In the middle of the night last night I woke up & heard my 5 year old daughter crying downstairs. When I went downstairs she was walking back & forth in between the living room & kitchen. I tried to talk to her & I asked her what she was doing downstairs and she just stopped, looked up at me & didn't talk. She was sleepwalking! I put her back in bed & she immediatly fell back asleep. I asked her this morning if she remembered getting up last night & she didn't remember a thing. I was totally freaked out about it & worried that she could hurt herself, she went down the stairs when she was completely asleep! Just wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar.
This has been happening with my 11 year old nephew. He has done it since he was younger and sometime have horrible nightmares that he looks like he is awake yelling and screaming but he is not. And he vaguely remebers these episode. It is pretty scary.
Hi K., Yes I had a daughter who slept walked for about 10 years. It was exhausting for sure - the doctor stated she would grow out of it and she did but it took awhile.
K.
My 7 1/2 year old has sleep terrors and I find that he always has to go to the bathroom (which I read can trigger it) and/or when he is stressed. He runs around our house, but somehow has never bumped into anything. He also has full conversations, but they are usually incoherent. When he gets very upset and cries, it can sometimes wake him up. We guide him to the bathroom and/or just let him 'get it out of his system'. We cannot get him back in bed until he is ready. It has been going on for almost 2 years, but less and less. I hope he is growing out of it. Good luck with your daughter....I know it is scary.
my daughter who is 11 now.. has always slept walk.. looking it up and finding out about it.. i see that they usually don't get hurt when they know the surroundings.. like our homes.. she would go down stairs.. she would visit my husband and i and talk to us.. crazy.. but we htought oh well.. until she ventured out at night.. about midnight and she rang a neighbors doorbell.. thank god.. she had bare feet and a nightie on.. that's it.. freaked me out. we put alarms on our outside doors and her bedroom it has helped greatly.. and we tell others when she sleeps over that she does sleepwalk.. she has never done it at their houses.. but our house and a hotel once..
I hope it's a 1 time deal...I sleep walked as a kid..not very often but it was a little scarey for my parents...one thing my mom did was put a bell on my door so if I opened it she would hear it & she always kept my windows locked. HTH!
My brother and I walked in our sleep a lot when we were younger -- me even up to college. It may become a "tradition" that is nothing to worry about in itself, but you need to be sure your daughter is safe. I have walked out of hotel rooms in my sleep (waking up in the hallway), and once when on vacation when we were younger I had to bring my brother in from a hotel's balcony. If it looks like it's going to continue, put a gate at the steps and take other measures to keep her close to her room.
Good luck,
B.
This is actually pretty common and she won't remember anything about the episode b/c she was sleeping! The best thing you can do is walk her back to sleep and take precautions to make sure she is safe, just in case.
-put a bell on her door so that you wake-up if he leaves her room
-keep ALL exterior doors locked at night (bolt-locked to be certain)
-keep stairs blocked off
Help her unwind before going to bed- have quiet time so that her brain slows down before going to sleep. Kids outgrow this in time, but it's scary while it's happening. My husband walked in his sleep until he was about 10 and then it just stopped.
I would put up gates so she does not hurt herself. Really
nothing you can do about it.
