During my entire life, dreams, nightmares and sleepwalking have been frequent – I was a nervous wreck of a kid. Even now I remember one reoccurring nightmare – it was an old gypsy woman that lived in the hallway of our home. She would sit in the corner on a high chair waiting to kill me. Once night fell I was always terrified if I had to go to the bathroom because the hallway door was always shut. I would carefully put my hand inside the hall and turn the light on; the old bag was never sitting when the light was on.
My sister and her boyfriend took me and my brother to the Roller Derby in the city when I was about 10. It was a big deal back then and it must have been very exciting because later that night that was the first time I was caught sleepwalking. Apparently I opened my bedroom door, walked past the old gypsy – thankfully she didn’t kill me – I opened the front door, crossed the street and knocked on the neighbour’s front door at two in the morning. I woke up when the man answered the door and I started telling him about the roller derby. Thankfully he was a good guy and took me inside and made me a Milo and waited with me till my parents came home from their RSL club.
The nightmares continued, but thankfully and hopefully my sleepwalking was contained to within the house, and as I grew into a teenager, it settled down for a long time.
After I got married and had the boys it started again. When they wanted their mates to sleep over I always heard them telling the boys Mum was a bit weird of a night but normal during the day. Apparently I used to pull their blankets off them in the middle of the night then go back to bed, all without saying a word. Luckily they all thought it was pretty funny.
One time my ex partner caught me standing on the kitchen sink balancing myself by hanging onto the curtain rod. I was trying to squash the doona cover down the plug hole with my foot. The kids said I was yelling it was a vine of killer bananas. I remember him waking me up from that one, stupid of him because I nearly had a bad fall. Even now I never sleep naked, just in case.
My nightmares have increased dramatically since my son was run down. They get very hectic and vivid and I wake up tired. I have no idea if I am sleepwalking but I am always clothed, mainly because I do not have the money for the therapy the neighbours would need.
My barricades are never disturbed anyway. By the time I go to bed I am exhausted! I could not imagine having the energy to go walkabout.
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