Had my first encounter with real sleepwalker!

[Ironbar]

And it turns out to be my daughter!

Last night I was sitting at the computer late at night, and I hear a knock at the computer room door. It's my daughter, looking like she's half awake. She starts to have a nonsensical conversation with me- something about asking me not to leave my mouth open when eating lunch at her school!

I simply told her OK, and that she could go back to bed now. She smiled and said OK, walked back to her room and went to sleep. Didn't remember a single thing in the morning!

It was amusing as hell, and also weird as all get out! Anyone else deal with a sleepwalker in their life?

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[jbett98]

There was a neighborhood kid where I grew up that wasn't allowed to sleep outside during a summer back yard sleep over.
He was once found wandering around over three blocks from home in his pj's by the garbage man.

 

[cowboygraphics]

My brother did it while growing up. Couple of times searching for the bathroom would end up in a hallway closet. Best friend's brother slept with his eyes open - that was freaky. He looked like he was dead. Eye lids would be a bit more than half open but showing whites of his eyes as eyeballs were rolled back.

 

[Swedish K]

My brother's brother-in-law does. Scary thing is he is on one of the Denver area swat teams. His wife woke to the sound of breaking glass when he tried to walk out the bedroom window gun in hand on the 2nd floor. He didn't even wake up when he cut his feet on the broken glass. Apparently he turned to her when she asked him what he was doing and he thought he was at a raid and what was she doing there?. She finally talked him down a bit, took the gun and hid it away until he finally came to and asked what was happening. I bet she slept with one eye open for a while.

 

[iusmc2002]

My daughter does the same thing. Wakes up randomly and stumbles about the house talking about nothing you can understand, usually cries a little bit, and then gets led back to bed by one of us and doesn't remember it in the morning. Kinda funny, hearing her talk all jumbled up and walking into walls.
I used to work until 2300, and one night, shortly after moving to a new house, I came home and looked in the kids' rooms, just to check on them. She wasn't in her bed, so I figured she was in my room. Went in there, no kid, asked the wife where she was and she looked at me like I was messing with her. That was when the panic set in! We searched everywhere for her. Not in her closet (that had happened before), not on any of the couches, not in the garage, in the bathtubs, in the washer and dryer, I checked outside in the dewy grass for footprints, I mean we looked everywhere! We finally opened the linen/coat closet in the hallway to the bedrooms, and didn't see her. The wife was reaching for the phone to call the neighbors to bring their SAR dog over, and as I was shutting the closet door, I happened to catch a glimpse of something pink on the floor, under the lowest shelf (about 12 inches off the floor) and there she was in all her pink-footed-jammied-angelic glory. Very sobering evening! We duct-taped her to her bed for a couple weeks after that, just for our own sanity

 

[Botte Hork]

I wouldn't call it sleepwalking, but my son (2.5) has had a period of very rough nights. He moves a lot and had very lively dreams where at times he'd be crying/shouting in the middle of the night and I'd find him standing in the corner of his bed violently shaking. We took a good look at his TV time and content and that helped a lot. Plus none of that at least an hour before going to bed. Much calmer now, but of course that's in a different league from proper sleepwalkers. I hope I'll never have to go there.

 

[Kevatc]

My ex-wife once slept walked 2 blocks to her Mom's house at 2ish in the morning. Walked into her mom's house (why wasn't door locked???) and poured herself a bowl of cereal. Her mom came out to see what was going on and asked where I was to which she replied "I don't know, maybe you should call him". And that's how I found out she had left the house. I guess when she finally awoke she balled like a little kid cause it freaked her out that all this happened and she had no idea.

 

[Gaucho Gringo]

My sister used to do the same. We would find her in various parts of the house and she would have a perfectly sane conversation with you. We would guide her back to bed. In the morning she would not remember a thing. It stopped after a while and she never did it again. That was over 50 years ago. I did it once when my folks woke me up and I was standing in my closet. It must be something that some kids go through. As to an adult sleepwalking I see where it could have more serious repercussions.

 

[ZA_Survivalist]

I am one. I have parasomnia and sometimes night terrors. Yes even as an adult.
At least I was able to find some of my triggers early on from my family when I was younger.
Being too hot, eating too much before bed, going to bed angry or over stressed. Also, when my woman first moved in with me it was pretty bad.
Been to two sleep labs (Bogus, don't waste your money)

In most cases I've been told it peaks in adolescence when a teenagers hormones are going crazy. That was when I had it pretty bad. In some its brought on by other symptoms..stress, medication..etc. However those with a true blue sleeping disorder sometimes can grow out of them, some do not and others such as myself will have it for the rest of our lives but can find things to help curve the symptoms.
For me, medication was not the key. I'm not one of those anti meds people.. there were many factors that played into me not taking my medication anymore.

One odd thing people usually don't assume, I've never gone for a firearm. I've gone for a stick though..
(or at the time what I thought was a stick to "thwack" the thing I was seeing.)

I'll never say never though. So we lock up most and have one in my womans bed-side safe. My woman is a VERY light sleeper so she could wake me if anyone was to break in. We keep our loaded firearms with us until we go to bed then in the safes they go, but we keep a few out unloaded. (Need options)

..I figure, if someone is going to break into my house when I'm dead asleep, it would be MUCH worse if I was to have an episode whilst they were there. I sleep naked by the way to help control over-heating..so I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Think a hairy-naked-bear-esque 6'6 290 pound man on bath-salts versus some punk kid(s) or a crack head.. a gun might actually be used for something much worse than self defence on the intruder until I was to wake up.

For the most part many of the sleep disorders like mine deal with evading rather than attacking.
There is a good stand up act by Mike Birbiglia who also suffers from a form of parasomnia. I laughed pretty hard.

 

[WhyteCheddar]

I wouldn't call it sleepwalking, but my son (2.5) has had a period of very rough nights. He moves a lot and had very lively dreams where at times he'd be crying/shouting in the middle of the night and I'd find him standing in the corner of his bed violently shaking. We took a good look at his TV time and content and that helped a lot. Plus none of that at least an hour before going to bed. Much calmer now, but of course that's in a different league from proper sleepwalkers. I hope I'll never have to go there.

This sounds a bit like whats called 'Night Terrors'. When my (now 15yo) daughter was little...4-5yo she experienced these. It was scarey. she wouldnt walk around but sit up in bed and cry and sometimes scream like she could see things we couldnt see. She wouldnt wake up from it or act like we were even there with her. Went to a doctor about it and he educated us about the night terror thing and how to deal with her when it was happening. He also said she would out grow it and she finally did. We also think we found the trigger for them She used to love watching Crocodile Hunter and it seemed to be nights after watching that show that she had the problems. We started limiting her viewing of that show and shows like it and the night terrors really tapered off.

 

[Botte Hork]

@ZA_survivalist: Thank you for sharing that.

This sounds a bit like whats called 'Night Terrors'. When my (now 15yo) daughter was little...4-5yo she experienced these. It was scarey. she wouldnt walk around but sit up in bed and cry and sometimes scream like she could see things we couldnt see. She wouldnt wake up from it or act like we were even there with her. Went to a doctor about it and he educated us about the night terror thing and how to deal with her when it was happening. He also said she would out grow it and she finally did. We also think we found the trigger for them She used to love watching Crocodile Hunter and it seemed to be nights after watching that show that she had the problems. We started limiting her viewing of that show and shows like it and the night terrors really tapered off.

Just 15 minutes ago I came from his room. Sitting in his bed talking (in whatever language he invented) and I noticed he wasn't awake really. I sat next to him and he cried a bit and I wiped his bed with my hand (he's picky about "dirty" stuff) he calmed down and fell asleep again. He loves his routine and we do our best to keep it. Reducing TV and only nice kiddy stuff for not more than 30 minutes does help, but he likes to test the waters and play us to see more. Little politician.

 

[gallogiro]

My 4 year old does that; his is a mix of sleep walking and night terrors. He will walk around or just sit up crying and yelling. Occassionally he will not yell. That's when my wife freaks out, he will stand next to her bedside, inches from her face with a glazed look in his eye, whispering, "mommyyyyy... mommyyyy" My wife sits up and tries to talk to him and he says nothing with a stare that looks right through her, lol. Good times. She gets chills thinking about it, that's when I get woken up to get him back in bed.

To snap him out of it I usually have him drink some water or take him to go pee and after a couple minutes you can see the change in his face, like he's actually responsive, hard to explain. I always crack up when he snaps out of it and he looks around like what the hell am I doing in the bathroom.

I agree with the limiting television idea, it works for my kid. Also, the times that he stays up later than normal, night terrors for sure.

 

[Bon Sauvage]

I used to sleepwalk occasionally under the age of six. My three kids were all the same way.

 

[Grunwald]

A guy in my basic training platoon did it. One night when I had door guard duty he came over with eyes rounder and open wider than a Japanese cartoon character and was looking for artillery rounds and fuses. Very freaky, but after telling him a couple of times to go back to bed, he did. Luckily for me someone else already experience this before so I was aware that he did it. Not that I believed it, not until I saw it for myself.

 

[KONE KILLER]

I would do it when I was younger. I guess I was loud as hell! One of my parents would follow me around the house to make sure I didnt hurt myself. Only one night that I actually did something other than just move stuff around.... I went to take a pee in the kitchen garbage... My dad about died laughing as he woke me up.

One morning I woke up on the floor playing with a bunch of my LEGO sets that were way in the back of the case I had them in. No idea how I got them out with out breaking them.

 

[Stomper]

I guess when I was a little guy (according to my mom) I used walk out into the hallway in the middle of the night and proceed to pee on the baseboard heater... LMAO!

 

[Kevatc]

Two nights ago I got home from cutting firewood. I was one smoked dude. After a hot shower and an Ambien I sat down at my laptop and that is the last thing I know that I did. My wife came to let me know she was off to bed and I apparently said I was doing the same. She asked me if I could help her with the remotes as she had Netflix going but wanted to get back to normal TV and eject a DVD. I am told I hit a button and the TV did what it was suppossed to but then I asked her repeatedly what I was doing with the remotes. Eventually we made it to bed. About three hours later I guess I was wandering around the house making enough noise for her to get up to see what I was up to. In the process of trying to let my dogs out and to feed them (nowhere near time for either .... it was 2:30am) I apparently made some microwave desert. She said she finally realized I was out of it when I kept asking her to have a bite even though she said she didn't want any. I guess I kept asking her to have a bite like it was the first time I asked her .... over and over. She said I ate the desert and went to bed and that was that. I had absolutely no recollection of the events. I've taken Ambien many, many times and this has never happened before.

 

[jonn5335]

I used to sleepwalk and have night terrors from the age of 3-4 to 14-15 I still do very rarely have night terrors I had not had a night terror for a year or so until last month. I have always had trouble sleeping I can be so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open and not sleep for up to 3 nights at time. If I can manage to sleep I usually get 2-4 hours a night or if I'm up for 2-3 nights I can get 8-12 hours. I hate it when people ask me "Why don't you just go to sleep?" or say "I'm so tired I only got 6 hours of sleep last night." or "I've been up since 6:00 am." I have tried Lunesta it does no good to make a tried person even more tired and not fall asleep and when you do all the crazy dreams.

 

[g.i. joe]

I did it once that I know about. I was about 14 years old, Christmas time, fell asleep on the couch. Mom told me to go to bed, so I got up, reached across the rather large coffee table and grabbed a crystal dish of candy and headed up the stairs. Mom asked what I was doing, so I turned around, went back down the stairs back to the living room and deposited the dish back to where it came from, then back up to bed. The only thing I remember, was the pause on the steps, but I dont remember holding the candy dish.

 

[gallogiro]

@Stomper, My good friend says he did something similar as a child on a regular basis. He would pee on/in his dad's work boots. lol