I recall waking up one morning when I was a wee adolescent and feeling very embarrassed about something. We had spent the night at our aunt’s house with a dozen or so other family members. I was so uneasy that morning, I just knew I did something weird. I spent a good part of the morning hiding in my sleeping bag listening to early bird chatter which included references to my episode during the night. I eventually got out of bed, surrendered myself to finger pointing and a few laughs, and ate what was left at the breakfast table.
What I experienced was a case of sleepwalking. My destination – the back of an over-sized rocker. According to witnesses, I crouched down underneath and was grabbing at something. I don’t know what it was I was reaching for but somehow I ended up back in my sleeping bag.
MY SON, just recently experienced what is known as a night terror. It occurred on two separate occasions. He had fallen asleep on the same spot on our couch as the rest of us watched tv. Both times he appeared to awaken but with a very frightened and confused expression on his face. The words he spoke were half-sentences, incomprehensible thoughts. It was a little disturbing to watch my son look at me like I was a complete stranger, his face contorting to match the fear he was obviously feeling at the time. He was inconsolable. After a few minutes he’d lie back down and resume his normal sleep.
I heard stress, inconsistent sleep patterns, tiredness, sickness or medicine could be the culprit. Funny, he was sick earlier this week, a consistent bed time is, well, non-existent, cold medicine has been part of his breakfast routine since he got sick and we just got back from a very tiring but very awesome snowboarding/ski trip. WHICH, btw, I’d like to talk about on another post.
If you’d like to read more about night terrors, nightmares and sleepwalking, then see this , this or this.
And…um..goodnight.
