16th January 2005
I am actually guilty of this. It usually occurs when I am sleep deprived and under stress. The most frightening episode happened shortly after the birth of my second child. My husband reports that I had taken the baby out of his crib and he asked me where I was going. He said I became very aggitated and began saying, "This isn't my baby, where is my baby! What have you done with my baby!" It really freaked him out.
Frequently when I am just trying to roll over or get up to use the bathroom my husband reaches over with his arm and pins me to the bed because his worried about what I am going to do.
When I was in college I came downstairs and looked at my two roommates and their guests and very angrily demanded that they get all of their garbage off of my bedroom floor immediately and then went back upstairs to bed. The two girls were slobs, but none of their belongings had ever been in my room. Because I had failed to warn them about my nighttime excursions, and I appeared awake, they spent the rest of the night discussing what type of personality disorder I must have.
I also have these episodes when I am sleeping somewhere unfamiliar. I think it is because I have a harder time getting into a deep sleep.
This type of episode is related to night terrors. I think that most people that have this problem also have a tendency to have night terrors. It almost always happens within the first hour or two after going to bed. It is caused by a malfunction in the sleep-arousal area of the brain.
My autistic son had alot of sleep problems. He couldn't go to sleep. When he would fall asleep he wouln't stay asleep. I was so sleep deprived that I thought I was going actually going to die. Our doctor finally prescribed some Tenex. It helped alot. ( I personally believe that it saved my life.) My son could go to sleep and pretty much stay asleep but it was a restless agitated sleep. He would thrash around all night. He was also groggy and spaced-out the next day.
He was on the Tenex for a couple of months when we decided to put him on the GF/CF diet. I was unaware that the diet would have an impact on his sleep but after being completelycasein free for three days he started sleeping soundly and peacefully for the first time in his life. The change was so dramatic that we knew it was the lack of casein in his diet. We have not had to give Tenex since starting the diet. When he was first on the diet if he had the smallest dietary infraction such as one flavored potato chip he would not sleep well for three days. Three days seemed the magic number. We did not know it at the time but it takes casein three days to leave the body. (Gluten doesn't seem to affect his sleep any.)
Of course our pediatrician thinks that it is just coincidental, and he merely outgrew his sleeping problems. The results were too dramatic for it to be coincidental. Being able to sleep makes all of the hassle of the diet worth it for us.
Frequently when I am just trying to roll over or get up to use the bathroom my husband reaches over with his arm and pins me to the bed because his worried about what I am going to do.
When I was in college I came downstairs and looked at my two roommates and their guests and very angrily demanded that they get all of their garbage off of my bedroom floor immediately and then went back upstairs to bed. The two girls were slobs, but none of their belongings had ever been in my room. Because I had failed to warn them about my nighttime excursions, and I appeared awake, they spent the rest of the night discussing what type of personality disorder I must have.
I also have these episodes when I am sleeping somewhere unfamiliar. I think it is because I have a harder time getting into a deep sleep.
This type of episode is related to night terrors. I think that most people that have this problem also have a tendency to have night terrors. It almost always happens within the first hour or two after going to bed. It is caused by a malfunction in the sleep-arousal area of the brain.
My autistic son had alot of sleep problems. He couldn't go to sleep. When he would fall asleep he wouln't stay asleep. I was so sleep deprived that I thought I was going actually going to die. Our doctor finally prescribed some Tenex. It helped alot. ( I personally believe that it saved my life.) My son could go to sleep and pretty much stay asleep but it was a restless agitated sleep. He would thrash around all night. He was also groggy and spaced-out the next day.
He was on the Tenex for a couple of months when we decided to put him on the GF/CF diet. I was unaware that the diet would have an impact on his sleep but after being completelycasein free for three days he started sleeping soundly and peacefully for the first time in his life. The change was so dramatic that we knew it was the lack of casein in his diet. We have not had to give Tenex since starting the diet. When he was first on the diet if he had the smallest dietary infraction such as one flavored potato chip he would not sleep well for three days. Three days seemed the magic number. We did not know it at the time but it takes casein three days to leave the body. (Gluten doesn't seem to affect his sleep any.)
Of course our pediatrician thinks that it is just coincidental, and he merely outgrew his sleeping problems. The results were too dramatic for it to be coincidental. Being able to sleep makes all of the hassle of the diet worth it for us.