My 10yr old has always talked in his sleep and every once in a great while would walk in his sleep. Lately it has gotten worse. He is up several times a night walking or trying to walk. We went camping with his scout group and we shared a tent and at least 2 times he went for the door of the tent and each time I would wake up and pull him back down and hold on to him until I was sure he was going to stay. Last night 3 times he tried to get out of bed. He has once tried to leave out the front door in his sleep. He actually unlocked it and was turning the door knob when we stoped him. The weird thing was then we lived in a place where he had to walk down stairs to go out the door. Does anyone know how to stop this or if I need to talk to his doctor?
My husband has been a sleepwalker his entire life, and from what he has told me it was a lot worse when he was a child. It rarely happens anymore, but its very scary when it does.
In all honesty, D., I would take him to the doctor, just to see what they say.
Sleep walking can go away as he gets older and as far as I know there are not treatment options for this disorder, but your doctor could tell you more. Some things I would suggest is getting a deadbolt for the door, so in case he gets it unlocked he cannot get out the door and possibly hurt himself. Also make sure that things are put away and that if he gets out of bed he will not trip on something or be startled. they say that you should not wake someone who is sleep walking. I have a friend who would sleep walk, even to the point of making peanut butter and crackers, sitting down eating them, cleaning up after himself and going back to bed, the whole time he was just sleepwalking, and not actually awake. This continued for about 2 years and then he just stopped. So hopefully he will grow out of it. If you are really freaked out, give your doctor a call and see if there is anything that can be done. I wish you the best.
My son as night terrors, which are a little different. (He doesn't remember what is happening. Right now he just sits up in bed and screams, but there is a high possibility that he will start walking around.) His pediatrian recommended melatonin. It a natural vitamin type thing that you can by over the counter at the drug store. I keep forgetting to pick some up, but it's supposed to work really well. It might work for the sleep walking too. (It's suppose to keep the sleep cycle from being interrupted.)
My son is 3 and does this he was diagnosed with night terrors not nightmares at six months.....some nights its 2 aor 3 times anight or he will talke to me and not remember me putting him back to bed. some of the symtoms are sleepwalking trying to get out of the house , window , door by any means he will get wild and start crying. it takes about 30 minutes sometimes to calm him down........but his md suggested that we wake him 30 minutes after he goes to sleep and then let him fall back to sleep its sometimes breaks the cycle... has your son been to the doctor...... M.
I had the same situation happen here only a few weeks ago. Check the archives here on Mamasource for my "SLEEPWALKING!!" post. These ladies gave some great sources (links) that reassured me a LOT!
My story has a happy ending (also posted). There is a LOT of info on the web. Just type in "sleepwalking" and you'll get pages of good info!
BIG HUG
I would talk to my doctor because sleep walking is common but i am not sure what to do i know you are not suppose to wake them when they are walking for startling them my seven year old did it a few time but i just guided him back to bed and then he would stay so i never had a problem but if he is going out the door then i would talked to the doctor
I slept walk from the time I was about 7 until highschool. I walked outside once with my blanket in my hand and walked down the driveway toward the street. When my mother retrieved me I told her I needed to help our neighbor (that lived behind us, not in the direction which I was going!). I was in fifth grade at that time.
I remember all of my sleepwalking episodes, strangley enough. The last one I remember was my freshman or sophomore year and my dad and brother were talking in the room next to mine and I awoke and told them that my father's friend owed me money...it was weird! But it made sense to me at the time. My parents just always had me go back to bed and never really took any other precautions (that I'm aware of).
I've never had another episode since. There have been times that I have conversed with people in my sleep and have no recollection of it the next day (this has happened with roommates that woke me up or with my husband). Whatever safety precautions you need to take should be done..is there some kind of alarm that can go on the door of your son's room should he wake up and leave it in the middle of the night? I really don't have any other suggestions, just wanted to let you know that it did eventually go away and it wasn't a regular occurence. Good luck with your son!
Hi D.!
Locks are good but you need to make an appointment with his doctor ASAP! Sleepwalking once in while is ok but it seems he's doing it quite often. He could very well hurt himself or someone else and then you would have that guilt to live with. I have heard many horror stories about sleepwalkers and I would hate for anything to happen to him. I have also heard that it can be dangerous to wake someone that is sleepwalking. You might even want to consider having a sleep study done on him. (I had one done to see if I stopped breathing while I slept and it's a simple procedure where they attach little wires by tape to your head to read your brain activity. No needles or anything.) The dr I saw was Dr.Kaloji and his number is ###-###-####, in case your interested. You can also do a search for sleep disorders in your zip code or check with your insurance.
I hope that you don't think I'm being pushy. I'm sorry if I have but I also hope that this helps you in some way to make a decision. Best of luck to you and your family.
I agreed that you should put a lock on the door that is out of his reach. Or perhaps change your current deadbolt to one that is locked and unlocked from inside and outside with a key. You could keep the key on a nail on the wall out of his reach, unless you think he would go so far as to getting a chair in order to get the key! haha Or, maybe you could at least get a simple alarm that sounds when the door is open so that you will hear it and keep him inside.
Well that happened to me once that I know of and my parents knew about. My favorite aunt had just moved from our country and I was only like 4 or 5 years, and I just started walking towards the front door (which it was really hard for me to open when I was awake). My dad was watching tv in the living room and he keept saying: "where are you going?" when he saw that I opened the door then he grab me and put me to bed because outside that door there was this dog that hated me and had attack me before. The next day my dad asked me about it, I remember the whole thing but I thought it was a dream. I told him I was going to look for my aunt. But I dont recall any other episode. Does your son sleep walks when something hard has happened in his life? In my case my aunt leaving to another country seems to had caused it.
I think that it would go away or it would become a little less frequent, what would happen if someday he starts walking and you didnt notice? You need to speak to a doctor to see what he has to say about it.
