If my friend Melinda M. in Oregon is reading this, I hope she will confirm or set straight the childhood “memory” I’m about to retell. For it was during a sleepover at Mel’s house back in high school that I discovered something about myself that reverberates to this day. Maybe especially today.
Apparently, we were all sleeping in Melinda’s bedroom in Newport News, Va., when someone woke to find me standing and staring blankly ahead in the middle of the night. When asked what was wrong, I responded, “I can’t find the clock.” A few more sentences were exchanged, then someone told me just to go back to bed and I did. I remembered none of this encounter during a discussion the next morning.
When I got home, I told my parents about the late-night clock search that my friends witnessed and, to my shock, my parents weren’t the least surprised. Turns out for years I’d sleepwalk into our kitchen each night and stare at a clock above the sink. My parents would hear me in the next-door den and say, “Go back to bed.” And I would.
After discovering I was a teenaged somnambulant, I freaked. What else might I have done while I assumed I was in bed? Then I worried what might happen in college if I didn’t stop and, with my parents’ and a doctor’s help, figured a way to halt the sleepwalking. I don’t recall the specific treatment, but every now and then I worry I’ve relapsed. I’ll wake with fresh bruises on my legs and immediately think I walked into furniture in my sleep. Or I’ll have this weird deja vu the next day, like a dream that takes place in the house really wasn’t made up.
Why bring this up now? Because today my stress-fractured hip has been hurting more and more, instead of less. I’ve been much better about using the crutches in the house and yet the area’s throbbing like crazy. It feels like I’ve been walking or standing on it for a long while. Say it ain’t so. Say it’s just my overactive imagination or it’s part of the healing process. But if I’m right, say, “Go back to bed” if you see me roaming aimlessly around the house. My future as a runner might depend on it.
20 comments:
How weird. I did that a few times as a kid but grew out of it (as far as I know).
Can you videotape yourself sleeping during the night? Then you'd have evidence.
that is a very perplexing problem. i agree: you may need to videotape. Good luck!
Very strange. Maybe you did something strange yesterday - twisted a funny way, shifted weight wrong?
Videotaping is a good idea. Good luck figuring it out!
I do this when I get stressed. I will just stare at the clock, I think trying to figure out if it is 2:07am, or 2:07pm, in which case I am very late for work. I often will "wake up" while I am doing it. Other times I just get a morning report of my previous night's activities. Sometimes (when I am very stressed) I go and look at the clock in the living room, then the clock in the kitchen.
Talk to a doctor, who can help either through a sleep study or medication. I occasionally get bruises that I don't remember getting.
That's like poltergeist freaky Anne. I hope you didn't wander into any dorm rooms while in college where you might have been taken advantage of. I have actually caught my daughter sleepwalking a couple of times and I tell her the same thing, to go back to bed and she does.
oh, that's scary! maybe you need to sleep with bells surrounding your bed or something. i had hoped you were all healed by now! (I bet you had hoped that too!)
Maybe your body is trying to tell you something (like rest up woman) and your not listening. Then again maybe you are reverting back to your childhood.
Yikes. That is crazy. "Go back to bed"...and stay there all night.
Yikes!
Battling my Pf thinking I'd be ready to run last week. This week my foot feels almost as bad as it did a month ago. Oh well!! Might as well make the best of my down time.
I tend to kick and jerk a lot in my sleep. With the extra energy I have in me these days I have been more active at night myself :-)
My sister had that problem. We had to deadbolt the doors because she was getting out of the house in the middle of the night and going to the neighbors and ringing the doorbells.
Weird.
Maybe tie yourself in bed? We need you running.
Weird but.........running is a total cure for everything!
OMG!
yes, video
sleepwalking is so crazy. I did it when I was younger but don't anymore. As far as I know :) Hope you figure out why you are hurting more lately...
And your husband is where during all these "field trips"? Sounds like another trip to the docs office.
i blame all unexplainable pain on aliens. you know the ones who perform experiments on your body during the night.
which sounds less creepy than videotaping.
though videotaping sounds like it would be more helpful.
maybe get one of those projection clocks that projects on your ceiling so you don't have to get up looking for a clock.
seriously, if you continue to bruise you should surely see a doc, and/or video tape yourself
Oh that's way too funny, Anne. My sister used to sleepwalk - so does one of our kids. It makes for great stories - but please don't spend the night on anyone's boat without wearing a life jacket to bed.
I did it as a kid as well. I ended up in my best friends moms closet at her 12th birthday party sleepover...good thing I was already a "cool kid" or I could have been doomed for the rest of my school career. Oh, and one other time my dad found me in my closet using the bathroom on my step stool....
So, see, checking the clock in the middle of the night doesn't sound so bad now, does it?
At any rate, I go with Runner Susans idea...we need you running!
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