Do any of you have a kid that sleepwalks? I *think* my ds is and it's freaking me out a little. I swear, this kid's sleep issues have caused all 5 of my gray hairs! I'm not positive that he's sleepwalking vs. just walking around after being woken by a dream, simply because I hear him after I've already gone to bed so it takes me a minute or two to get to him. The first time, I thought my dh was stomping through the house for some reason and called out to him to stop or he'd wake the kids. When my ds hear me call out, he started screaming for me to help him. I must have broken some kind of speed record getting to him because I thought the stomping was someone in the house. It turned out that he was completely disoriented when he realized he was in the living room and I wasn't where he'd thought I'd be so he yelled for me.

He's stomped around the house two other times now (over a two week period), always around 1am, and has seemed calm each of those times, going quietly back to bed when I take him back there. He comes from a long line of sleep issues. My dh was a sleepwalker as a child, I talk in my sleep often, dh and I both suffer from insomnia and my brother and my ds both suffered from night terrors. Does this sound like sleepwalking? Do any of your dks do this? Anything I should know about it so I can keep him safe or ease my mind?

By Kaye on Wednesday, September 5, 2007 - 08:21 pm:

I am a sleepwalker. My youngest son is also. What I have done, is very simply made sure he knows it is okay and that he can always sleep on the couch. Typically when I walk, it is completely stress related, I almost always wake laying down somewhere I didn't start. Once I did wake up standing in the garage. That even frightened me.

However when I was a kid, I would walk into either the family room or my parents room. It got to be so frequent, they set up a cot in their room (they had a cement uncarpeted floor). I almost always wound up in the cot and not the floor. Anyway, what my parents finally did, when our lives calmed down was buy me a new bed (a nice comfy waterbed). It really cut down my walking, from 5 or so nights a week to only once every couple of months. I think the comfort and level of sleep affects things.

So along those lines we bought my son a new blanket for his bed, some of those tshirt sheets and it does help him some.

I do think growing and changing bodies have them wake up partly and they just have to walk it off.

For advice. Keep your doors locked, if you have chains use them, keep the stairs and walkways picked up and offer blankets and pillows in safe places. We have a blanket and a pillow both on our couch and in a chair in our room and in their game room. I just hated finding my little guy rolled into a ball asleep under things...and the blankets seem to give him an out to go somewhere!

By Tink on Wednesday, September 5, 2007 - 11:45 pm:

Wonderful ideas, Kaye. I don't know why I don't just email you whenever S is giving me fits. You've always thought of something. I am wondering if this is new school year related and the fact that we're trying to go without any support staff this year. My dh is a blanket and pillow person so we have them stashed all over the house. I'll point those out to him before bed so his subconscious will know where to send him walking for a new place to sleep. He woke my dh up one night just standing at the foot of our bed, not speaking and just looking at us. Creepy! We just bought all new bedding for the kids (sheets, pillows and comforters) at the beginning of the summer so I'm just going to try to wait it out. It's always nice to know there is someone else out there who has BTDT.

By Dawnk777 on Wednesday, September 5, 2007 - 11:51 pm:

Sarah used to sleepwalk some, although not in a long time. I would also wake up and she would be standing there, not talking, and then would go back to sleep on her own. Sometimes she would tell us something, but it never made any sense. She hasn't done it in a LONG time, though.

In the morning, she wouldn't remember anymore.

By Tink on Thursday, September 6, 2007 - 01:20 am:

Seth hasn't remembered any of his sleepwalking episodes either but I've told him about them so that he'll understand if he wakes up where he doesn't belong. I'm really hoping this is just a quick phase and he'll outgrown VERY soon.

By Colette on Tuesday, September 11, 2007 - 10:40 pm:

I sleepwalk during times of extreme stress or anger. I get VERY mad if someone wakes me up during the process. Usually, I walk into another room and say something totally ridiculous - once I yelled at dh and his friend about "poodle lobsters" - and then go back to bed. One time, however, I did fall down the cellar stairs, so put locks on basement doors, follow him if you see him walking, but don't wake him up unless you have to.

By Tink on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - 03:50 pm:

Thanks, Colette. Luckily, every door has a deadbolt that he can't open and we have no stairs. So far, we've been able to guide him back to bed and he hasn't fought us about it at all. He's sleepwalked two times since I posted this and both times have been calm.