Do you have anyone in your family that sleepwalks?

[kschick96]

Time to spill sleepwalking stories that have happened to you or someone in your family.


DH has been a sleepwalker our entire marriage. Last night at 12:30am he jumps out of bed, flips on the light and starts yelling at me to help him find his shirt. He is looking all over the place and grabs the laundry hamper in the closet and starts fling clothes out of it looking for his shirt. He stops suddenly goes into the bathroom, comes back out, shuts off the light, lays down and is out!

When my mom was little she lived on a busy highway. She would sleepwalk out the door (this was a tiny town and back when you could leave your doors unlocked) and would walk next to the highway! She said she found sand in her bed every morning and couldn't figure out how it got there. My grandma (who was a strange lady) said she heard her leave each night, but figured she would make it back ok.

How about you?

[lasab]

My DS who is 9 sleepwalks, and so do I. My son will walk around, mumbling things that don't make sense. He is always frustrated and half way crying. If I tell him to go back to bed and physically turn him around he will go to bed and go back to sleep.

I have once walked over to the neighbor's house. It goes down as one of the most embarassing moments in my life. Usually I do random things in the house. I will be reminded of my doings in the morning when I find all of the wall hangings stacked in the corner and have a slight memory of taking pictures off the wall in the middle of the night.

I tend to sleep walk more often when I have gone several nights without good sleep. It is always early in the night time (around 11:00) when I am just falling asleep.

[Jen1]

I used to do that when I was little, I don't think I ever left the house though. Sometimes I think my little one does. Hard to tell if they are awake or not-when they have eyes open and can talk too. They usually will not have reccolection <(sp.?) the next day though.

[B_small_77]

My 5 year old does this sometimes. He will get out of bed and walk to the toy box and...um...number 1. It doesn't happen often, but he takes off his clothes and gets back into bed. No one notices it happening, he is sooo quiet. I've never seen him do it, but know what's up as soon as I wake them up. Hopefully the habit will end soon. I don't know how to make it stop, hoping its just a phase. Sorry to hear your DH does it, best of luck to ya!

[aimeebee]

My 7yo son walks and talks in his sleep. He can crack us all up...I have found usually that whenever he is talking, crying or getting up it is because he has to go to the bathroom but can't wake himself up. He is the only one of my kids who ever had accidents in the night after being potty trained. Whenever I hear him start moving or whatever I do my best to wake him up and point him in the direction of the bathroom.

Most times before doing his business he will stand there still talking and dreaming. Sometimes, crying and getting upset (because really needs to go) and a lot of times it is nearly impossible to get him to wake up and realize he is already in the bathroom.

If I don't hear him and then physically take him into the bathroom and watch what he is doing he will be peeing in a corner, the register, the bathtub, the sink or the trashcan. A couple of times he has even made it into the bathroom and to the toilet but the darn lid was down. Sometimes, I think he is awake. but then he starts heading for his bedroom or god forbid, the refrigerator. The cutest thing is when he washes his hands in his sleep. LOL, in midair, no water, no soap, no towel. If I haven't caught him in time, he will just stand there going through the motions and then go back to bed. At least then I get an idea of where he left his mark.

Unfortunately, this is a regular thing at our house. It might even happen 2 or 3 times in the same week. There are times when he doesn't do it for awhile; then just as soon as I think he is over it, he starts up again.

[farmergirl]

DH is a sleepwalker/talker. Once I was having a horrible time waking him up and I told him I needed to get to work (he had to drop me off). He sat up, looked at me and said that if I didn't leave him alone he was gonna torch the car. Then laid back down. I, being me, told him that if he was gonna do all that he might as well just get the heck up. He got up, got dressed, grabbed a lighter, went to the shed and got the can of gas and was walking to the car. I PUNCHED him as hard as I could. He FINALLY woke up, started yelling at me for hitting him and asked why I did that. I told him to look at his hands......... he thanked me for hitting him and took me to work. Note, this is the ONLY time I've ever done this (except for some other dangerous sleep walking episodes- we are not violent).

One night he sat up in bed, woke me up and said "they're here". I asked who was here? He told me to get in the basement. I said no. He said I had to get in the basement but it was okay cuz he had the assault rifle and the terrorists wouldn't make it in the house. I dumped a glass of COLD water on him so he wouldn't get one of the hunting rifles out of the safe. He woke up TICKED but understood.

Cold water will almost always wake up DH (and he's an extremely heavy sleeper). If any of your sleepwalkers are doing something dangerous I suggest tossing a glass of cold water at them (and jumping back in case they start swinging before they are fully awake, DH never has but I've heard it's a risk with some sleepwalkers). With DH I can converse with him and figure out if the dream is gonna make him do something dangerous or not, if not dangerous I just go back to sleep. It's interesting how he always knows who I am even though he's asleep and has never threatened me. Actually he's usually trying to protect me from some imaginary threat. Kinda sweet really.

[Macaela25]

I used to sleepwalk as a child and my 5 year old does also. I used to wander outside to the point where my parents put up a baby gate in my doorway. They found me several times ramming the gate trying to get through it, completely asleep but eyes wide open.

My mother did catch me just as I was walking into the surf when we rented a beach condo many years ago. At five I'd figured out the unfamiliar hotel room deadbolts on the door and headed straight for the beach. When I was a child I would sleepwalk when undergoing great stress or change, and DS does the same.

I don't think I sleepwalk anymore, but I did wallop DH really hard one night while dreaming that he was having an affair with a very elderly lady at church (YUCK!). I was pregnant at the time and blamed it on hormones. I really felt bad the next morning!

[JulieDB]

I have. Not sure I do any more. I was told I did it at a slumber party. Then as a young adult I remember getting up, coming downstairs getting $3 out of my wallet, going to the door and telling the Girl Scout that I wanted a box of chocolate mint. Then apparently I went back to bedf.

Only thing is, it was the middle of the night and there was no Girl Scout. Not sure where the money went but most likely my roommate too it. She was terrible. In the end I had to kick her out for non payment of rent and had to sue her for the money owed. My landlord also sued her for check fraud. And while I can't prove it, I think she waited till I went to the bathroom, took $30 out of my wallet and then gave it to me for the utilities. Another time she paid me with rolls of pennies that I had wrapped and stuck my own address labels on!

Anyway... The next morning she told me that I went to the door and said I wanted chocolate mint. That was rather embarrassing.