Sleep Walking - Denver,CO

My first piece of advice would be to put a lock on the outside of his bedroom door so he can't leave his room at night, or install locks up high on the all the doors of the house so he can't reach them. I say this because I saw a Dateline or 20/20 exclusive once about children who sleepwalk and are found outside roaming the street, in the neighbors yard, etc. Definitely talk to his pediatrician and let them know what is going on. He might even refer you to a specialist depending on the severity of the situation. Good Luck.

Both my kids did this. It is scary. They could get hurt or get out of the house but at the same time you don't want to restrict access to the bathroom or anything like that. Does he respond to your voice when sleepwalking? I found with my kids my daughter did and I could ask do you know where you are, and point out familiar objects and she would gradually come to herself and them be willing to go back to bed.Her brother was tougher, he would insist he was where ever he was dreaming about or was looking for one of his friends or a dinosaur or whatever but eventually could be persuaded that by getting back into bed he would get what he wanted. Mine out grew it - hopefully yours will too

It sounds similar to what my son experiences when he has night terrors. He is drenched with sweat and crying uncontrollably and shaking. Sometimes he carries on a conversation with me (while crying), but he never remembers anything the next day. Someone told me that in her experience with her children, if she could get them to go to the bathroom then they would settle right down. I've had some success with that. Good luck!

We struggled with night terrors and walking since one years old. My daughter is now only 4. We have changed the diet taking out all corn syrup and other perservatives. It is a low gluten and dairy diet as well. Also, we increased her rest time. I say rest time as she often doesn't fall asleep until 10 pm but she is to be quiet and play in the dark (supposed to be on her bed) at 8 pm. Havng this wind down time has helped a lot. Also, I found that she needed a LOT of time to talk things through I make sure that I spend 30 minutes every day just listening. It is hard to get in sometimes...but the day we don't, she has rouble. Don't do this before bed as that can upset them and worry them. Do it after school or in the evening. we start with our faorite funs and gratitudes before bed so it is positive. I am also working with her with visualization trerapy (closing eyes, yoga breaths, imagine leaves floating, etc.) I had this as a kid and horribly when pregnant. Meditation training and vuisualization helps a lot. Evetually, he can calm himself after you wake him up.

I don't think you are supposed to wake them up! I would research it online or ask his doctor and if you don't get help there they have specialist for things like that. good luck

As a kid I had the sleep walking issue. I didn't have night terrors where I screamed but I would feel anxiety over needing to find a family member. Like someone else said in their response...my mom would guide me into the bathroom and I would calm down enough to get back into bed or I would wake up.

Hi J.,
My son, age 9, has night terrors and sleep walking. He walks around crying, his fears seem to come out during this time and he doesn't let me touch him or help him. His have been happening since he was 18 months. The Dr. said they don't know a lot about night terrors other than they are related to sleep walking and they think it is part of the neurological system that isn't fully developed. It is rare but it can last up to age 15. My son does it much, much less frequently than he used to. What I have found to keep it from going full scale is to get to him as soon as it starts. I keep a monitor in his room so I could hear if he started to wake up, I would rush to his room, start to talk to him, tell him that everything was ok or I sing to him. He seems to settle down more quickly. If it does goes full scale I stay with him so he doesn't hurt himself, I have asked him questions and sometimes he answers, again it is fears usually about something happening to mom or dad that are coming out. We lived on a second floor and had a secure gate installed that we could latch in a way he couldn't unlatch on his own, also put a higher lock on the doors to outside as the Dr. said sleepwalkers can end up in the middle of the street and not know it. You hear people say not to wake them while sleep walking, my pediatrician says absolutely wake him if you can that it does no harm. For my son I can wake him with a cold wet cloth sometimes, he immediately wakes up and collapses in my arms and goes right back to sleep for the rest of the night. He never remembers any of this, even if I wake him. The Dr. doesn't think their is any long term affects from night terrors, just part of their system still developing.
Good luck,
SarahMM

definitely watch the nutrition thing and if you are religious please pray about it with him.

Hi J. my name is B.. We on occasion have the same problem with our 3yr old and the crying bit not the walking around, but we have finnaly figured out that he is not awake that he is doing this in his sleep and so we just cuddle with him and it takes a few minutes but he will fall right back to sleep. Hope this helps.

Hi J.,
I was a sleep walker and my daughter is now also a sleep walker. I agree with some of the other posts that you should watch what he is eating before bed,and mostly make sure that he is getting enough sleep and on a good schedule. My daughter walks in her sleep much more when she stays up late even if she gets the same amount of sleep in the night. For example if she goes to bed at 9 and wakes up at 7 she is less likely to sleep walk than if she goes to bed at 10:30 and wakes up at 8:30. The second thing that worked well for her, when she was the age of your son, was to go in and wake her up about 40 minutes after she went to sleep and have her go to the bathroom. Sleep walking occurs when there is a disruption in the sleep cycle that the person can't regulate. Often this happens as the person is shifting into their deep sleep about 30-50 minutes after they fall asleep. By resetting the cycle at this time the person is often able to get back to sleep and enter the deep sleep stage instead of being stuck in that in-between place where they sleep walk. This worked for both of my daughters but not everytime.
Mostly, I would say to you that he will be fine and will grow out of this stage. We have a baby gate that I put up in the hall outside my daughter's bedroom. That way when she really wakes up and needs something she can come out and get me or go to the bathroom or whatever. But if she is sleep walking, she gets to the gate and usually just turns around and goes back to bed. Sometimes she will call for me and when I get there and ask what she needs I can tell whether or not she is awake. If she isn't then I gently lead her back to bed and tuck her in without saying much of anything.
Good luck to you. Take care,
B.

Hi J.,

My 7 year old grandson, who lives with me, does the same thing, and has for several years. About 95% of the time, he needs to go to the bathroom, but can't quite wake up. Sometimes he is hysterically crying and wandering about, saying things that do not make sense, or looking for some odd thing. But actually, he needs to go to the bathroom. Talking to him does not help, because he is still asleep!! If we can get him to wake up, it helps. Try guiding him to the bathroom first, and then just stay by him til he can settle down. They never remember anything in the morning because they are really still asleep when this happens, even though their eyes are open. It is kind of creepy, I know. Just make sure he is not alone til he is back in bed and in a deeper sleep. My grandson gets a kick out of hearing about it the next day. He cannot believe he actually did and said those things. Good luck with it all. It is pretty common, I believe.

My one daughter sleep walks and she does it mostly when my husband and I are gone for the night or a big change has occured in her life. Like a new school or a big move. She has different reactions while she is sleeping. She is 16, now, and hasn't done it in a while. We always make sure someone is in the house that know what is going on. She usually needs to be guilded back to bed and is fine.
C. B

I slept walked as a kid. what my parents did was make me aware of it. I didn't believe them, but I remembered the dreams I had. One night they had me write on a piece of paper what time it was when I was sleep walking. The next day I found the piece of paper and asked them what it meant. They told me I was sleep walking and wrote down the time. This made me aware and actually remember sleep-walking. I never slept walked again! Could just be conciendence but worth a try.

I used to have sleepwalking problems as a child, and it was right around the same age as your son. My parents eventually figured out that I had to go to the bathroom but was not waking up fully. Every time I would sleep walk, they would walk me into the bathroom, I would go, and then I'd go back to bed.

I don't know for sure if this is your son's problem, but this is the age a lot of kids have nighttime wetting/bathroom issues. A couple of my girls had bedwetting problems at this age. They are suddenly "big kids", being in school full day, sometimes with activities or other things. They suddenly have stress/pressure for the first time in their lives, and they also are more tired from their day. My oldest was a heavy sleeper anyway, and add on the extra fatigue, and she just simply wouldn't wake up--so she'd either wet the bed or sleep walk.

We talked to our pediatrician about it, and he gave her some medication she took for a month that strengthened her bladder muscles. She was totally fine after that.

I hope your son's situation is as easy as that to fix. There could also be some psychological issues, but I would try the easy stuff first to rule it out. Then talk to your pediatrician. I'm sure he/she sees this a lot.

Hope it helps!
J.