Sleepwalk

One of my favorite classic songs.

It’s also one of the worst things about being married to me.

From time to time I get in these sleepwalking modes. I’m in one now. It usually hits around 2 in the morning and I’m up and trying to figure out how to get something accomplished. Lately, I remember dreaming that the new puppy has somehow made it up two flights of stairs and is in our bed. I get up, try to access how best to get a sleeping Pug out of our queen sized bed and then proceed to rustle the non-existent dog. In my dream, I’m not actually in our bedroom so I don’t know where the doors are. I’m out of bed when my wife tells me to go back to sleep. That’s when I get a little frustrated at her ignorance of the dog being inside the house and try to explain that I know what I’m doing.

It takes a few minutes before I either realize I’m sleepwalking or decide to give up and let the imaginary dog sleep with us.

I get it honestly. When I was in high school I walked into the kitchen for breakfast to see my mom with a black eye and busted lip. She had jumped from her bed and landed on the iron radiators in our old house.

My cousin, at a family get together once walked out of our aunt’s house and down the street before waking up. He knocked on a neighbor’s door to ask where he had been staying.

A few years ago I jumped out of bed and landed on the stone tile floor in our bathroom with 2 bruised ribs.

My doctor tells me it’s because my brain never fully goes to sleep and is constantly working. About 10% of the population suffers from sleepwalking and I guess most of the time it’s just a minor inconvenience. But I’ve walked in my sleep the past 4 or 5 nights which keeps me from getting a good night’s sleep.