Life with a Sleepwalker

I AM A SLEEPWALKER (and talker)!



There, I said it...now everyone knows.

The picture above makes it look like a sleepwalker moves like a walking zombie. I can tell you, that in my case, my eyes are the only way to tell if I am asleep or awake. I move normally, talk normally, but eyes will be glazed over.

Most people that sleepwalk when they are little, grow out of it...well, not me. In fact, sleepwalking is a genetic thing for me and yes, both the kids do it too. I can usually tell when I'm gonna walk or talk before I go to bed at night. It happens on nights when I am extremely tired or stressed out. (So, if you are wondering...yes, I walked in my sleep 3 nights while I was in Denver.) So, you might be wondering too, how do I know that I do it? It's weird for me. I am usually aware of what I am doing, however, I lack the ability to differentiate between the dream and reality and cannot consciously control my actions. It feels like someone else is in control of my body and thoughts.

Tony has had 14+ years to get used to my sleep walking. At first, I woke him up every time, but now he typically sleeps through it. Luckily, neither of the kids have ever seen me do it....until last Friday night!

It was a little after 9pm and I had fallen asleep in my bed watching the news. The kids were watching TV in the living room and Ashton came into my room to ask me a question. When she did, it woke me up just enough that I was still dreaming...and I was dreaming about a giant spider on my ceiling. I jumped out of bed yelling about the spider. I squatted down at the foot of the bed and would not take my eyes off the ceiling. Let me tell you...that spider was huge and I knew it was gonna jump on me or Ashton. That's when I turned around and saw tears in Ashton's eyes and she said, "mom, you're scaring me". Well, it still took a few more seconds, but I quickly realized I was dreaming and was able to wake up enough to decide the spider was not real. I felt so bad for scaring Ashton. I told her she finally got to witness her crazy mom sleepwalking.

I don't think she is permanently scarred by the situation, but it has certainly been something we've laughed about since it happened. Now, don't you want to spend the night me sometime! It's lots of fun!