Anyone have any experience with sleepwalking?

[XemaSab]

What happens when people sleepwalk?

How do you deal with someone who is sleepwalking?

:shrug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear XemaSab...

I used to sleepwalk as a child...

But not in a looooooong time now!

You know, I have no idea what you're supposed to do with someone who does that...

Is Google your friend?

:hi:

[MysticalChicken]

2. I've never actually sleepWALKED before...

but once when I was in highschool, I thought my alarm had gone off--maybe I was dreaming, but I could have sworn I heard it go off--and I got up and was getting dressed, and--this is really hard to explain, but the time on the clock radio may have been Egyptian hieroglyphics for all I could understand it--and my mom apparently saw my light on, came into my room, and kept calling my name, only I didn't realize it--I could hear her but it didn't register that she was calling my name, and I could see, but I wasn't registering what I was seeing. All I could think was "it's time to get up and go to school." I finally "woke up" and realized it was about 11:30 at night, and I went back to sleep.

I think they say you don't remember anything that happens when you're sleepwalking. I remembered it, I just didn't realize what was really going on.

And my alarm went off at 5:45 AM because the bus came at like 6:30, so I was usually half-asleep when the alarm really went off anyway.

[Lethe]

3. Video tape it!

:)

[AlCzervik]

4. my daughter used to sleepwalk and it was plenty creepy, she would come into my room

and her eyes would be closed and she'd be speaking gibberish, full blown conversations in gibberish with i don't know who. I never woke her up but i would walk her back to her room and put her into bed and she would just go back to sleeping like it never happened at all.

[XemaSab]

5. Did she barf pea soup?

:shrug: :scared:

[AlCzervik]

7. no but she did this from the ages of 6 until she was 9. Speaking of pea soup--

a few years ago she was really sick with the flu and had a temp of 104 and i put her to bed and decided i would watch "The ring 2", at the time my daughter still had really long hair ok, so about 3 am she comes into my room and her hair was all in her face and she's calling out "Mommy, Mommy" now this kid never calls me "Mommy" just like the boy in the Ring 2 so when he called his mother "Mommy" she knew something was terribly wrong. So i start waking up and i hear her calling me and her hair is all in her face and i swear to god i literally thought i was going to have a heart attack. Her temp had spiked and yes she did projectile vomit all over my bed.

[fujiyamasan]

6. Apparently I had one crazy experience with it...

I was out partying one night - had a lot to drink, and then crashed at my friend's place. Well, he said that a few hours later, I opened the door of his apartment, and walked straight down the stairs into a field in his apartment complex. He found me and basically guided me back...I have no recollection of this myself...

A bunch of people asked me later if I've had prior incidents of sleepwalking and as far as I know, I haven't...

Maybe it was the alcohol...

[SeattleGirl]

8. I used to sleepwalk several times a week when I was a kid.

My mom would wake up to the sound of me walking around, come get me, and take me back to my bed.

Far as I know, I no longer do that.

[Neoma]

9. I used to have night terrors when I was a kid.

Not the same thing though...

[mainegreen]

10. I did it once as a little kid.

Evidently I was a horrible, vulgar, evil monster when I did it.
It was on an airplane. I just remember going to sleep and when I woke up my mom was angry and said something like 'are you going to continue?'. I had no idea what she was talking about, and she asked me if I was still feeling angry. Of course I had nooo idea what she was on about and asked her what she meant. After going back and forth a bit it became clear that I had an episode of some sort and that I was really sleepwalking/talking. Evidently I woke up, was instantly rude and nasty, yelling at my mom, punching stuff and generally being dreadful. She dragged me into the airplane aisle and made me walk up and down the aisle for about 15 minutes, after which I calmed down and went back to sleep in the chair.

I had no recollection of any of that.

Weirded me out a bit.

[Roon]

11. My little step sister slept walked while I was visting a couple of years ago

She had a crazy look in her eyes. My Father just held her and comforted and then guided her to bed. They kept the keys to the house up high because they didn't want her walking into the pool. 7 years later I asked my Father how she was doing in her sleepwalking and he totally forgot that she slept walk.

[AwakeAtLast]

12. I did as a child

I would wake up in the weirdest places - always inside our house. Stopped about age 11. Don't know why. :shrug:

[greatauntoftriplets]

13. My sister woke me up more than once as a kid sleepwalking.

I didn't deal with it well, especially the times she walked into my bedroom and turned on the damned light when I was sound asleep.

:evilfrown:

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

14. Age 8: I sleepwalked into my closet and peed on my Hoppity-Hop

As for dealing with a sleepwalker, lock the doors and make the environment as safe as you can so they won't hurt themselves.

[greatauntoftriplets]

16. My sister walked into the linen closet.....

and peed in the laundry hamper.

We are older than you.

[rhiannon55]

22. My brother walked into the bathroom

and peed on me (I was sitting on the toilet way past my bedtime, reading an Archie comic book). I started yelling and my mom came in and spanked my poor bewildered sleepwalking brother for peeing on me. :evilgrin:

[Wapsie B]

15. You're supposed to grow out of it,

but adults still have it.

"Treatment and Management

Treatment for sleepwalking is often unnecessary, especially if episodes are infrequent and uncomplicated. Safety issues are of prime importance to someone who sleepwalks and to others who are involved with managing the condition. The following measures are usually recommended:

* Locate the bedroom on the main floor, if possible.
* Place an alarm or a bell on the door of the bedroom.
* Lock the windows and cover them with large, heavy drapes.
* Keep the floor clear of harmful objects.
* Remove any hazardous materials and sharp objects from the room and secure them in the house.
* Stay on the first floor when visiting others and when sleeping at a hotel.

Medication may be used in cases where episodes are violent, injurious, frequent, or disruptive. Therapy usually consists of either a benzodiazepine, such as Diazepam® or Alprazolam®, or a tricyclic antidepressant. Among other things, these drugs inhibit chemical processes associated with sleep regulation, which, depending on the patient, may or may not result in fewer episodes of sleepwalking. Biofeedback and hypnosis have also been used effectively with individual sleepwalking patients.

Many sleepwalkers claim the first step in management is to recognize that sleepwalking is not evidence of insanity. Because sleepwalking is an involuntary behavior, it separates people from most of the general public and is often wrongly associated with madness. As mysterious as its occurrence is, it does not indicate mental dysfunction and should not be treated as such"


http://www.sleepdisorderchannel.com/sleepwalking/diagnosis.shtml



Keep car keys, knives, guns, anything they could hurt themselves or others with locked up.

[mzteris]

17. when my daughter was about

6 years old (give or take a year) - I woke up to the sound of the front door opening. . .

I jumped up and caught her just as she was walking out the door. Scared the crap outta me, I'll tell ya!

I started key deadbolt locking it at night. I left the keys in the door but there were a lot of them and they made a lot of noise. There were a couple of other times that year when I'd hear her jangling the keys trying to get out of the condo . . .

The other incident was the night I woke up to find her standing by my bed saying "answer the phone, mommy! Answer the phone!!!" I guided her back to bed - and just as I got back into my bed, the phone rang. . . It was about 1:30 in the morning and a friend of mine who'd been in an accident.


My son has had a couple of occasions of sleepwalking, too - usually due to having nightmares. He generally comes in my room and starts giving me descriptions of his dreams. They make noooooooooo sense. Sometimes he wants to "fight" while he's sleeping. Thank goodness he hasn't done *that* since he grew taller than me! Oh even when he's not walking, he sleepTALKS all the time!

[ghostsofgiants]

18. When I was maybe 7 or 8...

I sleepwalked to the stairs leading downstairs, climbed over the gate that was there to keep my little brother from going down the stairs, and went down to the basement. My parents found me down there sitting on the couch asleep the next morning, haha.

[Blue Diadem]

19. My granddaughter had night terrors and also sleep walks.

I guess sleepwalking & night terrors can run in families. I had night terrors as a child but was quite young, 2-3 and would only wake up shrieking. My former SIL, granddaughter's father walked in his sleep. My oldest boy did and so did my oldest brother. My son was minimal..found him once or twice but never had the worry we have about my granddaughter. Her Dad has found her in his closet in the middle of the night doing something with buttons on his uniform, and she was sound asleep even though her eyes were open. He's a LEO and is very good with keeping his weapons up. That's always been a worry for us.

When she has a night terror, she gets up and runs through the house, usually shrieking although sometimes it's just babbling. Her eyes are open but you can tell she's not awake. She'll have absolutely no recall of what happened. I've found her standing on her bed, facing the wall, shrieking at the top of her lungs, she's run down the stairs, paced back and forth in the hallway going from door to door and she's nearly ran into doors etc. Her Mom has mirrored closet doors and she'll stand and look at herself but it's like she can't see herself. She's mostly slept in her Mom's bed for safety, so we can catch her before she makes it to the stairway. Everytime we've thought she was over them and let her go back to sleeping in her own room, she'd have another one. Her Ped. said it should stop by age 8, and she turned 8 at the beginning of the summer. She hasn't had one since sometime in the spring, so hopefully she's outgrown it.


Luckily she's never gone for exterior doors to open them but we always keep everything double locked and I stay up as late as possible since night terrors usually take place within the first few hours of falling asleep. It's also much easier on my nerves to be awake and hear the shrieking than it is to be asleep and wake up to it.

[lumpy]

21. One of my sons experienced night terrors.

When he was a year old, starting to walk, he fell against a door jamb and passed out. When he was about 3 years old he slid or fell off a kitchen chair and when I picked him up he went into a seizure, stiffened, eyes rolled back, became ridged. Frightening. Fell playing crack the whip on the school grounds in kindergarten, again passed out. Doctor didn't think he was epileptic. There were more terror incidences and I kept a close watch on him. He would tell me he had 'scarey dreams', monsters etc. When he was about 10years, he and a couple of friends were sleeping in the backyard. I heard him hollering, running down the street toward a busy cross street. I ran like bloody hell after him and managed to steer him around to home. It was a very frightening experience when he'd have these terrors because he was terrified and there was no awakening him. I soon learned to lay him down and hold him, he'd generally quiet down and fall into a normal sleep. Otherwise he was a normal happy, bright kid, did well in school and was well adjusted in every way. The doctor seemed to think he would outgrow the terrors and he did shortly after 10. He has grown onto a healthy, responsible, active man with no apparent physical or mental problems. Of course I pondered, researched throughout the years as to just why he had experienced the terrors and nightmares. I never found the answer except maybe when he was trying to walk and had that first fall.

[Blue Diadem]

24. I saw my granddaughter wake up once during one.

It's like their eyes have that look of "nobody's home", but that time she'd made it downstairs and after a few minutes, it was like her eyes lit up. We said her name and she answered. Then she asked what was happening and how did she get downstairs.

Her ped. gave us some literature on night terrors. Lack of sleep, odd sleep times, the need to urinate all can cause them. We found if we guided her to the potty, she'd go and then go right back to bed and sleep fine. Her Dad wasn't exactly great in the bedtime department. He'd let her stay up late, really late and of course, her time here is more structured. Once she began school, he got a lot better with bedtimes and her sleep improved. The only exceptions are the few NT's she's had the last couple years..but I attribute those to her finding a teenager who committed suicide on her other grandparent's property two years ago.

Your experience had to be horrifying. It's been one of my big fears..her getting outside.

[Digit]

20. I have on occasion

I also have an acquaintance who sleepwalks and eats weird things in her sleep. Luckily, they are all things out of her fridge and not plants.

[Spirochete]

23. A few years ago

I had a girlfriend who walked and talked in her sleep. She'd walk out to the living room and say something nonsensical, like "Campbell's Cream of Hedgehog soup" and just wander back to bed. It was weird, but funny.

[AngryAmish]

25. I am a sleepwalker

I usually just leave my bed and sleep on the couch. Sometiimes I take off all my clothes.

It is weird and kinda funny.

[evlbstrd]

26. I do.

I have all my life.
I've been spotted sleep-cooking, sleep-teeth-brushing, nearly putting my arm in the giant attic fan, roaming the house in the nude (while the kids had friends over for the night), and other such fun things. Family members like to strike up conversations with me, which they find very amusing. I, of course, only know when told after the fact. I don't find it at all amusing.
I was also in the Navy. I was very lucky to have never walked overboard.

[triguy46]

27. About once a year wife will make it from bed into the shower...

and about turn the water on before waking up. This is a pattern she's had since a kid, always on her way to bathe.