Help! My boy is on day 2 sleepwalking at nightime

[Anonymous]

It happened the first time on Monday night that he slept walked to our bedroom at 11pm. My sleepy husband woke up feeling someone starting at him, and he found 8 year old DS next to bed in master bedroom. He talked to something unclear for a few sentences, hanged out a few minutes on the bed, and he walked back to his bedroom and tucked himself in with door closed. I was in my toddler's room, so I did not find it out till in the morning. I have talked to him in the morning/in the late afternoon if he remembered what happened, and he said he did not remember anything. Today, it happened again, and he woke up leaving his bedroom door at around 11pm. I was downstair, and immediately ran upstairs asking him what's up because I heard the sound that he opened his bedroom door. He looked at me, and he said there is nothing, and he walked back to his bed, tucked himself in and fell asleep in seconds.

DH was awake and told me that I should not have talked or interrupted him. And, he said that DS probably was sleepwalking. Okay, now my question is why suddenly he is sleepwalking on day 2 out of blue? Should I do something wrong that I should not talk or look at or touch him at all? What should I have done instead? Will he walk downstair/open the front door in the dark if light is not on? Do people sleepwalk with eyes open and talk?

DH said that he remembered he had sleepwalking experiences when he was young, and then he outgrew till high school years. Should I blame the gene? I am a bit freaked out now because I have never sleepwalked or seen anyone sleepwalking before. I think DS probably sleepwalked. Should I talk to teacher what happened in school? He has a new homeroom teacher on Monday because previous teacher quitted in school, and I wonder if that triggered something?

[Anonymous]

I am responding simply because I sleptwalked a lot from about age 9 through late 20s. I just googled it - it can be genetic - but in the case of my family I'm the only one. The internet also mentions stress and OCD like pressures. Is any of this going on in his life? (could there be bullying at school, etc.).

"People with certain mental health and substance use disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), major depressive disorder, other anxiety disorders, and alcohol use disorder, are also more likely to sleepwalk."

[Anonymous]

An added thought from ^^ above. It appears that most sleepwalking cases are in children from ages 4-8.

"Sleepwalking commonly occurs between the ages of four and eight years, and children usually outgrow it. Sleepwalking occurs in healthy children, and it is not usually related to significant emotional or psychological problems. It most commonly occurs in the late evening (the first stages of sleep)."

Clearly, I am abnormal because I did it until late 20s.

There are many books on this, too, OP

[Anonymous]

OP- did you guys recently travel for Thanksgiving or have you been jumping into holiday celebrations?

Kids often start sleep walking either when they are traveling or have recently returned home or they are excited/anticipating something like a big holiday, a birthday party, a move, or other big event. Many kids sleep walk around the holidays.

[Anonymous]

I was a sleepwalker as a child. It was usually triggered by illness. I would actually attempt to leave my house. I would have absolutely no recollection of this in the morning. My parents told me they would just gently lead me back to bed (this is what the doctor told them to do). I know they had to install locks, alarms, and ensure there was nothing I could trip over. One of the first times I got tonsillitis on vacation and tried to leave the hotel room right on the beach. Thankfully, my mom heard the doorknob jiggling and me trying to unlock the door and woke up!

[Anonymous]

Make sure your sin can’t accidentally get out of the house at night.

[Anonymous]

Our oldest was a sleep walker for a few years, also had night terrors as a toddler. We did two things: 1) put a baby gate at the top of the stairs for added safety; and 2) take him to the bathroom. We found that the night terrors were related to needing to use the bathroom, so taking him to the bathroom at night stopped the terrors. With sleepwalking, we thought may the same thing was going on, so we silently directed him to the bathroom -- he'd go and then go to bed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make sure your sin can’t accidentally get out of the house at night.

+1 in addition to the baby gate at the top of the stairs, we activated the single beep on our doors and window alarm. You could just as easily put a local alarm on his bedroom door.

[Anonymous]

You can also put a chain or other extra lock that is harder to open.

[Anonymous]

My DD sleepwalked once, that I know of, in the wee hours of the night. I woke up, perhaps because she'd made a slight noise, found her standing at the top of the stairs, led her back to bed, and started to worry about her falling down the stairs in the middle of the night and maybe needing to find our old baby gate again!

I didn't observe another episode. She was 9 at the time, and now I think about it, it was right at the beginning of the pandemic. Maybe she was little stressed?

No advice, OP, but commiseration.

[Anonymous]

My DS did this quite a bit around age 8-9. We found it more prevalent after he had a few nights of not sleeping well. When he was sleep deprived, it was much more common. He would come downstairs and talk nonsense. We would just gently lead him back to bed and tuck him in again.

Talked with the doctor a bit about this. She suggested we had to break the cycle with actually less sleep for a while. I know, it sounded crazy. His bedtime had been around 8pm, but he'd often wake up 45-70 min later (not sleepwalking) and not be able to get back to sleep, followed by sleepwalking some nights. What we did was keep him up until 10pm or so for a week, some nights he wouldn't sleep well but many he didn't wake during the night. He was tired in the morning but it did help break the cycle. Then we moved bedtime to 9. It worked like a charm - no more sleepwalking.

He still struggles sometimes with waking in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep, but the sleepwalking has been over for a year now.

[Anonymous]

TL;DR

My dad had a reaction to dairy and sleep walked and had night terrors. Check into his diet or anything new at night.

[Anonymous]

My son did this for years. Figure out what you need to do to keep him safe. Eg, locks he can't reach on doors to the outside. Gate the stairwell. If you are worried, you could put an alarm on his bedrom door to wake you up when he exits the room at night.
When its happening, just turn him around and lead him back to bed. He won't remember a thing.
Take care with any overnights at friends houses or grandmas.

[Anonymous]

My DD did this a few times at that age. She outgrew it. The advice to just gently get them back to bed is right. Don't engage in conversation. They won't remember it in the morning.

[Anonymous]

My DD - 8 - has had some sleep walking / talking events since she was a toddler. They seem to come about during times where she seems extra stressed, or when she gets extra hot at night. I try and keep the temp down so she doesn’t get so hot - she already runs pretty warm, so I’m not certain there is a correlation to the nighttime sleep events, but it seems to help.