like in the movies? Do they have their eyes open. I can only remember sleep walking once and that was to raid the sweet jar, but I have no idea how I got there. Just curious
No to the stiff arms, and yes to the eyes open. At least in my case this is true. I used to sleep walk a lot in my younger days. I’ve been told that each time, I would look as though I were awake, but acting in a strange manner. For instance, one time I was staying the night at a friend’s house and I woke up at about midnight and walked into the living room where my friend’s parents were watching TV. They said I walked in, looked at them for a second, and then started searching for something underneath the sofas. Who knows what I was looking for.
scm - no, people do not walk with their arms in front of them when sleep walking. Also, it should be mentioned that you should never wake a sleep walker up, it is very dangerous for the awaker and very scary for the awakee. Personally, I have slep-walked (<- not a word) me entire life. I’ve studied the behaviour and have come to the conclusion that I am happy my wife is home when I sleep walk…
When I was around 11, up until around 14, I did a lot of sleepwalking.
Weird, disconnected behavior, eyes open.
My father was not sympathetic, & would yell at me to “Knock it off” the next morning.
I got woken up once or twice, & I found it quite jarring, even frightening. Very disorienting.
My daughter sleepwalks from time to time. It usually happens when she falls asleep on the sofa before her actual bedtime, and I carry her to her room and tuck her into bed (instead of the regular read a story routine). About an hour later she stumbles down the hall into the living room, sits down on the floor for a moment, then lays down and closes her eyes. As long as her eyes are open, she may respond when I ask her a question, but won’t say anything coherent.
The funny thing is that I didn’t even know that what she was doing was sleepwalking. I just figured that she had gotten up to go to the bathroom, came down the hall to see what I was up to, and had just fallen back to sleep. But an article I read described her behavior perfectly and called it “classic” sleepwalking symptoms.
**Kizarvexius ** —by any chance, did you ever read Dragon Magazine?
Especially the comic strips?
I would like a little more clarification on why you shouldn’t wake a sleepwalker. In what way would it be dangerous for the awaker? The only thing I can think of is that the sleeping person might thrash around, but it is not required that you grapple someone to wake them. A few loud claps should wake anyone up. (besides, if I was injured by a sleeping person I would probably die of embarassment. “Oh, thats a nice bruise. What happened?” “I got owned by a sleepwalker…”)
From the viewpoint of the awakee, how would it being scary have any importance? I think that it would be better to wake up and be startled for a second rather than stumble about until you run into something pointy.
I am personally a fairly light sleeper; I am probably the most sensitive to changes in the lighting because I sleep with my eyes open. On the other hand, I don’t walk around.
My mother fell over a rocking chair and broke her nose while sleep walking last year. I’m sure she’d rather have been frighten awake (had anyone been up to wake her) instead.
I’ve never heard of this before - is it very common?
And I have to ask … how??? Please tell more.
First let me say how the ‘normal’ sleep cycle works, the description is needed for clarification of your question. Commonly, people’s circadian rhythm dictates how your sleep, but when you actually fall asleep the same thing happens to everyone. You enter a ‘semi-sleepy-state’ characterised by a change in wave patterns in your brain - you are essentially resting. Then you go a little deeper and you enter the 2nd stage of restfullness, you are now essentially sleeping, but not dreaming. Then you start to enter REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. This is when your body is completely catatonic, you are now dreaming. You could not move your arm even if you wanted to. Your brain will enter this state plus or minus 5 times in the normal 8 hour sleep period. Each time the duration get’s slightly longer until right before you wake your are dreaming for roughly 90 minutes.
As for sleep walking…the person is sleeping while walking…quite literally, they are in a very deep sleep, dreaming everything they are doing…i.e. Looking for that lost ring from 5 years ago under the now non-existant couch…or rummaging though the closet for that thing they are thinking of…you know that thing…basically they are physically manifesting their dreams through activity. Waking the person is harmfull as they may thrash about like you say…or or throw you to the ground thinking your are an attacker in their dreams…all this has actually happened in real life…people have even gone as far as murder in thier dreams. There was a movie about the real life scenerio where a man drove to this in-laws house and murdered them. All whilst sleep walking…you know what? He got off the charges because of the sleep walking.
Though an extreme answer it is still the reality of the situation. Sleep walking should be taken seriously. It can also be extremely frightening for the sleep walker being vigorously awaken by someone…as they truly thought they were sleeping in their own beds…only to awake in say the living room or garage by a concerned family member. The best thing to do is walk them cautiously back to the room and into bed…9 times out of 10 they will comply and fall effortlessly back under the covers…
In the case of Ken Parks, he killed his mother-in-law and almost killed his father-in-law for trying to wake him up. During Parks’ trial some sleep expert testified that sleepwalkers become very aggressive and, possibly, violent when you try to walk them up.
Thanks Anti-Manics you just provided the link to my vignette
Phlosphr is correct - being a sleepwalker myself (and having some real problems with it) my husband has learned just to lead me back to bed. Trust me, it’s best.
Uh-oh. You’re onto me. Now I’ll have to pick a new handle with an even more obscure reference. 
Actually, I never really got into Dragon, but I loved SnarfQuest. My DM in junior high once provided my character with a gagglezoomer as transportation. This was before I had ever seen the strip, of course, so I had no idea just what I was in for. I laughed that day until my sides ached.
There is a Trade Paperback collection of these. I own one.
There are also 3 TPBs of the “What’s New” strip, starring Phil & Dixie. They finally did a “Sex & D&D” strip.
Anecdotal evidence ahead:
Growing up, our family was close friends with our neighbors and we’d go up to their cabin every other month or so. One 4th of July weekend we were up there and the middle child who was about 9 at the time was quite upset that we didn’t go see the 3rd of July fireworks at a nearby town. All of us kids slept in one room and at about 2am the middle neighbor kid starts talking in his sleep. He drones over and over “You guys…where’s the fireworks?” At this point I wake up my friend and watch as his younger brother crosses the room, goes into the closet and at this point he sits down on the pile of suitcases while crying. Eventually our laughter must have woken him (and our parents) up. I didn’t see if his eyes were open or shut but his arms were definitely not in front of him. He did however get the last laugh as while he was sitting on our suitcases crying , he managed to wet his pants and our weekend clothes.
My flatmate used to fall asleep with his eyes closed but they would open during the night and he would - to all appearances - be staring at the ceiling.
Sleepwalkers can interact with the real world (just getting out of bed is evidence enough) but their behaviour is dictated by their non-conscious rather than their conscious (e.g. killing your in-laws).