You sleepwalked where?!

One of my friends was also a sleepwalker as a child and still does occasionally now. I remember when I was in 5th grade, it was a different friend's Birthday and she had a slumber party. My first friend ended up sleep walking that night. I woke up and realized what she was doing and tried to wake her up, but it was difficult. I understand now why it was so hard. It's because she was in either stage 3 or 4 which is a deeper sleep then the first two stages. In stage 3 and 4, delta waves occur in the brain which causes this deeper sleep and kept my friend from waking up.

As a sleepwalker when I was younger, I can definitely attest to the strange happenings of sleep walking. I was the sleep walker that would get up get ready for school and then finally snap out of it shortly before I was almost ready and then head back to bed. This event occurred multiple times over my middle school years. I have since grown out of this stage and no longer sleep walk but have a close friend that sleep walks as an every night occurrence. The question always arises about why people sleep walk and my friend was so curious, as well as worried, that he looked more into it. He went in to labs to do research over a 2 month period. At the end of the two months they developed explanations for his sleep walking, it was due to his other abnormal sleep habits outside of sleep walking. Each different "sleeping disorder" per say, contributed to the lack of deep sleep that he should get each night making him more prone to sleep walking.

While reading this article, I would have never have guessed that sleepwalking was present in 30% of children. I consider that a high percentage. I have never been caught sleepwalking and am not included in the 30%. Although I have been known to be extremely hard to wake up in the morning. Sleep tendencies are pretty random in their occurrence. There has not been reliable research to show that sleep walking is determined by certain characteristics.

I have heard many stories of people's sleepwalking escapades. My friend has been known to sleep walking around her house and even outside. One morning a few years ago her mother went to wake her up for school and she was not in her bed. There was a major scurry as everyone was madly searching the house looking for her. She calmly awoke her from her hiding place outside in her tree house and walked inside. She saw everyone frantically searching and asked them what was wrong. We all still reminisce about that frantic morning of searching.

Interesting stories here Amy. I am sure you made your parents worried about you at times but even though you point out how dangerous this behavior can be for children, I don't know if I have ever heard about something terrible happening to a child while sleepwalking.

Not that it hasn't happened, but I suspect that it doesn't happen as often as we might suspect is that sleepwalking might entail a special state between consciousness and sleeping that allows us to be aware enough of our surroundings that we avoid doing something stupid like walking in front of a car.

It is kind of like when a mother can sleep through a loud thunderstorm but the muffled cries of her baby will wake her up.

My youngest daughter sleepwalks and it is crazy to witness. We worry that she will fall down the stairs or go outside but so far its all been harmless. I don't know what tends to cause it and I am sure it would be a difficult thing to study. I don't even know if it is more likely in children although the statistics you quote make it sound very common for kids.

Have you grown out of it or do you still sleepwalk from time to time? I guess if you live alone you may never know!

I have heard that it is also dangerous to wake up a person sleep walking because they could be having a nightmare and lash out on you.

Anyhow, I know someone who would also get ready for school in the morning. The funniest story I can think of is when he got dressed, went downstairs, poured a bowl of cheerios with orange juice and started eating. He woke up in the middle of this and everyone just started laughing at him.

Sleep walking to me is a very curious thing. For someone to do this and have no idea that they are doing it can be so bizarre. I hate dealing with sleep walkers and I have done so on a few occasions. One night, at about 2:00AM I heard a noise upstairs in my house. I went upstairs and truly thought someone had broken into our home. It ended up being my father just sitting at the dinner table. He was drinking a cup or orange juice and clearly was sleep walking because he was making no sense. It was obvious, and he soon retired to the couch into a deep sleep.

I do see the idea that it could be dangerous, and I have heard many stories about people sleep walking to the point where it becomes threatening to their safety.