Researchers feel that sleep deprivation, and fever can also have an affect on sleepwalking. Sleepwalking also seems to have genetic ties. .
Sleepwalkers do not usually have a psychological disorder of any sort and are not different than any other person. Sleepwalking is known as a sleep disorder but we do not know of any body systems that are harmed while sleepwalking, unless the person causes bodily harm to him or herself. This might sound crazy but it happens. There are records of people hurting themselves and others while sleepwalking. It has even been used as a defense in court. There is a record of a man getting in his car, driving three miles to his step parents house, stabbing them to death, then driving home. He was not put in jail because it was ruled that he was sleepwalking during the incident. This is why sleepwalking needs to be taken seriously!.
You may know someone who sleepwalks or you yourself might have done so. This is because sleepwalking is very common, especially in children. It is estimated that most children will have at least one episode of sleepwalking and about fifteen percent of children will have reoccurring episodes. Research has proven that boys are more likely to sleepwalk then girls are. Children can begin sleepwalking as soon as they can walk but most start at the age of five or six. Yet adults are very unlikely to sleepwalk because children usually grow out of the habit around the age of twelve to fifteen. There are fewer than one to two hundred adults that are sleepwalkers.
If you have ever seen a sleepwalker in action you may have noticed that the sleepwalker looks awake. Most sleepwalkers act as if they are carelessly searching for something and don't seem to be in any hurry. Somehow the sleepwalkers vision must be intact because the sleepwalker usually does not run in to furniture or walls even though it is dark if they are in familiar surroundings. However, new surroundings such as a hotel or new house may be a totally different story.