sleepwalkers?

Dente deLion · #1 03/01/07, 03:23 PM

DH reported that DS(5) was caught sleepwalking for the first time a few nights ago. DH is a former sleepwalker himself. I'm wondering if there's any reason I should be worried about it, and if there's anything we can or should do about it. Thanks!

navygirl · #2 03/01/07, 04:22 PM

I've been a sleepwalker too. Once stepped off the deep end of a set of stairs. Woke up at the bottom all bruised.
Safety is the big concern. Make sure he can't get out of the house and that there are no stairs without safety railing, lol.

mistletoad · #3 03/01/07, 04:56 PM

Our eldest was a sleepwalker - as long as you directed him to the bathroom quickly there was nothing to worry about! lol

hoggie · #4 03/01/07, 05:46 PM

If he's five he should be ok - its when he gets older there could be problems. I never sleepwalked as a kid but started in my late teens and still do it now occasionally. Never did any harm but a couple of times my partner caught me on the way out of a hotel bedroom (did I mention that I sleep in the nod )LOL

And it took me a while to figure out that on occasion I was going out to the animals in my sleep (started wearing pjamas after I worked out that one) good job there were no close neighbours. Only other problem is from time to time I find I've raided the biscuit tin/sweet tin in the night

hoggie

danoon · #5 03/01/07, 05:48 PM

Had a girlfriend who would wake up in the kitchen floor with food all around her. Happened a couple times a month.

mistletoad · #6 03/01/07, 06:01 PM

uh-huh Hoggie - now we know why you have that nickname!

tinknal · #7 03/01/07, 06:04 PM

My DD went through a spell of this. I would have conversations with her and everything. She has seemed to grow out of it.

fitwind · #8 03/01/07, 06:20 PM

My DD sleepwalks sometimes. I haven't been able to figure out what triggers it. She has been doing it for a few years. We haven't had any problems so far. The only thing we worry about is her going outside so we make sure the doors are locked. She has tried to go out the back door once. Most of the time she comes out, goes right for daddy and he carries her straight back to bed. She did the funniest thing one night though she was sleepwalking and walked right by us and went to the laundry room and started flicking the light switch on and off, I went to pick her up she wouldn't stop turning the lights on and off......it took me a while to pull her away. The strange thing is she never remembers anything. I would just make sure your doors are locked at night( that would be my worst nightmare). She should be just fine... =-)

pumpkinlady · #9 03/01/07, 06:44 PM

When I was young, my younger sister went through a faze of sleep walking. 2 of the most common things she did was: go and practice the piano and the other was get a shower.

Lawbag · #10 03/01/07, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pumpkinlady

When I was young, my younger sister went through a faze of sleep walking. 2 of the most common things she did was: go and practice the piano and the other was get a shower.

Oh my, I thought I was the only one who took showers in my sleep - back when I was a teenager.

Safety is big concern - I used to wake up holding the front door open. So put a latch high up and bolt it at night.

Ramblin Wreck · #11 03/01/07, 08:15 PM

I was a sleepwalker as a youngster, but I grew out of it. Never got hurt, even if I was going up or down stairs. My Mom asked me what I was doing during one episode, and she says I told her I was trying to follow/catch a blue light. Never caught it I guess.

Grandmotherbear · #12 03/01/07, 09:06 PM

Safety is the biggy. DS sleptwalked out of a top bunk bed at summer camp and missed losing an eye by only an inch or two. he also sleptwalked at my mothers house and broke some of her stuff pulling it off the shelves and throwing it. It increased as he got older.
My unintentional solution was to trade in his twin bed on a balloon style waterbed. That's the oldfashioned kind. It is almost impossible to climb out of without waking up all the way.
His wife says he doesn't sleepwalk any more.

country_wife · #13 03/01/07, 09:32 PM

Get a couple of door alarms and install them immediately! Our Dollar Tree has them. If you can't find them at yours, try Target. And never, ever let your little one turn them off by himself. If he doesn't do it when he's awake, he most likely won't do it in his sleep.

All country · #14 03/01/07, 10:36 PM

When DH & I were first married, we lived on a lake, neighbors all around us. One night he stopped me as I started to head out onto our deck. I was sound asleep and stark naked.
I have learned to sleep wearing a nightgown. Usually, I will have it on when I wake up

.
Sometimes wake up and wonder how did I get her? Usually in the living room or someplace like that.

My family also finds it funny to have conversations with me when I am asleep. Especially when the kids want a "yes" answer and know they will get a "no" if I am awake. I used to do the same thing to my Mom.

Most of my kids do sleep walk a bit. Thankfully not as often as I do. With our youngest it only seems to be when he needs to go pee. Like another poster, if we see him sleep walking, we direct him to the bathroom.

The door alarm advice is very good. We put dead bolts and chain locks on our doors when the kids were little. We put the chain locks high so they couldn't reach them. I think door alarms sound even better. Might even consider window alarms. I know that I crawled out the window once when I was a kid. My parents said I was going thru the motions of washing the windows?

sweetcountrygrl · #15 03/02/07, 06:39 AM

I was a sleep walker as a child and I remember more than once waking up somewhere and wondering how I got there. I have only done so a handful of times as an adult.

RachAnn in NW Okla · #16 03/02/07, 07:18 AM

I am a reformed sleepwalker.....It was bad in junior high and even worse in high school....my trigger was not enough sleep and/or stress....

even now, if I am up late several days or something in my life has me extra stressed I will talk in my sleep...it has been about 8-9 years since the last major sleepwalking episode

I would do crazy things like in JH I got up went to the livingroom and told my mom "I remember now, it was blue and white stripe-ed"

mom says "that's nice but was is striped".....

I said "no it was stripe-ed" ---

she says "okay what was stripe-ed".....

I said "oh you know it has those stripes and they are blue....and white....and......"

well mom said "why dont you go back to bed and you can tell me the name of it tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay"----and back to my room I went!!!

I dont have any recollection of actually doing this....

another time while spending the night at a friend's house.....I got up off the couch, went and unlocked her front door, opened it and yelled "Toodles shut the ..... up" then shut and relocked the door and went back to the couch!

her dog was barking!!!!

your son should grow out of it....in the meantime look at any dangers he could incounter such as getting outside and looking if something is contributing such as lack of adequate sleep or sickness

Rachel

Dente deLion · #17 03/02/07, 08:31 AM

Wow, thanks, everyone! Sounds like we could get some good stories as long as we can contain him in the house!

ladyrua · #18 03/02/07, 10:28 AM

I'm 27 and I still sleepwalk! I love hearing the stories about what other people have done - I've woken up to find that I moved my bed (by myself, queen sized with wood frame) into the middle of my room. I've rearranged the silverware drawer onto the kitchen floor in weird patterns. I'm also told that I talk in my sleep, and can answer questions but have no knowledge of it later.

So does anyone have any ideas or research that says *why* we do this?

Ardie/WI · #19 03/02/07, 10:47 AM

As a teenager, my DD would sleep walk when she had to go to the bathroom. Once, I caught her just in time. She was about to "go" on our dog who slept by my bed.