Saturday, May 02, 2009 Mandy asks

Q: conscious sleepwalking?

This actually happened to me twice before. I was taking a nap in my bedroom and I remembered I stood up and tried to walk to the door of my bedroom for no reason at all. When I stood I immediately fell because my legs feel weak. However I continued to stand up and tried walking to the door again, only to fall down after a few steps. I walked and fell all the way to the door, then I turned around and walked back to my bed, fell on it and continue sleeping.

I thought it was a dream, but when I woke up my toe hurts, then I recalled hitting my toe on the bedpost before landing on the bed, so it means I actually had this little 'journey'. Also I could not control my actions, it seems I was so intent on getting to the door...

Was I sleepwalking? Then why am I aware and seeing what happened?

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Answers (4)

Helena

12/ 8/09 2:21pm

I have experinenced conscious sleepwalking once and, as far as I know never experienced unconsciously sleepwalking. I don't know anyone who's had a similar experience to me, so I'm still a bit puzzled about what happened.

I consciously sleptwalked when I was on a school trip, a few months ago. I thought I had a strange dream that I went to the door, and closed it behind me because I dreamt that it was earlier that day so I thought I had my key with me. I had no idea why I was doing this. Then I knocked on the door of room next to me, with something vague about noise on my mind. When I realised it was pointless, since I didn't know why I was doing this and tried to go back to bed. Then I found I didn't have the key so I knocked on the door. Eventually someone unlocked it, and to my surprise she asked what I was doing. This completely freaked me because a) I didn't know myself and b) this question was the only thing that convinced me that something strange had happened (my dreams tend to be very unusual); since my senses of feel, balance, smell (and I couldn't hear background noise) weren't there in this dream so I was otherwise sure that it was a dream.

When I woke up the next morning I was thoroughly confused but didn't anything because I was convinced that it couldn't have been real. Then she told me someone else that I managed to get myself locked out and I told her I was asleep, so she concluded that I was sleepwalking. Though, when she found out I'd thought I'd dreamt it she was shocked because she said it isn't possible to know what happened if you sleepwalk.

Chris

6/ 2/09 2:55am

I had a similir experience two or three times when I was younger. I found your question here a moment ago when I thought to google "conscious sleepwalking."

I'm in college now, but I remember this happening during high school while I was stressed out and depressed. I remember getting out of bed and walking into the hall, where I fell over. My mom heard me, came out, and asked me what I was doing. I explained to her that Ron Weasly (of the Harry Potter books) was making fun of me, which is what was happening in a dream that I had before getting out of bed. I remember doing and saying these things, and being frustrated with my mom for not understanding how supposedly reasonable they were. Of course, the next morning I knew how ridiculous it was.

I know it happened once another time, the details of which I can't recall.

Dejavu

4/18/10 2:24am

dude im exactly the same way!! oh shit! i'm 15 and I was yelling at my brother because he pulled out an absent-note slip because i missed school and i told him it was because i missed the ferry and when he asked what I was talking about I yelled at him. pretty weird huh?

Victoria

5/20/11 10:50pm

im 15 too, and i woke up and started falling over, it felt like gravity was pulling my body down and i was weak, but i still managed to walk to my parents bathroom and look at the window and see ducks, and then i began to see crocadiles? so random.. i looked in the mirror, and my eyes looked all squinty and chinese. i woke up and my ankle was hurting... i must have hit it somewhere during that possibly?? idk, wierd tho.

Maribel

7/ 2/09 11:38pm

I am 48 years old and I have "conscious" sleepwalked all my life. Sometimes it happens several times a week. I have tried to find out what this condition is, to no avail. My experience is like as if I were acting out my dreams. A part of me is trying desperately to "wake up", but the dream continues to play itself and I move with it. When somebody "catches me in the act", I try to explain what is happening, but to them it is completely non-sensical. Next morning I remember it all. I once worked with a woman who happened to be a specialist in lucid dreaming and was therefore very familiar with all aspects of sleep and dreaming and the research done in this field. She said that the characteristic of sleepwalking is complete amnesia of the episode. She actually did not know what my experience is.

Ginkel

7/22/10 7:51pm

Hello, i am 19 years old, and feel your experience is very like mine. i do this at least 2 times a week consciously, and sometimes more that i do not remember but people have told me i have done it. Only the other night i was acting out a dream that i was being attacked by a Transformer, and woke up in the spare room. Alot of them seem to be bad, For example spiders as big as my door, weird people in my room, my best friend getting crushed by a brick.. and i see it all in my room, only for it to slowly morph into what it really is, say a pillow was my friend that i imagined. Have you found anything to help? It leaves me very tired all the time. I haven't found any one else i know who experiences the same thing

Maribel

7/22/10 10:05pm

Hi, there. All of my conscious sleepwalking experiences have always been "bad", filled with anxiety, fear, claustrophobia, the feeling that I am "stuck", that I am being chased, filled with crawling insects, having to crawl in dark/dungy/dusty spaces. They seemed to always follow a "theme" with variations. Over long periods of time I could say that the dream would change, but the feelings around it were the same. I have always known from experience and reading that your subconscious may give you repetitive dreams when trying to give a message to the conscious mind. The issue was that I did not understand what the message was. I tried to interpret, but to no avail. A thing that I noticed is that the sleepwalking would become quite extreme during times of stress. Some time ago I found a website that had a dream dictionary: www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary, that seemed had descriptions of just about everything. So, about 5 months ago I decided to write a list of all the feelings, actions, and things that described what I dreamt, e.g. I feel anxious, paranoid, afraid, trapped - I run, crawl, hide - there are hundreds of tiny spiders crawling, there are rocks, the house is colapsing, full of dust, I need to crawl out, while someone is following me, etc... I used the dictionary to interpret the meaning of each thing I wrote down, and I started to see a pattern. Although everything seemed unrelated, it all meant almost the same. I eventually interpreted the dream and have not had a sleepwalking episode ever since! You need to realize that I have consciously sleptwalked all my life - since I was a toddler. I am sure that when the right conditions are present, the sleepwalking may resurface again as a way to convay a message. If this dream analysis technique works again, then I can say that I know how to deal with this condition. But until the time comes, I am happy the sleepwalking has stopped! I hope this helps.

Ginkel

7/25/10 7:11pm

the hundreds of tiny spiders one soudns very familiar!! thank you for the website, i will certainly look into it! how long have you been sleepwalk free now? i want to book a doctors appointment soon to see what my doctor makes of it all, because it leaves me very tired throughout the day which is becoming a problem. deffinetely going to have a try with this website you gave me though, thank you again!

berna

4/21/11 2:28pm

Something incredibly similar happends to me since I was a child. Now I'm 40.

I would love to find more information about this, including contacting other people who experience the same thing.

Laura

10/30/12 4:04am

I think I have experienced this. I had been drinking-it was a Wednesday night and i felt down,due to hormones - I fell asleep on the sofa, When I woke up, I thought where has everyone gone, and I was really mad they had all left( I'd dreamt I had had my friends round and we were having drinks before we went to my friend party) I had called them all , I got no answer- so thought I'd just go my self. I put my trainers on my running top and set off running to a village 4-5 miles away in the pitch black at 2 .30 in the morning I gave up, when I had missed the turn and gone to far. I called a taxi got no answer. Thankfully a friend picked me up at 4 pm . I told her that all my friends had left me and had gone to the party with out me. Apparently I was convinced it was Saturday night- I was due to go to this party that night. I can't remember this bit. But I had spoke to another friend - he said that I was saying sorry I had missed his party and that I would go for Sunday lunch . Again i was convinced it was saturday night. I'm really worried about my actions and whether I have some underlying issues.

Sneaky_Hobbit

1/24/13 12:56am

I'm 19 and I've had several similar experiences as well. It usually occurs once a month or so. Sometimes it's a continuation of my dream, and sometimes it's just random. At the time, however, I know why I'm doing what I'm doing but I don't always remember what the reason is once I've woken up. Like in a dream. I've recently gained some kind of control over myself, and while I haven't completely woken up, I think I'm able to make myself go back to bed.

Early on when I started sleepwalking, my dad asked me if I was sleepwalking and I said I wasn't. During these episodes I've experiences claustrophobia, fear and curiosity, but usually by the end I'm relaxed.

Helena

12/ 8/09 2:15pm

I consciously sleptwalked when I was on a school trip, a few months ago. I thought I had a strange dream that I went to the door, and closed it behind me because I dreamt that it was earlier that day so I thought I had my key with me. I had no idea why I was doing this. Then I knocked on the door of room next to me, with something vague about noise on my mind. When I realised it was pointless, since I didn't know why I was doing this and tried to go back to bed. Then I found I didn't have the key so I knocked on the door. Eventually someone unlocked it, and to my surprise she asked what I was doing. This completely freaked me because a) I didn't know myself and b) this question was the only thing that convinced me that something strange had happened (my dreams tend to be very unusual); since my senses of feel, balance, smell (and I couldn't hear background noise) weren't there in this dream so I was otherwise sure that it was a dream.

When I woke up the next morning I was thoroughly confused but didn't anything because I was convinced that it couldn't have been real. Then she told me someone else that I managed to get myself locked out and I told her I was asleep, so she concluded that I was sleepwalking. Though, when she found out I'd thought I'd dreamt it she was shocked because she said it isn't possible to know what happened if you sleepwalk.

Q: conscious sleepwalking?

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