Anyone with sleepwalker experience?

I'm worried that Trevor might be prone to sleepwalking. We converted the cribs to toddler beds last night (we had been just leaving the railing in the dropped position). Trevor fell out of bed about an hour after going to sleep. OK, so maybe he rolled really hard and managed to go over the railing since it's just a few inches above the mattress height. But moments ago, I heard screaming from their room (they were down for nap) and found Trevor's pillow by the door and him on the other side of the room behind Trent's crib climbing into the drawer. His reaction to my presence was very strange and he was upset by my attempts to retrieve him and then it was like he woke up and was fine... except that he didn't want his usual blanket (freaked out when I tried to put it on him) but he wanted this other one from the drawer that he was holding when he stopped crying. He did want the pillow back and a drink of water. He's drifting off again now but that was very, very weird. Both have had issues with confusional arousal episodes (mild night terrors) and I understand that sleepwalking is in the same family. But is this how a sleepwalker normally acts?

Edited for crazy run-on sentence and typos

 

When he woke, he didn't seem to remember anything about it. I asked him if he tried to sleep under Trent's bed and he said I was being silly. He also said something about the wrong blanket being in his bed and he put it back in the drawer and got his regular one off of the floor. I think that about seals it for me. Since they both had the confusional arousals and are ID, does this now mean I'm likely to have a pair of sleepwalkers?

SIL recently sent me a door hanger with a bell at the bottom and I'm thinking I'll start hanging that on their doorknob when I go to bed. It would ring when the door opens.

 

Debi, I think the bell is a really good idea.

I don't have any kiddo sleep walking experience but I do know for myself I get out of bed and start looking for 'things' (right now usually a baby :huh: ) on occasion. When I wake up (usually in the middle of riffling through something I'm confused/disoriented/sometimes scared for unknown reasons.

I don't think I've ever gone out of our bedroom, at least I've never woken up anywhere else. There must be varying degrees of sleepwalking?

But short story long, it does seem to happen to me more during times of stress. I don't remember doing it at all frequently before I had the girls, but since I've had them it's occured a lot more frequently. So maybe just the stress of transitioning to the big boy beds and in a day or so, he'll settle in and it'll be a thing of the past.

 

my brother used to sleep walk until he was about 10. he would slowly come downstairs, dragging his blanky behind him, sit on the couch and just stare stright a head like a zombie. when we would ask him questions he would answer them in gibberish and my mom would just gently and slowly lead him back upstairs and into bed. he never went outside or anything, but it was still a bit creepy

sorry, I know that was no help, but sleepwalking isn't always dangerous.

 

this link might help its pretty facinating
http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/slpwalking.html

 

I hope this is just a sickness-related oddity and that things get back to normal without further incident.

We also had CA/NT peaking around 10-15m, so I'm hoping this isn't related to that, but I do know that our night terror episodes were over-tired related.

In the meantime, definitely employ that bell! :hug:

 

After more reading, I guess I should have posted this in 5-11 since it seems they're on the very young side for sleepwalking and in some tiny minority. The good news is that I also read that kids who start at a young age generally grow out of it while kids who start after 9 generally continue to sleepwalk into adulthood. The bad news is that they now want to sleep with the door open. <_< They've slept door-closed since the day they moved from the cosleeper to their room and now they want the flippin door open. I'm going to shut it before I go to bed and put up the bell anyway but for crying out loud...

Mods, any chance I can get the thread moved to 5-11? I'd really like some BTDT feedback.

 

I slept walked till I was...in my 20's. Yes, I woke up outside often. One time I woke up out my window on my roof. Once, when I lived in Philly on Broad St. I woke up outside in bare feet (broken glass everywhere there...)

My mom used to walk with me when ever she knew I was doing it, but she didn't often know. She said there was no making me make sense or wake up.

Sorry, don't know what to tell you!

 

Jonathan will sleepwalk to the bathroom during the night. The bad part is that sometimes, he doesn't find the bathroom, although that hasn't happened in a long time. Generally, I can turn him back towards his room and he goes right back to bed.

 

I have a sleepwalker. He suffered from night terrors when he was really little, and it has now turned into sleepwalking. I have found him standing in his doorway as I went up to bed (that was freaky), I found his sitting on the stairs, but usually he comes into our room and speaks nonsense. I just walk him back to bed and tuck him in. He has no idea what he is doing.

 

I was a sleepwalker/sleeptalker as a child, and ended up outside a couple times. I seem to have grown out of it, though I'll sometimes have conversations with my husband in my sleep. My only practical advice is that you should just go along with whatever they are insisting upon (of course, that's true for me in my awake time too ). Don't bother trying to talk them out of whatever it is they're talking about -- that will only make the sleepwalker/talker upset and prolong the semi-awake phase. Just agree, reassure and lead him back to bed.

As for the door open or closed, I'd just let them go to bed with it open and then close it, to activate your wandering-alarm, on your way to bed.