| Arousal disorder | Nightmares | Nocturnal seizures* | |
| Age of onset (years) | 3–8 | 3–6 | Any age |
| Gender | Both | Both | Both |
| Family history | Common | Sometimes | Variable |
| Prevalence | Common | Common | Much less common |
| Usual stage of sleep | Deep NREM | REM | Variable |
| Time of the night | Usually first third of the night | Middle to last third of the night | Variable |
| Episodes at night | Usually one | Usually one | One to many |
| Episodes/month | Usually sporadic | Usually sporadic | Sporadic to many |
| Behaviour | Variable but usually dramatic with intense autonomic arousal (apart from calm sleepwalking); often inaccessible and cannot be comforted; may resist intervention | Little movement during dreams but distressed on awakening, accessible and welcomes comforting; autonomic arousal usually marked | Variable, may be undirected violence or distress during or after attack in state of impaired consciousness; autonomic arousal can be considerable |
| Level of consciousness | Unaware during episode, confused if awakened or after episode | Asleep during episode, fully awake afterwards | Variable, may be impaired during or after attack |
| Memory for events | None or fragmentary | Vivid recall | Variable |
| Stereotyped | Somewhat | Somewhat | Often |
| Likelihood of injury | Moderate to high in agitated sleepwalking and sleep terrors | Low | Overall low to moderate |
| Prognosis | Good | Good | Good to poor |
*In view of the wide range of types of epileptic seizures associated with sleep, the descriptions given are no more than generalizations with certain clear exceptions to the general rule (see text).
NREM, non-rapid eye movement; REM, rapid eye movement.