I got lost in a closet last night

[DeeBye]

I'm a sleepwalker. I have been ever since I was a little kid. My mother tells me stories about all of the crazy places she used to find me. I once even wandered outside and woke up in my backyard.

I don't sleepwalk too much these days, but it still happens every once in a while. About a year ago I woke up sleepwalking in the hallway outside my apartment wearing nothing but a pair of boxer briefs and a confused look on my face. Fortunately it was in the middle of the night and all of my elderly neighbours were fast asleep, otherwise I'd have a hard time explaining to the cops what I was doing wandering a hallway late at night clad in my underwear.

Last night I woke up from a sleepwalking episode. It was horrifying. I don't know if anyone here has ever woken up while sleepwalking, but it's not like waking up regularly. You sort of fade into conciousness very gradually. It's rather like being in a dream, only the dream begins to get more real until you realise that you aren't dreaming at all.

When I faded into conciousness last night, I was aware that I was standing up and that it was pitch black. I felt around to see where I was. I could feel that I was in a confined area, but in my not-quite-awake state I wasn't able to determine exactly where.

I started freaking out a bit. I could feel a wall behind me and I waved ran my hand across it looking for a light switch. I found nothing. I felt a pile of boxes in front of me, so I pushed them over. I took a step into the darkness in front of me and fell overtop of the boxes. I was seriously disoriented. Imagine being drugged up, blindfolded, and placed in a pitch black strange setting. That's what I was dealing with.

I started madly feeling my way around to see if I could find any sort of lightswitch or familiar object. After what seemed like hours (it was only a few seconds), I found another wall and managed to find a lightswitch.

I flicked it on, and once again my world became sane. I was in the hallway outside my bedroom, and I apparently sleepwalked my way into my storage closet.

I think I've figured out the "trigger" for my sleepwalking episodes too. I had to pee. In fact, I REALLY had to pee. I think that what sometimes happens to me is that if I have to get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, my brain just puts my body into "autopilot" without fully waking me up. I'll get out of bed, walk the familiar route to the bathroom, do my business and climb back into bed. All the while I'll be completely unaware of what I'm doing. The body is in motion, but the brain is still off in dreamland.

Every once in awhile, it seems that my "autopilot" loses it's map to the bathroom and I wake up in crazy places.

My wife used to get freaked out when I would sleepwalk, but now she's pretty much gotten used to it. Sometimes she'll catch me sleepwalking and guide me back to bed without even waking me up. Other times she'll just go ahead and wake me up (btw, in my experience the "don't ever wake up a sleepwalker" rule is a myth).

So, does anyone else here sleepwalk or am I just a freak?

[--Pete]

Hi,

So, does anyone else here sleepwalk or am I just a freak?

Probably and yes :)

--Pete

[DeeBye]

Probably and yes :)

Damn you and your succinct answers!

[--Pete]

Hi,

OK

--Pete

[Rhydderch Hael]

When I have to endure an unanticipated re-initialization of the ancillary command branch of my neural-net processor (caused by severe physical battle damage or getting caught within 2.3 MG of EMP), I rely on GPS signal triangulation or, failing that, a star tracker tied to my primary targetting optics. Only then am I able to re-orient myself and proceed with my primary mission objective: kill John Connor.

[LochnarITB]

I'm a sleepwalker.  I have been ever since I was a little kid.  My mother tells me stories about all of the crazy places she used to find me.  I once even wandered outside and woke up in my backyard.

Have you ever done any sleep posting? That would explain soooo much! :P

I think I've figured out the "trigger" for my sleepwalking episodes too.  I had to pee.  In fact, I REALLY had to pee.

I've never gone to the extent of sleep walking but I do frequently dream of having to go. I always end up searching through some unknown house or building filled with people I know. If I do find a place, it is always out in the open amongst all those people so I can't use it anyway. :blink:

[kandrathe]

I can relate to the vivid dream part. That is how I dream. It is rare that I ever have the suspend reality type "dream" to frolic with forest fairies. Mostly I dream very realistically that I'm somewhere witnessing something, usually horrifying. The people I see and hear aren't anyone I know or have ever seen before as far as I remember.

For instance, I dreamt recently I was in my bed, and that I had awoken sensing something a miss in my room. My eyes were adjusting to the darkness when I was suddenly able to make out a figure of a man standing next to my bed holding an axe. Just as he swung it to cleave my skull, I awoke for real. The worst part was that it just seemed like the dude disappeared. I was awake, and trying to convince myself I had a nightmare and that there was no axe wielding madman loose in my room. It's hard to close your eyes after that.

[yangman]

I'm no sleepwalker myself, but I do have a friend who does, or at least did.

From what I remember, on the more bizzare cases, she had walked around the house closing windows, and once woke up lying on her front yard. Naturally, it freaked out her young brother pretty badly when he first found her walking wandering around the house aimlessly in the middle of the night and wouldn't say anything when he tried to talk to her.

IIRC, she's been woken up by her brothers during one of those times as well, and she's pretty normal. Well, relatively anyway. Well, aside from her tendency to frequently do something stupid and end up in awkward situations. Yeah, she's... normal...
:unsure:




:P

[TaMeOlta]

When I have to endure an unanticipated re-initialization of the ancillary command branch of my neural-net processor (caused by severe physical battle damage or getting caught within 2.3 MG of EMP), I rely on GPS signal triangulation or, failing that, a star tracker tied to my primary targetting optics. Only then am I able to re-orient myself and proceed with my primary mission objective: kill John Connor.

:lol: I'm dying here !! They actually think I like working here because I am smiling as if I "know something they don't " ...... :lol:

[Sir_Die_alot]

I don't get lost like Dee and find myself in strange places but I have been known to sleep (insert verb here). It seems to be more the opposite of Dee though, my brain doesn't turn fully OFF, so I seem to try to continue what I was doing that day.

Back when I was crusing my way though a SNES RPG (can't remember which) my dad told me I had gone to his room in the middle of the night and announced "I have an item.". Another time I woke up at the dinner table halfway through. :blink: Countless times my mom exploited my ability to sleepwalk and lead me to bed when I fell asleep on the couch. I eventually got used to the disorientation of waking up in bed even though that's not where I fell asleep.

So, does anyone else here sleepwalk or am I just a freak?

I'm with Pete, we are both freaks.

[Bido]

I'm not a sleepwalker but I know a number of people who are. It' weird what people will do when they're sleepwalking though, I once saw my friend sitting on the edge of his bed moving his arms as if he was paddling a boat...He must have been having a dream about kayaking or something. Another person I know, started sleepwalking but then threw things at me. He picked up a kleenex box and chucked it at me then he said sorry, and the whole time he was sleeping...It's very freaky when someone throws something then talks to you while they're still sleeping...

[Chaerophon]

Well, I don't know if it quite formally qualifies as sleepwalking, but, when I was younger, I, like you, Dee, had a bit of a problem when it came to getting up to take a leak. I've peed on boxes, in a spare bed, and in a closet on separate occasions, and in all cases but the last one, have returned to bed and not realized what had happened until the morning! Perhaps funniest of all is that, during the bed incident, I had the good sense to pull back the sheets before doing the deed, and then replace them to their original position before retiring. Luckily, I vaguely remembered the event the next day or it could have meant disaster!

Anyways, it hasn't happened in 6 or 7 years, but I still worry that it could someday happen at a time or place when/where it would be disastrous, e.g. a hotel hallway or some such thing.

[TaiDaishar]

For instance, I dreamt recently I was in my bed, and that I had awoken sensing something a miss in my room.  My eyes were adjusting to the darkness when I was suddenly able to make out a figure of a man standing next to my bed holding an axe.  Just as he swung it to cleave my skull, I awoke for real.  The worst part was that it just seemed like the dude disappeared.  I was awake, and trying to convince myself I had a nightmare and that there was no axe wielding madman loose in my room.  It's hard to close your eyes after that.

While reading this I had a very vivid picture of a axe wielding man in an executioner's hood and robes... spooky :ph34r:

Well, I never sleepwalked or anything like this but I am aware to that "fading into reality" sensation, it's the best way of waking up in my opinion as I seem to always wake up very fresh and ready :D

[Obi2Kenobi]

I sleep<verb> often. Usually I just awake to find myself sitting up in my bed with me holding my blankets down, and I realize I thought there was a very angry <insect/small creature/other thing> and I was trying to hold it down. But other times, I go through the actions and then go back to bed. I normally don't know about it until the next morning when I am told about my conversations. The worst I have done was when I dreamt my sister was actually a murderer and was chasing me with a knife, so I ran out of my room, down the stairs, and then out the door. My mother, woken up by my jumping down 8 flights of stairs, called to my sister to go get me. (Can you tell where this is going?) So she tries to run outside to get me. I, however, had other plans. I woke to find myself standing in a twelve inch snowdrift holding the door shut with my sister pulling as hard as she could on the other side. I let go of it, and she just asked me "What are you doing?" and I, not really knowing, replied "Nothing..." and went back to bed.

[Daemon]

that "fading into reality" sensation, it's the best way of waking up in my opinion

I hate that, because the few times it has happened to me, was during some horrible dream.

The worst was that one time, I cannot tell at which point I "woke up", and was dreaming I was in my very bed, and had just woken up. Then I could not breath anymore, and I was held down in my bed, totaly unable to move a muscle. At the point where I was about to suffocate and pass out, it was there I think I woke up, taking a BIG deep puff of fresh air and raised to sit, totaly freaked out!

There was also that one time, in summer camp, back when I was in the Scouts, we slept in a tent, and I was next to that girl, who claims during the night, I stood up and punched her in the belly (not really hard though!)

Nowadays, I sometimes wake-up in the night, and start saying a bunch of nonsense jiberish, which wakes my girlfriend up, she tells me to go back to sleep or whatever, but I keep argueing with a lot of conviction to defend my point, which, in the moment, makes total sense to me! The next morning, I usually have faint memory of argueing and simply find it amusing.

My mother's ex-boyfriend is a frequent sleepwalker. He once got up, stood up on his bed, and started punching the ceiling, and he did punch a hole through the gyprock with his bare fists!

[Saxywoo]

<edited out something I shouldn't have written>

Thanks guys.... This was a real treat to find out that my wife and I aren't as bad off as I thought that we were. And please do note that I'm not saying that you guys are worse off than we are, I'm just saying that well.... we may all be "off a bit" in our own little ways.

I don't sleepwalk, but I do have periods where I will talk in my sleep. The first couple of times, I was talking in a complete monotone voice. I must have been reliving in a dream when I lived with my last two roommates from college. Right towards the end of the year, it got to the point where just about everything they did irked me. Especially when about 2 months before the year ended, they discovered pot. (Yeah... bad situation)

Anyway, my wife woke up to me saying (again, in a monotone voice) "Dave? Dave? What are you doing, Dave? I don't know where Andy has gone. Where are you going, Dave?" My wife (girlfriend at the time) was freaked, due to the fact that I sounded like the HAL 2000.

Here's another one for you.... I had a dream where I was just out (before I met my wife... have to put that disclaimer in there) and there was this beautiful girl sitting at the bar. I had, at some point realized that I was dreaming, and figured that I would experiment a little bit by seeing if I could make things happen the way I wanted them to. I challenged a pool shark to a few games, scrubbed the table with him. Did a few other things, and that all went exactly as I wanted. So then I go up to the girl, thinking that I'll be able to get a kiss from her. And it worked! Then I womdered what would happen if I tried to take it further, and the girl in the dream throws her drink in my face, slaps me in the face and then walks out.

I figure that though there are some cases where people dream about something that is completely out of the norm for them.... like someone who is scared of heights dreaming about skydiving, though they never had gone skydiving, nor did they consider it a dream - they actually enjoyed it. But there's some sort of checks and balance system in place that still governs what you can and can't do in a dream, whether you have realized that you're dreaming or not. In my dream about the girl in the bar, some sort of moral safeguard stepped in and held everything in check.

What do you guys think?

-Nate

[Malakar]

But there's some sort of checks and balance system in place that still governs what you can and can't do in a dream, whether you have realized that you're dreaming or not.

Yeah, that's pretty much how my dreams work. It seems that what happens is usually what my perception of reality would dictate, whether I know I'm dreaming and try to control it or not. It is rare for me to realize that I'm dreaming, and I tend to wake up soon after, so I haven't had many chances to experiment.

[Drasca]

Well, aside from her tendency to frequently do something stupid and end up in awkward situations. Yeah, she's... normal...

Is she single? :D

[Artega]

I'm not a somnambulist (sp?), but I am a narcoleptic.

I'll see your waking up in odd places to waking up and being completely paralyzed for eight seconds.

[Munkay]

Is anyone an overactive dreamer? I can not recall a night I've slept without having at least one dream.

My stories are endless, including scaring my college roomate by giggling for 30 minutes straight, explaining and reciting parts of Meno's Dialogue by Plato while talking in my sleep, to talking on my cell phone (it was not dialed, but I was holding it and talking into it). My girlfriend is blessed with a small bladder, so her trips to the bathroom are frequent at night. The movement wakes me up and I always find myself readjusting from a dream, which are almost always 'real.' I've counted at least 7 occurances in a night where I was sure of the dream beforehand.

Anyone else an overactive/vivid dreamer?


On the topic of sleep walking,

When I was a child I used to sleep walk constantly, my parents would find me curled up on the floor in a different room most nights. I've been good at college, mostly considering that I take the top bunk and can't seem to find my way down in my sleepy state.

On a related note, the funniest (and scariest) sleep walking story I've heard was from my friend Phill. A bartender at a pub in England, he returned home one night to his parents house, and a few hours later awoke in his front lawn in his underwear, with the window open and the doors locked.

My best advice is to keep your windows locked :D