Education Explorers Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 After perusing the thread on an 8 year disrupting the mom's sleep, I figured I had nothing to lose by asking the rest of you. Our 11 year old DD is a perpetual sleep-walker. She is up usually two times a night about 5-6 nights a week. Needless to say, it gets really old. It also is very frustrating for her because it limits sleepovers and sleep-away camp for safety issues. Pediatrician and child psychologist (personal friend, not treating dd) both emphatically state that this is a "sleep pattern disorder." Anyone know how to break someone of sleep-walking? :bigear: P.S. She also suffered from extreme night-terrors until she was 8 (3 times a night every night from age 3 until she was 6, then they began to taper off). My husband and I would be delighted to have some un-interrupted sleep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaT Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 All of my sons (and my dh when he was a kid) are sleepwalkers. They have all outgrown it by 15 or thereabouts. One of mine also had night terrors - he doesn't have them anymore as an adult, and they stopped about the same time he stopped sleepwalking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 We have had the same pattern - night terrors then sleepwalking. It is indeed an interruption of REM sleep. I don't know if this will help you, but we found that magnesium in an epsom salt bath or in a magnesium drink called calm, was helpful for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandragood1 Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 My ds used to have night terrors. It was always at those times when he was over-tired. The cause could have been too short a nap, snoring at night, etc. When he slept restfully the previous night, he was fine the next. Doubtless, your kiddo is suffering from quality of sleep issues. Does the problem improve if you have earlier bedtimes, later rising times, and maybe the opportunity to doze off after lunch? You might be stuck in a vicious cycle with bad sleep. Temporarily forcing more sleep may help. You could also try melatonin to help break the cycle... and perhaps magnesium. Sandra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usetoschool Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 One of my kids did sleep walk in a scary way and I had them sleep with me after they told me about a dream where they thought they needed to go out in the back yard to kill a bear and woke up before going out, fortunately, but did find themselves downstairs. It is a little scary. For us it helped to make sure to get enough sleep and go to bed early enough. It mostly happened when the child was over tired. Also discovered they were a deep sleeper and had a hard time waking up to go to the bathroom. A lot of times they had to go to the bathroom but couldn't wake up enough to carry out what disturbed their sleep. Sorry this is worded awkwardly but didn't want to speak too personally about my kid. We made sure not to discuss what happened the next morning because they didn't remember doing anything and it kind of freaked them out and made it hard to sleep the next night. Hopefully your dd will grow out of it soon and you can all get a good night's rest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngieW in Texas Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 Maybe try to get a sleep study? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Education Explorers Posted April 21, 2012 Author Share Posted April 21, 2012 She has always had sleep issues, since the day we brought her home from the hospital. The night terrors were a constant, not an occasional occurrence. They were horrible. We eventually broke her of them by charting out the intervals, and then waking her before they hit. Slowly over year plus, we got them down to two a night and then one a night. Then they became sporadic and eventually stopped. As the night terrors decreased, the sleepwalking increased. She goes up and down the stairs, uses the restroom and all sorts of bizarre things while sound asleep. Her eyes may be open, she can talk etc. We have been fanatical about bedtimes and sleep routines to no avail. We have relaxed and tried no bedtime routine to see if that would help, but it didn't work either. We have noticed that she will have "cycles" of extremely bad (3-4 times a night) sleepwalking that last a month or two and then get better. It does seem to occur just before major growth spurts. :001_huh: I appreciate the recommendations about the magnesium and melatonin. We will research them and see if it might work for us. Our pediatrician recommended a sleep study clinic that we could use, but he also didn't feel that they would be very helpful. (He is virtually dead-on with his recommendations, which is why we love him. So, I don't hold out much hope for the sleep study). We have always been very frank with our daughter about the sleepwalking. She is a pretty good sport about it. She understands that if she is in a "bad cycle," then slumber parties etc. are out. It is frustrating for all of us. When she wakes up exhausted in the morning, she usually asks how many times she got up during the night? She physically feels it on the 3-4 times a night. Thank goodness we are homeschooling this year and we can let her sleep in the mornings. I can not imagine trying to wake this poor child at 6:30a.m. after she has been prowling the house til 3 in the morning. It would be a nightmare. It is a "perk" of homeschooling that we didn't calculate into our decision, but that has been very helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelingChris Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 My middle had it plus sleep terrors. She outgrew it at about 14 years of age. She wasn't so frequent as yours but she did break her wrist doing it once- before we knew she was doing it. (SHe was on a top bunk and fell while trying to get down). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbgrace Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 I would do the sleep study. You could find that something (apnea espisodes for example) are waking her in which case treatment will help her. That may not be terribly common but with her severity I think it is actually more likely than the occasional/family history sleep walkers like my son. I found this http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/128/5/1062.full which talks about apnea findings and treatment helping. I think it's worth the study to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gracesteacher Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 personally when she is in a bad cycle i would get a sleep study. Figure out what is the trigger is. Seizure apnea lack of proper sleep low o2 there can be many triggers for her Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 My brother was a sleepwalker, and some of my children have sleepwalked a few times. There was a thread about this a year or so ago, and many people said their children were sleepwalking because they had a full bladder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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