This partial arousal from deep sleep can be triggered by anything that either deepens sleep or fragments it. Understanding your personal triggers is the single most important step toward stopping episodes.
Identify and Remove Your Triggers
Sleep deprivation is the most common trigger. When you’re underslept, your brain compensates by producing more deep sleep the next night, and more deep sleep means more opportunities for partial arousals. A single night of poor sleep can be enough to provoke an episode in someone prone to sleepwalking. Stress, irregular sleep schedules, fever, and alcohol all work through similar mechanisms: they either increase deep sleep or make arousals from it more likely.
Medications are an underrecognized trigger. A systematic review identified 29 drugs across four major classes that can induce sleepwalking: sleep aids that act on GABA receptors (the brain’s main calming system), antidepressants that boost serotonin, antipsychotics, and beta-blockers used for blood pressure and anxiety. The strongest evidence pointed to zolpidem, a widely prescribed sleep medication. If you started sleepwalking after beginning a new medication, or if episodes became more frequent, that connection is worth raising with your prescriber.
Sleep apnea is another hidden contributor. People with severe obstructive sleep apnea are roughly twice as likely to sleepwalk compared to those with mild cases. The repeated breathing interruptions fragment deep sleep and can trigger partial arousals. If you snore heavily, wake up feeling unrefreshed, or have been told you stop breathing at night, treating the underlying apnea may resolve the sleepwalking on its own.
Improve Your Sleep Habits
Because sleep deprivation and irregular schedules are such reliable triggers, tightening your sleep routine is the first line of defense. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, including weekends. Aim for enough total sleep that you don’t feel drowsy during the day, which for most adults falls between seven and nine hours. This consistency reduces the buildup of excess deep sleep that sets the stage for episodes.
Your sleep environment matters too. Keep your bedroom cool, ideally around 65°F to 68°F, and minimize light with blackout curtains or shades. Avoid caffeine in the afternoon and evening, and limit alcohol, which disrupts sleep architecture in the second half of the night. These adjustments won’t cure sleepwalking on their own, but they reduce the background instability that makes episodes more likely.
Try Scheduled Awakenings
Scheduled awakening is a simple behavioral technique with a strong track record, particularly for children but applicable to adults as well. The method works like this: track when sleepwalking episodes typically occur by noting the time over a week or two. Then, set an alarm for 15 to 30 minutes before that typical episode time. Briefly wake the sleepwalker (or yourself, with an alarm), stay awake for a few minutes, and then go back to sleep.
This brief interruption resets the sleep cycle and prevents the deep-sleep arousal that would have triggered an episode. In a study of children with regular sleepwalking, this approach eliminated episodes immediately in all participants, and the results held at both three and six months after treatment ended. Over time, you can gradually phase out the awakenings as the pattern breaks.
Make Your Environment Safer
While you work on reducing episodes, take steps to prevent injury. Sleepwalkers can open doors, navigate stairs, and even leave the house, all without awareness. Lock windows and exterior doors, and consider placing a bell or alarm on your bedroom door so a household member is alerted if you leave the room. Remove sharp objects and trip hazards from your bedroom and hallways. If you sleep on an upper floor, install a gate at the top of the stairs. Sleep on the ground floor if possible.
If someone is sleepwalking, gently guide them back to bed rather than trying to wake them abruptly. Forceful waking can cause confusion and agitation. A calm, quiet redirect is safer for everyone.
When Behavioral Strategies Aren’t Enough
For people who sleepwalk frequently despite good sleep habits and trigger management, medical treatment can help. In a large review of over 500 patients with sleepwalking and related disorders, benzodiazepines (a class of sedative) were the most commonly prescribed medication, used successfully in about 38% of patients. Antidepressants worked for about 12%, and melatonin helped roughly 11%.
Melatonin is notable because it’s available over the counter and carries fewer side effects than prescription options. It appears to stabilize sleep stages and reduce the partial arousals that cause episodes. Cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction have also shown promise as non-drug alternatives, particularly when stress or anxiety is a contributing factor.
The choice of treatment depends on how often you sleepwalk, how dangerous the episodes are, and whether there’s an underlying condition like sleep apnea driving them. A sleep specialist can help sort this out, often with an overnight sleep study that monitors your brain waves, breathing, and movements to identify what’s happening during the night.
Sleepwalking in Children vs. Adults
Most childhood sleepwalking resolves on its own by adolescence as the brain matures and the proportion of deep sleep naturally decreases. For kids, scheduled awakenings and consistent bedtimes are usually all that’s needed. Reassurance for parents is appropriate here: occasional sleepwalking in children is common and not a sign of a psychological problem.
Adult-onset sleepwalking is different. It’s less likely to resolve without intervention and more likely to have an identifiable trigger, whether that’s a medication, sleep apnea, chronic sleep deprivation, or high stress. Adults who begin sleepwalking for the first time, especially after age 30, benefit from a thorough evaluation to rule out underlying sleep disorders or medication effects. Persistent sleepwalking in adults also carries a higher injury risk simply because adults are larger, stronger, and more likely to have access to cars and kitchens.