Does your child sleep walk?

[Sooze2]

HI there, my son who is 8 and (almost) diagnosed with Aspergers and possibly ADHD has suffered from night terrors since he was about 7 months and has been sleep walking since age 2.

 

I was wandering if anyone elses child sleep walks, no one I know has a child who sleep walks so it would be good to hear other peoples experiences.

 

He's been up the last 2 nights, he goes to sleep by about 11 pm at the earliest and if he is going to walk he will do so before 2 hours after that. Last night he walked but settled with me on the sofa quickly. The night before he was very frighted and asked if Daddy as still alive so I had to wake DH so DS could talk to him and then fell asleep in our bed - with his eyes half open. He seems awake and you can have proper if stilted conversations with him so you have to be carefull what you say, sometimes I say something really stupid just to see if he's awake - if he was he'd tell me not to be stupid and get grumpy but if he's asleep he'll always answer nicely.

 

Last week he was up for a long time one night, I was so tired that I didn't wake up so for the first time DH woke to hear him screeming for me and running around in the hallway. He tried to calm him down and put him back to bed but he kept getting up so they went in to the frontroom. Once he was asleep DH put him to bed but after about 20 minutes DS went to the loo and came back to the front room again, still asleep. I'm sure that it went on for a long time because I didn't catch it in time and he was getting distress. He was up and down for 2 hours from 2 am - 4 am.

 

Does anyone have the same with there child?

[NobbyNobbs]

not with a child but i sleepwalk and what you've described sounds very similar to what i did when i was younger.

 

i'd wander round the house, go into my parents room and talk to them, announce i needed the toilet to which they'd reply ... well go then!... and i'd happily wander off again and get back into bed (without going to the toilet). i will also walk down stairs and open doors, so my parents used to double-lock the front door incase i got out.

 

the worst ones were when i was having a lucid nightmare and walking at the same time, because i'd be out around the house thinking that whatever was in the dream was real because i could control it. i'd 'wake' screaming my head off halfway down the stairs or in the kitchen but was never properly awake and could be talked back to bed eventually.

 

sleepwalking and talking is an odd one. i would have vague ideas of what had gone on, but in my mind it was happening in my dreams. until someone told me what i'd done i didn't know it was real. does your son remember what happened in the night without you reminding him? because if he doesn't then the best thing is probably to not tell him. i found knowing i could do these things, but not control it far more disturbing than anything that was going on in my head when i was asleep.

 

i can't help with anything to stop it happening. stress brings mine on so perhaps a really good calmoing routine before bed might help your son?

[Enid]

Had a period with the 12yr old when he was going through a bad patch eariler this year, once I went in his room about 3am as something had distrurbed me, he was standing silently facing the wall, it was really spooky, I said what are you doing, and he replied, facing the wall, I said why and he said cos I want too, it was really odd, he then had a few periods after that of walking aound screaming in the middle of the night, but seems to have stopped for the mo, Enid

[loobylou2]

My daughter used to sleepwalk regularly when she was small, used to look like she was awake, eyes open, holding conversation etc. but have no recollection of it the following day. She still has very vivd dreams but only sleepwalks if she is stressed or away from home. She went to Germany on a school trip last year and her mates videoed her sleepwalking on their mobiles! She was mortified!

[bikemad]

My lad doesn't sleep walk but does how do I explain this well he seems to be awake n l talk to you but is actually asleep n don't remember it in the morning if that makes sense. Night terrors he has umpteen times a week.

[Suze]

YES ......We have the exact same problem, its usually worse after a stressful day , my son will be in a very distressed state , hallucinate etc, it can be very upsetting.I usually have to get him to lie back down and hold him tight till he relaxes again and goes back to sleep.We have been using melatonin for about a year now and this has helped , but not cured the problem.He shouts and screams and runs around, its really horrible seeing him like that ,he does,nt really have any recollection of it in the morning.

[smiley]

Same here - normally worse after a bad day. My son sleepwalks and has horrible night terrors.

 

And we both talk in our sleep - full conversations! No secrets in our house!

[Sooze2]

Wow, thanks a lot! The people I talk to think I'm mental - or he is!! I think I'm going to like it here!

 

One of my twins often gets up and puts something in the toy box for no apparent reason and one evening recently DH was brushing DS's teeth in the bathroon and she came into the bathroom with her doll, held it under the tap, pretended to turn it on and wash the dolls hair and then pretended to turn the tap off sat the doll in the tooth brush pot very precisely and then walked back to bed! She didn't respond to them talking to her at all! She rarely does it though - yet

 

DS must be in the middle of a dream when he gets up because he is usually distressed and it's usually something about monsters at school etc. He did once get up and sit on the stairs to tell me all about how a certain freind was lovely and was just gushing about him for ages - so sweet, remebered nothing in the morning. I don't tell him what he's done when he gets up because he never remembers it, sometimes he remembers the dream but thats it.

 

Breathes sigh of releif! I am not alone after all.

[CarolineJ]

Bim sleep walks often. He's a lot better and more secure when he has his bed set on. He has one of those Grobag my first duvet sets and it's done wonders for him! I must get another as I'm not always able to dry it and get it back in his bed straight away. Especially at times when he wets the bed.

[mum23]

Yes another one here, J. used to sleep walk lots from around 6 until he was about 10 now he seems to only have the night mares now. Oddly enough I used to sleep walk too mostly when away from home!

Anna

[Zosmum]

Z often sleep walks bit scary when we've caught her going down the stairs in the early hours. Again following a hard or stressful day. She also shouts out when asleep, hope she's not shouting at me in her dreams too as the things she shouts are really offensive

[pookie170]

Cal used to do this when younger, and the night terrors were horrendous. Never sleepwalked, but like me, sleeptalks frequently and loudly......it cracks my other half up, the wretch! And I've also had many conversations with Cal, whose eyes were open but whose mind was definitely somewhere else at the time! It was awfully strange........

 

Esther x