- Strategies to avoid sleepwalking
- 1. Waking the person up before the episode happens
- 2. Adopt strategies to wake up to pee at night
- 3. Taking calming and tranquilizing remedies
- Tips to ensure the safety of the sleepwalker
Sleepwalking is a sleep disorder that usually starts between the ages of 4 and 8, and it is fleeting and does not need any specific treatment, it is only necessary to keep the person calm and safe during sleep, so that they do not leave home and do not hurt themselves.
Usually the episode starts in the first 2 hours after falling asleep and, when it happens, the person is not awake, but can move around the house and even try to say something, although the speech is not always understandable.
To improve the person's sleep quality and avoid sleepwalking episodes, it is advisable to adopt some sleep hygiene measures, so that the person can get enough rest, such as always going to sleep at the same time, avoiding stimulating food and drinks and knowing deal with emotions because in some cases sleepwalking episodes are related to feelings of insecurity, fear and anxiety. Better understand what sleepwalking is and why it happens.
Strategies to avoid sleepwalking
To try to avoid sleepwalking episodes, some strategies include:
1. Waking the person up before the episode happens
A good tip is to observe the time when the person usually sleeps and wake him up a few minutes before the episode manifests. By adopting this strategy daily for a few weeks, sleepwalking tends to cease completely.
2. Adopt strategies to wake up to pee at night
This is a strategy that works very well for children, as it is relatively common for some moments of infant sleepwalking to happen because the child is in the mood to urinate at night, ending up getting up and urinating in other places in the house, thinking he is in bathroom.
What you can do, in this case, is to take the child to pee before going to bed and avoid drinking water, juice, milk or soup at dinner time, for example. Check out 6 steps to help your child avoid bed wetting.
3. Taking calming and tranquilizing remedies
Children and adolescents do not need to resort to the use of medications, however, when the adult is affected and episodes of sleepwalking are frequent and unpleasant, the doctor may recommend the use of medicines to calm and sleep better. Soothing teas like passionflower or chamomile can also help.
See soothing tea recipes to get better sleep.
Tips to ensure the safety of the sleepwalker
In addition to the strategies to prevent a new episode of sleepwalking, there are also measures that must be taken to ensure the safety of the sleepwalker. Thus, it is recommended:
- Do not try to wake the person up during an episode of sleepwalking as they may react in a violent and unexpected way; Drive the sleepwalker back to his bed, quietly, without waking him up; Put a night light in the room and in the hallways of the house, to identify more easily when he is on the move, avoid using bunk beds or, in this case, put the person to sleep on the bed below to avoid falling from the bed, do not leave objects or toys scattered on the floor of the house to avoid being hurt; Keep windows and doors closed to prevent you from leaving the house; Keep sharp objects such as knives, scissors and blades in the drawers that the person could access during sleepwalking.
Strategies like always going to sleep at the same time, not staying more than 9 hours in bed and avoiding stimulating foods like coffee, coke and black tea after 6 pm also help to improve the quality of sleep, avoiding episodes of sleepwalking. However, as sleepwalking can be related to insecurity, fear and anxiety, these emotions must also be treated appropriately.
