Sleepwalking Hubby

anjhest

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My husband is a sleepwalker. I don't mean this in the sense that he gets up in the middle of the night and wanders the house. It's more an issue of, he falls asleep on the sofa, I wake him up to come to bed, and he doesn't actually wake up. Whenever he is in this state he is extremely belligerent.

Anyway, I have this phobia about running our fireplace. I don't mind it running when he is home, so long as he turns it on and off. We have gas burning logs and I am just too scared to touch the dials. I always think I'm going to blow the house up!


So this evening I realize he has fallen asleep in the living room again, with the fireplace going. I decide to wake him up so he can turn off the fire before he falls into a deep sleep. I try to gently wake him, nothing. I try saying his name softly, then with increasing loudness. Finally I am basically screaming his name and he opens his eyes and starts yelling, "WHAT?! WHAT?!" I asked him to turn of the fire and he just keeps yelling, "WHAT?! WHAT?! WHAT?!"

Good God! He is rather frightening in this state! He did finally turn off the fire, walk around a bit, use the bathroom and lay back down, without ever waking up.

Does anyone else deal with this, either themselves or with a spouse/SO?
 

laureen227

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my sister used to sleepwalk - not sure if she still does. but she actually sleptwalk, in the traditional sense - walked around & did things, appeared awake [to a degree] but wasn't.
 

scottf

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There was a Simpsons episode where Homer was a " fat suggestible zombie dad" and Bart and Milhouse had him doing all sorts of crazy stuff which culminated in Homer sending the entire fire company to the hospital with "chili related injuries"....
 
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anjhest

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Originally Posted by CarolPetunia

You're perfectly right to feel a little scared. Has he ever seen a specialist about this?
No, I honestly didn't even think about that! He also has nightmares that make him scream the most gut-wrenching, blood-curling scream you've ever heard. I can usually calm him down, but it scares the crap out of me (not because I'm scared of HIM, but the scream just freaks me out).

One time before we were married, he stayed at my apartment and got up in the middle of the night and peed in my gym bag!


Another time I elbowed him to move over and he stood up, got out of bed, put his finger in my face and shouted, "I am getting TIRED of this BULLS***T!!!"


Personally, I think he has an un-treated anxiety disorder that I think may be contributing to this. I used to have horrible nightmares until I started treating my anxiety with medication. I still have occasional nightmares, but nothing of the caliber i used to have.
 

catmom2wires

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He needs a sleep study and you need to learn to turn off the fireplace!!!!

C
 

laureen227

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Originally Posted by CatMom2Wires

He needs a sleep study and you need to learn to turn off the fireplace!!!!

C
to both - it can't be that hard. i relit my water heater's pilot light today - just followed the directions on the side of the heater.
 

ut0pia

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My dad is a sleepwalker. When I was a kid he used to always come into my room open the closet and stare into it for a few minutes, and then walk out all in his sleep...He always opens random rooms to the house and opens the closets and looks into them when he sleepwalks, that's his thing. I told this to my grandmother (his mom) and she said that when he was a kid, he used to do the same thing all the time, and one time he opened the closed, peed it in it and closed it and went back to sleep... Anyway we've moved many times to different houses, and in every single house he always does this. It's kind of creepy. He also eats in his sleep, sometimes I meet him in the kitchen in the middle of the night and he will ask me weird questions like "did you get the thing" and I ask him what thing but he keeps repeating that question...lol..It's funny because he is so serious when he asks these questions in his sleep. My dad also has an anxiety disorder that has been diagnosed. He tried treatment but just gave up on it so it's never been treated.
 

kara_leigh

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My husband does that. He doesn't get belligerent, but you can have a full conversation with him. He'll act like he's wide awake, but he's still asleep, and he doesn't remember anything in the morning. I'm always afraid of something happening in the middle of the night, like I get hurt or our son is sick and needs to go to the ER, b/c he can be pretty difficult when he's asleep. There have been a couple times, though, when I tried to wake him up for one reason or another, and he won't respond, so I'll shake him and say his name loud over and over again, and he'll roll over and say "WHAT??" really loud. That's about as belligerent as he gets, though.
 

kara_leigh

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Originally Posted by anjhest

One time before we were married, he stayed at my apartment and got up in the middle of the night and peed in my gym bag!
lol About 4 years ago we were staying at my parents' lake house for the weekend, and he had quite a bit to drink that night. In the middle of the night I heard a strange sound. It sounded like someone was pouring water on the bed. I looked over and my husband was peeing on the foot of the bed. I freaked out b/c it was the bed my mom slept in, and I led him to the bathroom, where he proceeded to pee on the rug instead of in the toilet. *grumble* I'm in no way saying anything negative about your husband, but the next morning I told my husband that he needed to stop drinking or I would take our son and leave. He hasn't had a single drink since that night. It wasn't just b/c of that night, but he had a major drinking problem that had been going on for a few years. I grew up with alcoholic parents, and I told him I adamantly refused for our son to be put through that.
 

ut0pia

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I think most people who sleepwalk will pee in random places....But I also know that alcohol makes the things that you do during sleepwalking worse, it makes the sleepwalking seem more real to the sleepwalker. It's pretty admirable of your husband to just stop after you told him that though...
 
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anjhest

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It's interesting that you confirmed my theory that drinking aggravates the sleepwalking...because that is definitely the case with my husband.

He does have a drinking problem. He has been able to limit his drinking to weekends, but I still think it's a problem. I can't convince him of that, though.
I do feel like a time will come that things will come to a head and I will either have to leave or he'll have to quit. Hopefully the latter.
 
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