Sleepwalking...what does it mean?

ajf9597

ajf9597

New member
Ok, so DS who is 6 1/2 gets up last night to go to the bathroom and then starts to head for the door that leads to the garage, DH asks what he's doing and he doesn't answer, he opens the door and when I went after him, he was getting ready to open the garage door and go outside. When I ask him what he's doing he tells me he's going outside and when I grabbed him to stop him he starts screaming at me and tries to struggle to go outside. I picked him up and showed him it was dark out and it was like by then he was already back asleep. I know you aren't supposed to wake them up, but what do you do and what does it mean if your kid is sleepwalking?
 
JJ sleepwalks off and on. One night he came down 2 flights of stairs and asked me to make him coffee. I told him no, he said okay, and went back to bed. :D

I put the baby gate back in his doorway after that.

The other times he's done it, I just usually redirect him back to bed when I hear him walking around in the bedroom.

He's never tried to go outside though. I don't know what I would do in that situation. He's not tall enough to reach the top locks on our doors yet.
 
they say it's VERY common at that age, and the BEST thing to do is make sure that your child gets more sleep/does not get overtired. Nathan sleptwalked at that age, too. When we made sure he went to bed earlier and it got better! He doesn't sleepwalk now.

They say to not lock bedroom doors and such due to fire hazards but you could put an alarm on his door if you were really worried :)
 
That would make sense Lena, about the more sleep thing. The last 3 days he hasn't gotten as much as he's used to because we've had JC Fremont days here, so we spent 13 hours down there Sat. I did make him go to bed a little earlier tonight. I've never heard him before and I'm just glad we were still awake or I would hate to think what would have happened. I made DH put a latch at the very top of the door, one that he can't reach. So hopefully it won't happen again, but if it does, there's no way for him to get out.
 
My son got up like a year ago and tried to go outside and he was sleepwalking. Luckily my husband and I were still up and in the living room or Im not sure what would have happened because it was like 2 in the morning when he did this. My nephew did it too and once went to go to the bathroom, opened my sister's linen closet and proceeded to pee all over her linens LOL. I know she did not think it was funny but when she told me about it I could not help but laugh. I agree about the sleep thing...I noticed that is when my kids have done it is when they are really tired.
 
Kendra used to sleepwalk all the time. She still does it once in a while (she's 11), but nothing like she used to. My "favorite" incident was when I found her in the kitchen in the middle of the night. She'd opened up the refrigerator door, squatted down in front, and peed on my floor (she'd DIE if she knew I was telling this).

Like Lena said, it seemed to happen most if she was overtired. I just always guide her back to bed. Sometimes she resists a little, but once she's laying down, she goes into a deep sleep again.
 
I am a sleepwalker. :sleep: As a sleepwalker, I can just say that it's not super harmful to wake a sleepwalker, but EXTREMELY confusing and when people get really confused they often get defensive. You can interact with a sleepwalker, but actually shaking them awake or whatever wouldn't be good. So what works best for me is when my husband will just say, "time to go to bed", "go to the bedroom", etc. Just keep directing the sleepwalker back to bed. I typically wake up after talking to my husband and then feel really really foolish. However, your bigger concern is making sure he doesn't leave the house. EEEk! You did good for latching it up high so it makes it a barrier for him leaving. I've also heard good things about using a motion detector light in certain areas if it continues to be a problem.

I know it drove my mom nuts when I was little, so you have my sympathies! :)
 
I'm glad it's more common, I was kind of concerned at first. My main concern was him trying to leave the house. I'm really glad we didn't go to bed early, it was like midnight and I can't imagine what would have happened. I'm not sure if he ever actually "woke" up, but he was really fighting me and yelling saying he was going outside and wouldn't "come to", so finally he let me pick him up and I carried him to bed. Now that we latched the door, I'm not really concerned about him getting out, as long as we get in the habit of latching it. I'm guessing we need to put one on the front door too, just incase.

I know there was a time a couple months ago, when I had went to bed and DH was sitting in the living room and DS came out there, pulled down his pants and was going to pee on the floor, but DH got him to the bathroom in time.
 
Everyone has given great advice! I have had a few sleep walker/night terror kids. I just reassure them and lead them back to bed.
 
My 5 year old just started doing this. I found him in going the bathroom the other night (in the bathroom) and he was sleepwalking. Sometimes he gets quite upset and he will be "running" while we are holding on to him. Sometimes he will even fall back asleep on his bed with his eyes open (kind of creepy). Neither my husband nor I are sleepwalkers, so this is all new for us.
 
I'm a sleep walker and all 3 of my kids have done it at one time or another. I'm a fairly light sleeper because of it, but my kids have never done anything too scary. I usually just turn them back towards bed and make sure they get tucked in. It seems to come and go... my middle daughter (13) is sleeptalking a lot right now. I had a period of night terrors back around Christmas.

I will share this story... when I was 5 years old, my mom woke up and heard a sound she thought she recognized. She went outside and I was riding my Big Wheel up and down the sidewalk at 2 am, completely asleep. My parents put a chain lock high on the front door after that. Probably not the safest thing if there was a fire, but... dang.
 
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