How to recognize and describe sleepwalking?
My husband has an appointment with his psychiatrist tomorrow to talk about sleep meds. He had two odd spells this week that I described as "sleepwalkiing" but in case the shrink quizzes me about it, I want to know if that is the right word to describe what he did.
Both times his eyes were barely open, looked glazed.
Next morning after waking and getting up and dressed, he still appeared somewhat 'drugged': eyes glazed, slow to move or talk, bent over, dozing at the table.
He complained of feeling sleepy, slow -- but did not remember anything that had happened during the night.
He often gets out of bed in the middle of the night to move to his recliner and sleeps there. This time in the middle of the night I found him in the recliner, stressed and frustrated. He was moving his arms and legs sort of vaguely and randomly, arms in teh air. Kind of like a dog 'chasing rabbits in his sleep'. Then I decided he was reaching up groping for the grab bar., though he was lying a couple of feet too low. Even then it didn't make sense, because his left arm was moving out to the left side where there was never anything to grab. And maybe he was trying to get up.
If he was trying to do something, his arms and legs were not obeying him. They were just sticking up and moving almost in circles, like a little baby lying on its back and trying to reach for things.
His limbs were not limp like meat, like when a person faints or is drunk. Dunno how much strentgh they had becuse I was very careful about touching him.
His eyes were not normal, probably half closed.
We live in a travel trailer. On a prevous night, he had staggered out of bed and sort of 'climbed' along the aisle grasping the kitchen counter and the dinette. That is, his spine was so bent that more of his weight seemed to be on his hands and arms than on his feet and legs. It looked like the way a monkey might move/climb, that never stood upright! (He has balance problems and often does use counter and dinette, or other furnishings, for ballance, but never like this! Eyes slitted, spine very arched
When he started to go down the steps in the same manner, I intervened and made him sit down at the dinette.
He has been having insomnia and taking Ambien for sleep. Very recently I think his shrink increased that dosage, or told him to take it more often.
When I told him about the 'sleepwalking' he stopped taking any Ambien and has not had any for about a week. Sleep seems to be about the same as when he was taking it. Last night he had 8 hours, with an interruption in the middle from a bad PTSD dream: he got up and stayed up a while to get over teh dream.
I don't want to insist that it was "sleepwalking" if there might be a different description I should use.
4 Answers
