During my sophomore year of college, I had a roommate who was a Sleep-Talker.
And when I say “Sleep-Talker,” I don’t mean someone who occasionally mumbled in her sleep, or who shared deep secrets in the middle of the night.
Instead, I mean that I had a roommate who subconsciously viewed 3 a.m. as the perfect time to begin panicking, screaming, and otherwise freaking out. While she was sleeping.
Surprisingly, though she could sleep through her middle-of-the-night ravings, I could not. And since she conveniently slept in the bunk above me, I regularly found myself jolted awake by the sound of her [very loud] “attacks.”
I never did figure out what she was upset about. But I quickly learned that the best way to handle these little adventures was for me to calmly say things like, “It’s okay. It’s gone now. Time for sleeping.” or “Shhh… Go back to sleep… Everything is okay.” Slowly, her screams would subside to whimpers, and she would eventually curl up under her covers and go back to sleep. Meanwhile, with my heart pounding a mile a minute, I remained awake for quite a bit longer.
Needless to say, when morning arrived, she had no memories of her explosive episodes.
Perhaps when God put me in a college dorm room with a sleep-screamertalker, He was preparing me to one day be Mom to my 10-year-old, C..
Thankfully, though, C. doesn’t actually scream in his sleep. He doesn’t panic, or freak out. And his “incidents” only happen occasionally. In fact, they’ve become an endearing occurrence that I don’t mind at all.
It all started when he was about four years old and I heard quiet sobbing coming over the monitor at 2 a.m. I crept into his room to see if he was okay, and there he was, sitting up in his bed, looking heart-broken.
“C., sweetie?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s…it’s…it’s too old,” he replied.
And try as I might, I couldn’t get any more information out of him. Just that IT was too old. And that C. was devastated.
Just like with my former roommate, I resorted to vague assurances that everything was going to be all right, and before long, he was again slumbering peacefully.
C. went through a period of time where he woke up after midnight once every couple weeks, talking about something. Sometimes he was coherent; often he was not. But he never remembered our middle-of-the night chats and I got a quiet giggle out of the whole situation.
But then it all seemed to stop.
Until a few weeks ago, anyway.
It was 10:45 one night, and I was in bed, reading…thinking that I should turn off my light and get to sleep, when all of a sudden, C. walked into my room.
“What’s wrong, bud?” I asked.
“Oh.” he said. “Nothing.”
And then he just stood there, smiling at me. Which was my first clue that something was up. After all, he’d been asleep for two hours, and then just decided to walk into my room and stand next to my bed? Not exactly normal behavior.
Then he continued: “I just thought I’d tell you about a good dream I had last night.” Ah-ha! He thinks it’s morning already.
“Okay,” I said, “… but just so you know, it’s still night-time. I haven’t even gone to sleep yet.”
Suddenly, he looked concerned. “Oh, are you having trouble sleeping? You just CAN’T get to sleep?”
“No… I’m just settling in now.”
“Oh.” More silence. More smiling.
“So,” I prompted, “what was your dream about?”
“Well, I was doing lots of multiplication problems — you know, the easy ones with one digit times two digits? And it just kept getting easier and easier. And then, all of a sudden, it was like it was heaven all around.”
“Oh…that’s…um, interesting.”
“Yeah, I don’t know how it changed from multiplication to heaven, but it was just nice.”
“Well, I’m sure it was. And I’m glad you had such a nice dream.”
Silence. Smiles.
Me: “Well… I guess you better get back to bed.”
“Yeah, I guess so…”
And off he went. I followed him, tucked him in. All was well. And in the morning, he had a vague recollection of being in my room, but nothing more.
I don’t think I’ve ever been much of a sleep-talker (though I had an incident of sleep-walking when I was young, in which I woke up crumpled at the bottom of the stairs, with my parents at the top, asking me if I was all right). But that’s probably for the best. With the kind of crazy dreams I usually have, I’d probably be more likely to “talk” like my roommate did, rather than with the cute-but-a-bit-out-there approach C. takes.
Are you a sleep-talker? Are your kids? Did you have a crazy college roommate, too?
I’m kind of a strange sleeper. Sleepwalking, talking. I move a lot (which means kicking) I grind my teeth. I don’t know how my husband manages it. So far, my oldest shows no sign of sleeptalking or walking. Too bad about the kicking and the grinding teeth.
I have been told by my wonderful wife that I infrequently talk in my sleep. And she says that although the words are coherent, the sentences typically are not.
I rarely remember the situation, which leads me to believe that SHE is the one having vivid waking dreams.
Oh my, multiplication = heaven! What have you done to that poor child, no wonder he’s having sleep issues!
I have been told that I frequently talk in my sleep and now my daughter does too, her words are usually incoherent, but it’s cute and I get a laugh out of it.
Such a fun story! I use to be a sleep walker when I was kid. Every now and then I do the moaning talk in my sleep but its usually when im stressed or something like that..
I am a sleep walker. My parents found me in the garage or spinning in circles with my pillow over my head. When I would be stressed in college I would wake up running in circles in the living room. Then after we were married I would wake up swinging at floating heads. Yes, I have issues that bring many of laughs to my husband. I feel bad for Michael since he has gotten hit several times as I would try and hit one of those heads…………. I don’t do it as much now. I have notice it comes at times when I am really stressed in life.
Marah know is starting to be a sleep talker/crier. I just hope she does not start to see the heads – ha!
How did he get to heaven from multiplication? Wow. And to carry on such a calm conversation in the middle of the night.
I think I was the sleep-talking roommate. Sleep-screaming might have been more like it. or so I’ve been told. Like others, I have no recollection of these episodes. My sister had it best figured out – like you – just wake me up and gently reassure me all is well. Which it usually is. Except for those I’ve just awakened. Lucky for me, Mike is not a good sleeper so we balance each other out!
Well that’s entertaining! =D
I’m not a sleep-talker but my husband is. He just says a phrase or a sentence or two and then that’s it. If I’m awake, I’m fully awake though and have enaged him in conversations that he remembers nothing about….(These are sweet times to make deals!)
I occasionally talk in my sleep. My brother (was diagnosed with sleep apnea a few years ago which might contribute to this) would come in to the living room (in the morning or evening) have a full conversation maybe even eat something, go back to bed, and have NO recollection of it. We used to laugh about it!!
We had Sunday School teachers (husband and wife) and he would tell us about her sleepscreaming episodes. Apparently, they usually occurred when she was stressed. She would sit up in bed and scream then go back to sleep. I guess it was most disturbing when they had company (which would naturally be stressing)!
I married a sleep talker. He has some really crazy dreams but I have learned to just say, “you’re dreaming. It’s okay.” instead of trying to touch him. Once I reached out to shake him and he almost hit me so I don’t do that anymore. I think the funniest thing was once he woke me up talking about something and I told him he was sleeping and he said,”I’m not sleeping. I’m wide awake. Two plus two is four!” and with that he plopped back into bed. He didn’t remember anything about it the next day. lol
Ha! Both of my kids have mumbled and cried out at various times in their lives, and I did my share of sleeptalking/sleepwalking in my day.
Our eldest daughter only talked as she was waking up. BUT we had some VERY interesting conversations! **wink**
Our youngest daughter talked in her sleep. Sometimes it was coherent, sometimes not. It became very interesting after she became fluent in Spanish, because then she would talk in Spanish in her sleep. As a matter of fact, she really scared her husband when she did that while they were on their honeymoon.
My oldest is a sleeptalker and sometimes a walker too! She even sleep walked when she fractured her foot and needed crutches! LOL. One time when she was a teen she had a couple of friends sleeping over and they were watchinga movie really late. My girl had fallen asleep but not the other two. All of a sudden mine gets up and walks right over to them and starts giving what for about some mop being left out or some such thing, then she just turned around got back in her bed and went back to sleep. After that we started warning any sleepover friends. LOL.
I smiled reading the post. My daughter talks in her sleep. After taking German for 4 years, believe it or not she began talking in her sleep in German. We didn’t know if we shold laugh or cry. I stopped by today as I’m working on visiting the many blogs from Bloggy Carnival now that I have time to read and comment.
Matt sleep walks/talks occasionally. Usually it’s like C.’s…sort of a happy/smiley conversation that makes no sense at all.
I WAS that crazy talker in college! I must have kept my poor best friend roommate up a million times. We used to die laughing in the morning when she would tell me what I said in my sleep. *sigh* ah the good old days!