My brother and his sleepwalking

ApeXaviour

I don't know whether to be scared or really amused. I figure he's never done any harm so usually I just take the latter position. I'm up late studying at the moment and about 5 minutes ago I had another encounter with his nocturnal unconsciousness.

I heard his door slam and heavy footsteps, so I exited my room and greeted him at the top of the stairs, he was strangely alert looking. Not drowsy like he usually is when sleepwalking.

Are you ok?
Yerman... he's..... y'know..
Who?
Yeah but the chap.. whats-his-name... (puts his hand to his head trying to think).
What about him? (me tryin to hold in a smirk)
He's bleedin'.. he's been bleedin for a while now..
Who's bleeding?
I dunno... he's downstairs
Who?
Yerman... Paul.
Erm.. Ok I'll go down and check, are you coming?
(Groans) I'm not dressed..

And off he trundles back to his bedroom, I checked on him a minute later and he was fast asleep.

I know he won't remember it cos he never does. Strange how some parts of your brain can be switched on while others remain asleep..
D'yis reckon it's anything to worry about? The chap goes scarlet and gets defensive when anyone mentions it, embarrassed to bits he is.. I mean what are the chances of him dreaming some twisted reality up and coming at me with a kitchen knife?

embee

Heh - my sister used to sleepwalk the whole time.

I remember one night, she staggered into my room, screeching at me to get up. I was pretty alarmed, as you can imagine, and I brought her out into the hall. Her hands were all tensed up and they were shaking violently, and she started saying to me (in a hysterical voice) "Get the acid off my hands!! Help me!!! Its burning me!!! Help me, oh it is burning so bad." I was TOTALLY freaked out, because her hands were fine. I brought her into the bathroom and stuck her hands under the tap. She stood there shaking and crying with her hands under the tap, then after about five minutes, she took her hands out from under the water, shook the excess water off, then went back into her room and went straight to sleep.

I mentioned it to her the next day, and she couldn't remember a thing.

Very strange indeed.

ChipZilla

An interesting read on the subject here:

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro99/web1/Howard.html

You don't say how old your brother is. They reckon it is a purely psychological thing in young children, which goes away over time. In adults it can be related to a chemical imbalance brought on by stress or drug/alcohol abuse...

RossFixxxed

I know someone who was sleepwalking because they needed to "do their thesis on graham norton" It's such a pity someone didn't turn the computer on for them and see what they wrote!

/R

Stark

I did it once or twice after a night of heavy drinking. I know other people who have similar reactions after they've been drinking. One guy I know claimed he was sometimes found walking naked or in his boxers in the hall of his house with his lad in his hand

I know a few sleepwalkers who usually know when they've been sleepwalking. They don't remember the actual incident, but they do get a feeling when they wake up associated with a disturbed night's sleep.

ApeXaviour

ChipZilla wrote:

An interesting read on the subject here:

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro99/web1/Howard.html

You don't say how old your brother is.

Thanks for the link, I'll read more of it it later cos I got some serious study to do now..
My bro's 18 (i'm 21 btw). Most of the time he wakes just shouting nonsensical words littered with the odd "no, NO.. GO AWAY!!!". Then sometimes he'd pelt it out of his room..

Pet

His name isn't Jeff by anychance?

Anyways, one of my friends apparently gets up in the middle of the night and sorts through the books and papers on her desk, then goes back to sleep. She's the most normal, well-adjusted person you can imagine.

So while there's a chance it could be due to stress, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Going Demented

I sleep walk at times. I'm not sure why people do. It's annoying cause i just get the p1ss ripped out of me for it. I'll usually walk around muttering. I was once awoken by my brother while i was walking around asking someone in my household were they ok. My brother screamed at me to get back to bed (not that politely). He thought i was awake and acting the jackass. I woke up and was hysterical. I didn't know where i was or why i was there. It's frightening so never wake anyone when they are sleepwalking unless you want them to almost crap themselves. I never know when i've been sleep walking, unless i wake up in the spare room (thats usually after drink).

God knows why it happens. I wouldn't worry about it. I'm 24 by the way and sleep walk alot less than i used to.

tinkerbell

Ah sure!

I sleepwalk aaaaaaall the time, and sleep talk, and every other sort of thing that goes with parasomnia (the official term for sleepwalking et al). I don't drink / smoke / drugs so it can't be anything related to those kinda things. It happens whether I'm stressed or totally chilled out during the day! So I reckon that some people just suffer from it!

I've read a bit about it and I don't think there is an actual cure for parasomnia, tiz insomnia they can cure, sniff sniff! But I've heard that hypnosis can help, never tried anything myself, just hoping it'll just gradually go away! But so far it ain't, I'm 21 now - used to sleepwalk quite a bit when I was younger but tiz actually getting worse now as I get older!!

Aaaargh! If anyone knows a cure, please let me know, or a very good sleep therapist!!

ApeXaviour

I've studied a bit of hypnosis and NLP in the past.. I've never put 2 and 2 together tho. If "parasomnia" is involved with the subconscious which I'd now say it is, hypnosis would more than likely work:
Some facts about the subconscious:
It is is illogical,
it has no sense of humour,
it is very suggestive.

All of which I've noticed in my brother when sleep-walking, also similar properties of self is evident when dreaming.

If you do go to a hypnotherapist though, make sure (s)he's qualified. Also it would probably be a good idea to demistify yourself with it first. There is nothing paranormal or psychic or homeopathic about it, it's a science..
http://science.howstuffworks.com/hypnosis1.htm

-ApeX

elivsvonchiaing

tinkerbell wrote:

Aaaargh! If anyone knows a cure, please let me know, or a very good sleep therapist!!

An ex gf used to sleepwalk. I went to a psychotherapist many months later - feeling I was not over her. After 2 - 3 sessions I had such a bad session that I just hit the booze. That night I sleepwalked. I know 'coz a neighbour woke me up on the stairs of the building

Can't remember if she did sleep therapy - suspect she may have struck that off her list after our next and final session!

Victor

ApeXaviour wrote:

Erm.. Ok I'll go down and check, are you coming?
(Groans) I'm not dressed..

Nice way to handle it. I often gone to the kitchen in the middle of the night and eaten an entire packet of biscuits, only opening my eyes to find/open the cupboard.

A lot of this is being attributed to stress and alcohol in adults (childhood sleepwalking is apparently quite different).

The_Conductor

embee wrote:

Heh - my sister used to sleepwalk the whole time.

I remember one night, she staggered into my room, screeching at me to get up. I was pretty alarmed, as you can imagine, and I brought her out into the hall. Her hands were all tensed up and they were shaking violently, and she started saying to me (in a hysterical voice) "Get the acid off my hands!! Help me!!! Its burning me!!! Help me, oh it is burning so bad." I was TOTALLY freaked out, because her hands were fine. I brought her into the bathroom and stuck her hands under the tap. She stood there shaking and crying with her hands under the tap, then after about five minutes, she took her hands out from under the water, shook the excess water off, then went back into her room and went straight to sleep.

I mentioned it to her the next day, and she couldn't remember a thing.

Very strange indeed.

Tip- if you are ever in a position where someone does burn themselves with acid (in particular hydrofluoric acids) running hands in milk rather than water would be far preferable. Also- you might not notice the oily acid getting under your finger nails - make sure you get a neutralising agent under your nails. I can show you the result of not getting it treated in time
Most good occupational first aid kits have tubes of calcium gluconate gel specifically for treating acid and chemical burns.

S.

elivsvonchiaing

smccarrick wrote:

Tip- if you are ever in a position where someone does burn themselves with acid (in particular hydrofluoric acids) running hands in milk rather than water would be far preferable. Also- you might not notice the oily acid getting under your finger nails - make sure you get a neutralising agent under your nails. I can show you the result of not getting it treated in time
Most good occupational first aid kits have tubes of calcium gluconate gel specifically for treating acid and chemical burns.

S.

Most first aid kits don't equip you to deal with sleep-walkers. They're contents may help some delusions they have. But sleep walking is a totally freaky thing when you discover a loved one at it. (me 2 loved ones - gf- non-drinker - but had issues - me once - lots of drink - had issues about relationship). (Yes I number myself among my loved ones).

I think you need to get your head around this fact tbh. Your advice is not exactly practical for sleepwalking - excellent for accidents in lab though.

DS

I've no knowledge about sleepwalking at all, and I don't want to scare anyone but I did hear a story on the radio about a guy sleepwalking who had a history of violence. He went into the garage or something and was disturbed by his wife. He picked up a tool and beat her to death. Obviously this only applies to violent people with serious issues, but the advice on the radio was never to interrupt someone sleepwalking, just to ignore them and let them go about whatever they're doing until they go back to bed and they'll be fine. I don't know whether this was a freak occurence or anything it's just what I heard.

garthv

Aye a few years ago i was woken up by my little brother screaming "get the f*ck away from me,dont touch me,dont f*cking touch me" and with that he was baging on the window and then proceeded to climb out the window(2 stories up).
Scared the sh8t outta me and i couldnt sleep for a week or so afterwards for fear he'd try and jump out again.
A few weeks later i was woken up by the front door slamming shut and i raced downstairs to find him cutting the grass out the front with no lawnmower and in his boxers.
Since then hes kinda grown out of it and now he just shouts occasionally but theres still the feeling he might try and do damage to himself