All Communities > November 2006 Babies > Sleepwalking

Sleepwalking

Tiffany - posted on 05/01/2009 ( 3 moms have responded )

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I think my son is a sleepwalker. We have a gate to his room because he freaks out big time if the door is closed. Anyway, a few nights ago we were awakened by his screaming, but it was really faint. It was coming from downstairs! Even though I was sick as a dog, I was down the hall before my husbend even got out of bed, and when I descended the stairs my son was just standing in the middle of the room looking terribly confused and crying tears.

Now, we do have another gate at the bottom of the stairs that you can walk through because of my 12 mo old daughter, and he knows how to lift the gate and go up and down the stairs like a big boy. If he were awake, surely he would have just gown back upstairs quietly.

What scares me is, if he really was sleepwalking, that means he climbed over his gate, walked downstairs, lifted a latch to another gate to open it, and then woke up in the middle of the room! Quite intricate, but so scary too. What do I do if he manages to unlock the front door and walk out it? We have an alarm and it beeps twice when the front door opens, but theres no way we'd hear that in a dead sleep.

Does anyone here have any suggestions? I don't even know how to organize my thoughts to deal with this.

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3 Comments

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Joy - posted on 03/05/2010

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I am a sleep walker! When I am sleepwalking, all you need do is start talking to me and I go back to bed!

My 3 yr old son is also a sleepwalker! I remember him crying, disorientated etc sitting up in bed (shortly after he'd learned to sit up)! I've busted him sleepwalking a few times since he learned to walk! Generally he is standing in the middle of a room screaming, crying and totally disorienated! he also gets night terrors! He doesn't mind his door being closed, but he can open it anyway, which just means we lock the doors before bed!

The best thing to do when confronting a sleepwalker is talk to them calmly and navigate them back to bed safely!

If you can find a safe way to lock your door so that it can't be opened by a toddler, please do so! I was caught leaving home a couple of times as a teenager and my parents had to stick things in the door to jam it closed! Sometimes it is the most simple thing, as long as they don't realise it's there. I'm also told that when your sleepwalking you mimic real life events ie opening doors, playing with toys etc

I have also found that when I've been particularly stressed, sleepdeprived, or similar that's when I've been caught sleepwalking! As a toddler this shouldn't be a problem, but for future reference.

I hope some of this helps! A tricky problem with no real clear answer!!

Trichelle - posted on 08/29/2009

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i have a sleep walker too. he has gotten up in bed before stood straight up and almost walked off the bed! he starts screaming but hes not awake. and he cannot be consoled for a very lonnng time when he does this.. i dont know how to deal with it either

Michelle - posted on 06/16/2009

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Well I don't have a sleep walker and don't know much about that sorry. But you can buy these door thingies from walmart or target from saftey first that go over the door handle so they can't open them. OR if don't have the round handles, I would put a latch or some kind of lock up WAY high so that he can't open the door.

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