Hello, does anyone have any experience of children sleepwalking? My 2.5 year old daughter has been getting up during the night, running in circles round her room, opening and closing doors, talking to herself - we're pretty sure she's asleep when she's doing these things. We've made sure her room is safe and there's a baby gate at her door so she can't get out, but is there anything we can do to stop her? What causes it, can it be genetic?- my partner still sleep walks when stressed and my father has regular night terrors.
I was a sleep walking toddler, child, teenager, young adult. I don't think you can do anything except make the environment safe and gently explain why once she is old enough to understand. I must have worried my parents although to me and the rest of the family they treated it as a quirky funny in a nice way thing that I did.
Not sure about genetics, none of my family except me ever did it. I grew out of it aged about 19 or 20.
it scares me a bit! Mainly because of what I've seen my dad do (punching walls, carrying an axe around, screaming etc) but she's not having night terrors just wandering around. Whats the best thing to do, wake her or just put her back to bed?
My sister regularly sleepwalked when we were children - she had an unfortunate habit of thinking she was going to the toilet and peeing on my bed!- but she would also venture downstairs and wander around. My mum would just take her by the hand and lead her back to her own bed, tuck her in and leave her. She'd usually just go back into a proper sleep and that would be her for the night.
Don't worry my daughter does it and I just take her to the loo and then put her back into bed telling her how much I love her. Thats it, she is back asleep and does not remember anything in the morning. She usually does it when she over heats. She is 12 years now and still does it about once a month.