Sleep Walking

The other night it came to my attention that now two out of three children have my disorder (of sorts). I was trying to wake up my youngest son because he'd forgotten to put on a PullUp Goodnights.  Anthony sat up, seemed kind of goofy with a quirky smile, but I figured it was because I woke him from an REM state. He looked at me and said, "I need to make sure I don't fall in the lava". I smiled and asked him what he was talking about (hoping he'd tell me about his dream). He blurted out, "Seriously". His conversation turned into one I know all too well from my own childhood.

I noticed that even with the bedroom lights on his pupils were fully dilated. He was moving around and functioning like a normal person, aside from his conversation being that of still in his dream. It brought me back to my own childhood and recalling memories of times I'd done the same thing. This means he is fully capable of all the things my mother feared when I was little. My mom went as far as to put a chain lock on the top of the front door after I tried to walk out in the middle of the night.

I still remember when I was a little girl. I thought I'd woken up from a dream and was cold. In my dream my bedroom light was on, and I was reaching into my bottom drawer for more pajamas to put over the top of what I was already wearing. I kept reaching in but my hand would scrape the bottom of the drawer. I woke up to a pitch black room and an empty drawer. This was one of the few times I actually got scared because I always thought others were over exaggerating the reality. As I got older the fear of what I was able to do while completely asleep carried over. I thankfully out grew much, still do some conversations (and another reason I don't lie).

So far only Tyler and Anthony have shown signs. Tyler has only talked and laughed in his sleep... where as Anthony has shown signs of being able to literally walk off. I've read studies in the past to try and better understand, but "Così è la vita'!