Sleepwalking difficult child any advice????????

Lothlorien

Active Member
Missy does sleep walk. She has for a long time. I used to do it when I was younger, but don't really do it anymore. (after you have kids, your sleep patterns change drastically) Most of the time, she'll come downstairs at 11:00/11:30 at night "to spend time with us". Usually, we just walk her back upstairs and put her right back to bed and she's fast asleep. I'm always worried she's going to fall down the stairs when she does this. We have a very high staircase and no break in the middle.

The new problem is that yesterday morning, husband came downstairs and ALL the lights were on, the basement door was wide open and the lights were on in the basement. We ALWAYS check all this before going to bed. We definitely did not leave all those lights on. She must have gotten up in the middle of the night and went all the way down to the basement. She went back to bed, because husband went back up to check and they were both in bed sleeping. Missy does not remember getting up in the middle of the night.

What should we do? She can get through a gate when she's sleeping, as she used to do that. I'm afraid if we put an alarm on her door, it would scare her awake and cause more of problem. I've heard weird things that happen when you wake someone who's sleepwalking.
 

Suz

(the future) MRS. GERE
Hmmm....install a very high lock on the basement door.

Rob used to sleepwalk...more like sleep-run!It would scare the bejeezus out of us. He'd charge out of his room and run around the house talking nonsense. We'd escort him back to bed and he'd be fine. He would do this when he was under a lot of stress or had gotten into trouble. It was startling.

Suz
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
You can buy a gizmo, thingy that will softly beep if she, or anyone, walks out her doorway. We have one at the store that makes a beep to let us know if someone enters the front door so
we can work in the warehouse and not be concerned about ignoring
customers. It's kinda like what we have for the auto garage door
opener....two tiny boxes that shine a beam at each other. Then
the beam connect is broken, it beeps.

Of course......if you have a cat and a dog and another kid, you
may miss alot of sleep checking out beeps! DDD
 

smallworld

Moderator
If you can't get at the root cause of the sleepwalking (for example, anxiety or fatigue), then the main goal is to keep Missy safe. That may involve some creative childproofing, like double gating your stairway and a lock at the top of the basement doorway, as Suz suggested. I know it may be costly, but there are childproofing firms that will come to your house and offer solutions for making your home safe.

Good luck.
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
We hung a wind chime on Duckie's door so that we will know when she leaves her room. It gives us a bit of peace of mind.
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
All good suggestions. After collaborating ideas....I think I will get her some door beads and attach some simple bells to them. Should be subtle enough, without waking easy child and give us some warning. Not sure that would wake me all the time, but it's something. I will have husband install a high sliding lock on the basement door on Monday.
 
Just FWIW, the problem with waking a sleepwalker (that I have learned) is that, especially if it is a child, what you get is a kid who wakes up and then is frightened because they have no idea how they got where they are.
When difficult child 1 used to sleepwalk, I dug up her old baby monitor. But I like the idea of the beads with the bells...
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Good suggestions.

easy child was/is a sleepwalker. We took her to a hypnotherapist to change the speed of her REMs. She also had night terrors. The therapy made a huge difference!
 
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