Do You Sleepwalk?

[misszerable]

I have a paternal uncle who often sleepwalked and his sleepwalking were often not the ordinary episode of sleepwalking inside the house. He would actually take a ride and go somewhere else in his pajamas. In the rare times that I've seen him sleepwalk in the house, he would turn the TV on at a time when there were no longer any programs available for watching. I remember seeing his glassy look while 'watching' the blank TV screen. Years later, he would disappear just before dawn break. A neighbor was the last one to see him running off in a dark alley. That was 15 years ago and no one has seen him since. A few weeks before he disappeared, he was sent back to our country from an overseas employment because he was supposedly observed to be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. My uncle had a medical history of being confined to a psychiatric ward when his first marriage fell apart so he apparently could not cope emotionally to traumatic events. He had to work overseas because his business venture failed and it had caused him extreme anxiety. I've always associated his sleepwalking to his loss of control over his emotions and mental faculties. I only learned recently that it's possible - sleepwalking has been linked to a number of medical conditions including psychiatric disorders like panic attacks, PTSD, or dissociative conditions. I've only experienced sleepwalking once, and it happened during my mother's wake. Any sleepwalking experience?

 

[Laneorexorcist]

I don't know that this might be considered ad sleepwalking but I have had some weird experiences over this subject. When I was little I was asleep and I used to sleep on the same room with my sister and that day I let the light of the bathroom turned on and she is really picky when it comes to those little things, so she woke me up telling me that I needed to turn it off, I got mad and I started to hitting her, and then I went back to sleep, but the curious thing of all is that I don't remember anything of it! At the next day I woke up saying hi to her and she was really mad but I had no idea why, lol. And now I still wake myself and I'm touching my arms, and I have been doing this since I can remember... that's really weird.

 

[Countryhalli]

While I was growing up, while I had to go spend weekends at my fathers house I used to get up and sleepwalk around the house and I have been told I would have full conversations with everyone. I never noticed it as much while I was at home with my mom and family, but if occured mostly while at my fathers. I haven't noticed this happening anymore, however I do find myself waking in the middle of the night and I kind of sit up in bed or take a step or two then I realize what I am doing and I go back to bed. I have heard of people actually getting in cars and driving around and shopping and everything while in their sleep, but I am myself have never done that and would be scared to death if I ever found myself doing it

 

[sidney]

No, luckily I never had any sleepwalking experience. However, my friend does, but she has no mental issues though. Maybe normal people are susceptible to sleepwalk too, but it's just not common.

 

[fuzyon]

My mom always said that sleepwalking correlates to anxiety in a lot of ways, surprisingly I don't sleepwalk that often and when I do I walk a few meters then go back to bed. That being said, I talk in my sleep every night and that has really annoyed my girlfriend. I find it kind of funny.

 

[Novelangel]

When I was about nine or ten, I sleep-walked and my parents told me about it later as I had no recollection of it. Apparently they caught me standing in my bedroom doorway, eyes wide open and staring and when they asked me what was wrong, I didn't respond. I can't remember if they told me I went back to bed by myself or not, but I got back there somehow. They never broached the subject with me again, so I guess that was the only time that it happened. I'll have to ask them if they remember that occasion.

 

[kgord]

I don't think I have ever sleepwalked but a guy I used to live with, used to sleeptalk all the time. It wasn't just muttering, I mean he would carry on entire conversations it seemed in his sleep. I was having a nightmare one day, and did a bit of sleeptalking, because I woke myself up saying, "get away, get away" It is rather unusual for me to have nightmares, but then again, I don't make it a habit to watch "Scream" before bed, most of the time!

 

[17emilyhalko]

I definitely sleepwalk, though I more commonly talk in my sleep. I know that I sleepwalk, though, because once my grandmother was in the living room with me, and I sleep on the couch, and she was trying to sleep on a chair, and she saw me randomly get up and walk across the room, pick something up, drop it, and then go back to bed. My mother also heard me singing "Rocking Robin" once too. I've also been known to scream and click my tongue against my mouth in my sleep.

 

[Peachdejour]

I used to sleep walk when I was a kid, but now I have what they call REM sleep behavioral disorder where I act out my dreams! Imagine dream flashbacks! My fiancé says that some nights it looks like I'm fighting battles. I actually take klonopin at night to keep my muscle tone relaxed so I don't get out of bed during my dreams and I can stay safe because I was injuring myself in my sleep.

 

[joshposh]

I use to sleepwalk when I was a kid, but that's about it really.  My mom would wake my up as I would fall asleep in the living room while watching TV.  I would wake up, go into my bedroom, grab my pillow and blanket and then go back to the living room to fall asleep on the couch.  Not sure what that was about, but that's what I was told that I did the next morning.  My mom was pissed at me.  


Currently, I'm a PTSD sufferer, but I do not sleep walk.  I do hear things before falling asleep that triggers me to wake up in a panic state, as if the events were starting up again.

 

[sorrowscall]

I used to sleepwalk when I was first weening off my sleep medication. It started getting too out of control for me when I started drinking milk in the middle of the night and talking to my sister; who thought I was completely awake at the time. I enjoyed having long bangs and it would've been impossible to see my eyes (best Beatles phase ever). For a while I would tie my hand to a bed post until I got over it. 

 

[Aree Wongwanlee]

No, I don't think I have ever sleepwalked. At least, neither my mother nor my wife had ever told me that I did. However, I have seen two persons sleepwalking. One is my younger brother. He even went as far as opening the front door and was about to go down the steps when we stopped him. The other is one of my sons. He would get up, wander into the living room and go back to bed again without opening his eyes. That only happened when he was a kid. When he grew up, he didn't do it anymore.

 

[explorerX7]

I have never sleep walked but I have had some brief encounters with persons who have. When I was a youngster, I had this friend that would fall asleep while he was watching  the television and when I would try to awake him he would get up, walk a bit while sleeping and then snap out of it. I know it can be a dangerous thing because there was once this person who had sleepwalked onto a balcony and he fell from the balcony and died.

 

[lexinonomous]

Sleep walking was a big issue for me as a child, but not so much today. As a child I would make my way down my grandmother's stairs to lay on the couch. I would have absolutely no recollection of what happened and why. I remember waking up in strange places. For instance, I would wake up behind the couch a lot and it was scare me. Waking up in the closet was just as scary as well. Finally, the sleep walking stopped when I grew up a bit more. I don't know what caused the walking, but it was a bit frustrating for my grandmother. I remember her waking up in the middle of the night and finding me in random places, worried because she was unaware of what was going on.

 

[oportosanto]

The same case with me @lexinonomous. As a kid I used to sleepwalk a lot, to the point that my parents needed to lock the doors because I tended to go open the doors and go outside. Fortunately nothing bad happened and with age it seemed to go away. My parents never gave it much importance and apparently it meant nothing?

 

[DDNatureLover]

To my knowledge, I've never sleepwalked, nor have I lived with anyone who did. Your @misszerableuncle's case sounds as if it was probably stressful on the family. Do y'all still wonder if he's out there somewhere? There are stories of people going off in fugue states, and maybe he dissociated and is living a completely different life somewhere. I would probably always be wondering. It does sound as if he was unable to handle a lot of stress. It's a shame that he didn't get the treatment he obviously needed. I think it would be scary to wake up somewhere else and not know how I had gotten there. I've seen this type of event portrayed a lot on television shows and in movies, but have never seen or experienced it. 

 

[Padre]

I have not much, though there were at least two cases in adulthood in which I did.  One of said freaked out my wife quite a bit.  I'm not sure what triggered it, but it was weird, to put it mildly.  I feel for those that regularly experience the phenomenon.

 

[amy88]

I never have - and I don't think I've personally known anyone who has, either!


I do wonder what percentage of the population sleepwalks - I'm quite curious now.

 

[Jasmin Cottontail]

My hubby told me that I sleepwalk. Of course I wouldn't know that but whenever I sleepwalk, he would have wake me up and tell me to go back to bed. The following morning he would ask me to where would I go or what was my dream last night because I was sleepwalking. There was even a time when I almost got out of the gate wearing only a shirt and my undies. I was really horrified when he told me that. I don't know what caused it but my parents never mentioned that I sleepwalk when I was a child. Well good thing it stopped

 

[Allenafaith]

I used to sleep walk about ten or 11 years ago when I was 5 or 6 years old. I remember one night, I was awake and asleep, I remember what I was doing, but I couldn't stop myself. I got up in the middle of the night, went to the wall, took a picture off of the wall, walked to the kitchen and laid it on the table, and I laid back down and went back to sleep. My mom was usually up sitting at the kitchen table reading her bible every morning when I was that age, I remember her watching me do it but not saying anything. It was really weird. I don't think I've sleep walked since then.