Conference moira::parenting_v3

    
    I was an active sleep talker/walker from ages 2 to 25. On many
    occassions my father would get up in the middle of the night only
    to find I was making breakfast, getting dressed, talking to the
    wind ect... all while sleeping.
    
    In my later years I had driven home (15 miles) in my sleep (I've got
    witnesses :-) and walked out of my apartment building at 2 AM in
    my pajamas in the middle of December (the cold woke me up just in
    time to realize I was locked out of the building - talk about feeling
    stupid).          
    
    
    What more can you do but keep an eye (or an ear) on her. Put a gate
    at the stairwell at night perhaps but beyond that .....
    
    Good luck,
    
    Doug.

ok, let's do a little rat-holing here...

I don't walk in my sleep, however it's the only explanation for the time I woke
up and found the living room furniture re-arranged.  (lived alone, all the doors
and windows were locked.  Can two cats collectively rearrange furniture?)

    I don't know about rearranging furniture....them's some cat's you own!
    But, both AJ and my husband can open their eyes, carry on a seemingly
    coherant conversation, and in my husband's case can answer the phone
    and have what seems to be a normal conversation, as was the case last
    night when DEC security had to call him about a problem, (he's a dotted
    line to them) He swore this morning the call never happened, I've been
    "yelled at" by him the next morning because he missed a fire call, which 
    he sat bolt upright in bed and gave me what seemed to be a perfectly 
    logical reason why he wasn't going.
    
    What's even scarier is that AJ will come upstairs, wake me up ask for a
    drink and swear he doesn't remember being up at all during the night. 
    Or I'll go in to check him before I go to bed, he'll open his eyes and
    ask for a drink and by the time I walk the 10 feet to the bathroom and
    back again he's snoring!
    
    It makes me sort of chuckle, but boy is it scarey at times, not to
    mention living with TWO males who do this!
    
    Lyn

    I used to sleepwalk and talk.  Nothing dangerous ever happened.
    I once woke up with the sheets from my parent's bed.  They told me I went
    into their room in the middle of the night and took them.  I've also
    gone to the phone and started carrying on a conversation with my
    best friend (laughing and everything) but it was actually only a 
    dial tone on the other end.  I've gotten up, walked into the
    livingroom, asked my mother if my part was straight, when she said
    yes I turned around and went back to bed (I was probably around
    12 then when my biggest problem in life was having a straight part).
    I think the last time I slept walked was the only time I was really
    embarrassed.  I was a junior or senior in high school and was at
    a sleepover.  Some of the kids were going to have to get up early
    because they were in the school band and had to get ready to leave
    on a bus to go to another school (I wasn't one of the kids).  I got 
    up in the middle of the night, went into the parent's bedroom and 
    asked if the bus was here yet.  I vaguely remember the mother with
    a worried look on her face coming to the door, telling me to go back
    to sleep and closing the door behind me.  
    
    This is all so funny to remember.  I never went outside or did anything
    dangerous (to the person who used to walk outside and also drive - now
    that's scary).  The only danger was to my sister's friend.  She was
    sleeping over our house and walked into our (my sister and my) bedroom.
    I sat up, eyes open, and looked at her.  She said hi and got worried
    when I just kept staring.  My sister told her I was asleep.  The friend
    freaked and went screaming out of the room.
    
    Donna 
    
    p.s.  Oh yea, I used to take spanish in school and once I asked my
          sister in the middle of the night, "Que hora es?" (What time is it)
    
    

    Does anybody have statistics on sleepwalking?  Does everybody do this,
    or just some fraction of the population?  Is it genetic?  Both my
    husband and I were sleepwalkers, and my 2 1/2 year old daughter just
    started.  I'm not really worried about it, just curious.
    
    					Mair
    

    Well, in my immediate family (parents, sisters) we have one sleep
    walker - my younger sister.  She's done it since she was a toddler.  I
    don't know if she still does it, but she sure did during her early 20's
    (she now approaching 29).
    
    I have one husband and two sons and none of us sleepwalks.  Although we
    do have a "sleep-mumbler".
    
    -sandy
    

I was a great sleep walker as a child.  I know I saw something in Ferber's
book about it.

I think a few of my brothers and sisters (I had seven) also sleep walked.

Markus also does sometimes (rarely).

ccb

    Friends of ours have two daughters (sort of ironic actually, the mother is 
    an adolescent psycaitrist, father is a lawyer dealing in psycaitric-legal 
    rights) the oldest girl frequently sleep-walks, the younger one never.
    We were visiting them one night when the daughter started "walking". 
    They very calmly turned her around and "steered" her back to bed.  We
    were told NEVER to wake a sleepwalker,  what did they do, they started
    yelling the child's name, which seemed to trigger some sort of response
    to turn around and go back to bed.  It was really sort of spooky to
    witness.
    
    My husband and son don't sleepwalk as such, but can sit up in bed, make
    perfectly sensible requests, have dialog conversations-even rational
    thinking, and never remember the conversation in the morning.
    
    Now my husband sort of sleepwalks to the bathroom in the morning, but
    that's more because he hasn't had his first cup of coffee yet!  ;-) !!
    
    Lyn