5 ways to help your Sleepwalking Child
Posted on | July 19, 2009 | No Comments
If you child is a sleepwalker, here are some tips to lessen the risks:
- To remove the risk of accidental injuries, install appropriate locks on doors and windows, rearrange bedroom furniture to discourage tripping, and, for younger children, place gates across stairs.
- Since stress and sleep deprivation can trigger sleepwalking, encourage an early bedtime and, if possible, an afternoon nap. A full bladder may cause an episode, so consider restricting fluids before bedtime.
- A sleepwalking child is difficult to wake up, and even the gentlest attempts to rouse him can cause involuntary emotional outbursts. Parents are better off just carrying or steering their sleepwalker back to bed. Since most episodes occur in the first few hours of sleep, parents are usually still up.
- Consider changing the child’s bedroom or moving the bed to a safer location. If the new location is mole comfortable for the child, it may encourage better sleep with fewer episodes. If your sleepwalker has other health issues, treating those often improves of resolves the sleepwalking as well.
- Punishing a child for sleepwalking only makes it worse. Some parents, not understanding the situation, see their child’s roving and unresponsiveness as signs of disobedience, and their outbursts on attempts to wake them as tantrums. With understanding and greater parental support, these episodes often resolve themselves.
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