Sleepwalking!

[PoppyPlum]

DD (5) has always struggled with sleep / coming out at night but things have just moved onto a new level.

Yesterday around 10.30pm I pottered onto the landing having had a bath and she was just sitting there, quiet and wide eyed, staring at me.

No response to questions other than nodding when I asked if she was ok. I then asked if she was awake or asleep and she said asleep . Led her back to bed where she promptly lay down and closed her eyes.

Any tips for young sleep walkers? I'm going to have to get the stair gate back out again I expect.. although she could undo that in her sleep?

I’d expect her to be fine at home...at about 8 I walked down four flights of stairs, made two lidded cups of milk and...handed one to our nanny who was standing in the hallway. I was fast asleep.

In new environments you’ll want to be a little careful. Frighteningly I nearly walked out of a large window in a villa in France (fell over the sheets that were still wrapped around my legs as they weren’t a duvet and that woke me as I was grappling with the shutters). I am quite over cautious therefore about leaving windows open other than at home.

I also didn’t lock my door in university halls because I ended up randomly asleep in the corridor too often.

I’ve never grown out of it although it’s less frequent (perhaps because DH retrieves me if I try to go wandering).

Oh wow Delurking that sounds quite spectacular!

I'm hoping she'll grow out of it. She's often sitting up in her sleep and talking but this is the first time she's actually left the bed. She had no recollection of it the next day.

We always lock the front door at night so we are ok on that front, but we usually set the burglar alarm downstairs which could be interesting..

DS was a sleepwalker. You could tell when he was sleepwalking, as his face had a vacant look and he couldn't talk to us, probably because he was somewhere else in his head. I'd just walk him back to bed and he would go right back to sleep again.

You might find there's a pattern to this. DS was most likely to sleepwalk around 10-11 pm ish. He's pretty much grown out of it now, not had an incident in a couple of years.

Anything that she knows how to work awake she will know how to use asleep. Both myself and both my brothers sleepwalk and I don't know how my mum ever got any sleep with the stuff we got up to.

Definitely worth having a look around the house and assessing any possible dangers - my youngest brother used to break the lock on the cupboard under the sink to get to bleach etc. My middle brother used to go for a walk outside the house if the key was left anywhere he could find it. I've had to do all sorts as an adult to keep myself safe at night.

Mostly it's harmless but good luck!!

Yes hopefully it will be mostly harmless, although she is very adventurous in the day so I dread to think what she might get up to at night!

Thanks for your advice