In My Sleep

My husband told me I was talking in my sleep last week--and it's not the first time. But talking in your sleep by muttering a few words is different than what I was doing. He said I was moaning like a ghost in distress. And he was right.

I woke myself up a few nights later and was indeed sounding like I was in great distress. A few nights after that my husband woke me up and I heard myself again.

This is not good. And I don't know how to stop it. My husband thinks I watch too many horror movies online and he's right. It's because they make me feel less worried or anxious about my own life, odd as that may sound.

Maybe less of them is more, though? 

I also know I have a history of sleepwalking (though I haven't done that in many years). My mother reported finding me walking around the house as a child and "talked" me back to bed. My best friend Carole walked out of her house and over to my house when she was eight and I was nine. Her parents ended up putting a bolt on the front door of their home that was too high for her to reach.

My sister was sleepwalking recently after taking Ambien for too many years. She was dumping her cat's litter out the window, which of course the landlord did not appreciate.

And, at least toward the end of his life, my father was a sleepwalker and likely did as a child as well. I've read these things are hereditary and thinking on this a little more, I know in my bones it's got a lot to do with my old buddy, Stress. The last thing I want to do is wake my husband, who is a super-light sleeper anyway. I don't know if an anti-anxiety pill would fix this, but that may be something I can try.

All this also makes me think of what doctors say when parents complain about their kids walking and talking. I think established wisdom is to wake a talker and not wake a walker; and guide them both gently to sleep.

Do you consult a professional if things don't improve? Mine never did, but what would a so-called expert say? What do YOU say?

Here's what I found on the subject:

Sleepwalking chapter (from The Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne)

Sleep terrors and sleepwalking: Helping Hand

What to Do if You or Someone Else is a Sleepwalker

Ghost photo: Jon Feinstein