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I'm a sleepwalker. I was as a kid, and still am, but it's never caused any issues. I usually wake up when someone talks to me and have thankfully never tried to leave the house. I do weird things like take my duvet cover off, unplug every lamp in the room, check that the front door is locked, think there's a spider in the bed, just wander around the house. Stress, big life changes, and changes in scenery (moving, just getting home from vacation) can lead to more sleepwalking.

My little brother also sleepwalked a few times, including trying to leave the house, and he grew out of it. A family friend had night terrors as a kid--scary stuff--and he grew out of it as well.

@LindsayLou: Absolutely ditto on all you said. I was and still am a sleepwalker. I think it ties to stress. Spider in the bed is the absolute worst!!! (I'm so very glad to hear you deal with that specific one because I often feel so crazy over those damn spider "dreams" that are like full real life to me!) At least now I will usually wake myself up and I just have to talk myself back to reality.

My mom told me that she learned you aren't supposed to wake up a sleep walker. She would talk to me and try to redirect me back upstairs when I was little.

@agold: I've heard that too, but never really understood why you're not supposed to wake them up. My mom always did the same thing, just directed me back to bed. Now when it happens, I usually wake up right in the middle of it if my husband talks to me. He almost always sleeps through it though.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has that all too real experience of thinking there's a spider in the bed! I totally feel like a crazy person who's having hallucinations.

@agold: I've always considered them to be sleepwalking, or something similar. I figure even the times where I never leave the room, or even the bed, I'm doing things other than just sleeping, but in a different state.

I do the same thing--I either see the spider fall into the bed or see it crawling. Never mind that it's too dark to see that anyway.

The most terrifying instances were when my daughter was a newborn and I would dream that I'd brought her into bed with me from her bassinet by the side of the bed, but then couldn't find her. Of course, she was always safe and sound in the bassinet.

And yes, waking up in random parts of the house is surprisingly not disturbing at all.

@agold: It only happened a couple of times, in the newborn days, when I was on high alert and sleeping super lightly anyway. And I jumped out of bed, reached over, and knew instantly that she was fine.