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By Teri Floyd
I tilt my head back gracefully, swan-like, and lift my arms high in the air. I bring one hand down and gently graze my arm with my fingers, then repeat the same movement with the other hand; over and over, in a languid, ballet-like dance.
Then my husband elbows me in the ribs. “You’re doing it AGAIN," he hisses groggily. “Roll over and go to sleep.”
It turns out that I’m not performing "Swan Lake" for the masses; I’m performing these odd dance moves for a party of one -- my irritated husband who is lying in the bed beside me.
It’s true. I dance in my sleep.
Every night, ever since I was a small child, I’ve done it. I sometimes wake myself up with my arms high in the air, bringing one hand down to graze my inner arm; then, I repeat the same movement with the other side. Apparently, it is quite irritating to wake up night after night to your spouse performing a ballet dance from her pillow. I wouldn’t know. I rarely remember these episodes.
I’ve often wondered what exactly is going on in my brain to make me bust out with the dance moves in my bed at night. After all, I’m not exactly a big dancer during the light of day. Let’s just say that I could have a dance off with Carlton and Elaine and I’d still lose. And yet I’m jigging it up in my sleep.
In my attempts to figure out this night-time recital, I’ve come across two front runners I suspect may be the culprit.
Sleep related rhythmic movement disorder is a disorder typically seen in infants and small children, and it involves repeated body movements such as body rolling, banging of the legs, and even humming. This is what you’re witnessing if you’ve ever seen a toddler repeatedly bang his/her head on the wall or headboard as they drift off to sleep. Generally speaking, most children who have RMD outgrow it by the time they are in adolescence.
Periodic limb movement disorder is a sleep disorder in which a person’s limbs are randomly moving during sleep with no apparent cause. Typically it involves the arms or legs. It only occurs in 4 percent of people, the majority of them women. It is linked to restless leg syndrome and occurs often in people with anemia or an iron deficiency (I have both due to a blood disorder I had in teenage years.) There are also a host of other factors that can cause it, including stress, exercise, diet, and more. I suspect that this is what I have, but it's never bothered me enough to necessitate a visit to a specialist or consultant to confirm it. So for now, at least, my husband will have to put up with my sleepy dance moves.
Do you dance in your sleep? Punch or elbow your partner? Talk? Giggle? Drool? Tell us about your sleepy-time mischief.
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I think this is simpler than some strange medical condition. She is probably a deep sleeper completely engaged in a dream of dancing, unaware that her physical body is mimicking her dream body. With effort, she can stop the dream or let it evolve into something else.
From the time I started ice skating at age 2 until about age 9, I would dream of ice skating with huge leaps and twirls, nearly flying. It was a blast in my dream world but the inevitable result was falling out of bed in my physical world. Every night.
It seems likely that any active dream of hers could result in an active body so I suggest: 1) she take ballet lessons (great exercise btw) or 2) buy a bigger bed.
When I was a kid I would often fall out of my bed, talk in my sleep and almost always wake up with my feet on my pillow and my head at the bottom of the bed. Now I am older and married and I realize it hasn't got much better except I don't fall out anymore. My spouse hates it because in addition to talking, turning and being generally restless I also hit, kick and once he said he woke up and I was picking a scab on his arm - ewwww.
I use to get up at 16 & 17 walk out of my bed room, sit & talk to my mom who had just gotten home from work at 11:30 p.m. She started realizing why I never remembered any conversations. I'd tell her I never hear her come home. My eyes she said the whole time I talked to her both stared to one direction.I figured she must catch my mind open at the right time. I have No idea what I talked about with her. At that age, you don't telll your mom a lot of what's going on in your life. I Know what I hope I didn't discuss with her.She still liked to think of it as us Bonding. hee... A wonderful mom : )
I did fist hit hard my deceased husband. Had a dream that I walked in on him & some one & he said ,"Oh don't worry about her, she's nobody to me." And cont. on... I woke up in mid Come down, but it was too late to stop it. I told him about it, he didn't get mad. poppedhim once in side before, told him he was dreaming then : ) I worried when I bought a 2 story house with steps right by door also have to go over a dog there to go to bathroom. I am on a med. now for muscles, I think that has taken care of it.
My husband tells me that I run in my sleep. He says that my legs really get going. I have absolutely no recollection of doing this, ever! I always tell him that if I start to do really weird things in my sleep I am not accountable because I don't know that I am doing them. I am a very, very sound sleeper but I don't know if that has anything to do with it. Sometimes I can recall a dream where I might have been running or fighting and would be kicking my legs, but usually I can't connect it to anything.
I (ah-hem) 'touch' my husband in my sleep. And quite often he claims. A couple times a week maybe. I can always tell when this has happened as he will wake up in a very grumpy mood lol. I guess I do it until he is seconds away from waking up with a smile and I will suddenly stop and roll over to my side. As you can imagine this causes quite a bit of frustration in our marriage as I'm always making him excited while I'm awake AND asleep! ;))
Sexsomnia. It's a parasomnia "issue". My 2nd husband used to get very irritated with me about that too. When I was in labor with my 3rd son I had been in prelabor for 3 days. It was miserable. On the second day, we went to bed and apparently I had an "episode" and I woke up to him trying to get me in the mood. Needless to say, being in labor, I certainly wasn't in any mood. He was not happy because I had gotten him in the mood while I was asleep! *laugh* Luckily, our son came the next day - 5 days early. 7lbs 12 oz.
Maybe it's Williams Syndrome.
I've woken up in fits of laughter from something funny in a dream, or every now and then will get a lucid dream moment, but nothing more then that usually. The giggling is strange, especially when you wake up and can't remember what was so damn funny, but keep laughing anyway o.O
My son giggles in his sleep all the time. I find it super cute. He's six. Don't know what his future partner will think when he gets married!
I have somerthing in common with her. I can only dance in my dreams also!
I fight, kick and scream sometimes when asleep. I am always dreaming I am fending off and attack. I have thrown punches that were so hard I have thrown myself out of bed and hit my head on the bedside table. A doctor diagnosed me with a REM sleep disorder. Apparently my brain does not produce a chemical that disconnects your motor functions from your brain when you are in REM sleep causing you to physically act out your dreams. I am told it can be quite dangerous. People have been know to think they could fly and jump off of high places, eat meals they do not remember, and in some cases...lead alternative lives. If you experience any of these things or the ones described in the article, I urge you to go to a doctor and have a sleep study. REM sleep disorders are highly treatable. Left untreated they can cause you to wake multiple times during the night...in my case approximately 40 times an hour...prevent you from entering in to deep sleep and keep you from achieving recuperative sleep.
Parasomniac here. Walk, talk, and the occasional sexual interlude (with bedmates). It started out with just talking in my sleep from infancy. Then as I got older, I would walk (I was 9 the first time I noticed it). The sex in my sleep I noticed when I was 14. I initiated it, in my sleep. Now, before anyone blames the other person for it - don't. I sleepwalked into the other room and initiated it. It wouldn't be the last time either. Numerous times over the years I've done it. One time I did it while I was in labor with my 3rd son (it was a 3 day pre-labor).
I now have to warn everyone who sleeps over at my house about it and when we have kids spend the night I have to be locked in my room just in case (even though it's a rarity that it happens).
Out of the four kids I've had - all four talk in their sleep. Two have already started to sleep walk. I still talk in my sleep at least once a week. Some nights, it sounds like we are holding conversations, but we certainly aren't all having the SAME conversation!
Sleepwalking, talking, rolling, laughing, crying, flipping my head to the foot of the bed, and kicking are usual for me. I used to roll off the bed, but have finally stopped the more dangerous act of sleepwalking and rolling too far. I used to wake up in my closet with a pillow and 'blankie'. I guess the dark was comforting. Waking up to springs after rolling off and then under the bed was frightful. But, I got used to it, and outgrew most of it. I will still make vocal noises, depending on the dream (yell, laugh, cry), and kick sometimes...I find random bruises on my legs every once in awhile. My husband is a deep sleeper, so he doesn't hear much unless I'm talking REALLY loud. Only once did I wake doing a head-stand, with my legs up in the air, leaning on my headboard, when I was around 6. I have no clue what I was dreaming about! LOL I have very vivid dreams almost every night, and can remember dreams at least 4-6 times a week.
Is there video of this?
When I was a kid it was teeth grinding and kung fu'ing anyone I had to share a bed with, sleeping so deep if a smoke alarm went off or if I fell out of bed, I never knew. Now the hubby says it's a cycle of snore, grind, shake (the entire body quivers) -- lather, rinse, repeat.
My daughter has "headrolled," which includes strange, graceful arm movements that look like dancing, since she was a baby. She did it when she was awakened, sometimes dozens of times a night, in a half dream-like state. She now does it purposely, and calls it "dreaming," but is not completely awake. And cannot go for more than one day without it. We managed to get it to this point, down from very violent thrashing back and forth, multiple times per night, to a one-time pre-sleep session. She spent the first 19 months in an orphanage and I often wondered if it was a way of blocking out noise and commotion. we have never successfully banished it and I don't think we ever will.
I have this EXACT same issue, but Ive never thought of the word "dancing" to describe it. When I wake myself up doing it, I've come to notice my body temperature was too high and the gentle gliding of my fingertips up and down my arms was giving me chills. As soon as my temperature was comfortable I'd stop doing it automatically. Its been happening since I was young but the episodes are generally far between.
This is no laughing matter! I have this ailment and it can be very difficult. I alternate all night between the bosa nova, the twist, various waltzes, break dancing, it runs the gamet with me. My wife, god bless her, is so wonderful about it. She just lays there and stares at me all night, shaking her head with a scowl on her face.
I am a lucky man. My wife doesn't just sleep walk, but sleep sex. She sometimes gets up on her own or I can wake her after she's been sleeping a little while, and she remembers nothing. I had hurt myself. I told her she could kiss it and make it better later. She wasn't happy with me at the time and said, "I don't think so." I replied, "oh yes you will, you just won't remember." Who could ever complain, I'll take the loss of some sleep.
bsing,
You made that up. I can tell by your name.
Sleep is good.
I used to sleep walk, My kids and I talk in our sleep, and my wife, ever since she was pregnant with our 2nd son, moans and makes weird animal like sounds. Most of it is drowned out by my snoring though. No one has ever said anything, but I can imagine it sounds strange when we have family stay over.
When I sleep, I dream that I'm sound asleep, while dreaming that I'm sound asleep, while dreaming that I'm sound asleep, while dreaming that ............................................
Jeez and I thought I had a problem with snoring.
single beds......either that or handcuffs and a mallet
your brains not producing melatonin go to a doctor...
I talk, walk, fight, yell and have even given first aid while sound asleep. It can be weird in a hotel because the sound of a baby crying will get me every time. (actually a puppy whimpering or a kitten calling with do the same thing). Apparently I'll sock my husband and tell him to bring me the baby, something is wrong with the baby. If he doesn't wake me or the sound doesn't stop I'll get up and try to find the "baby". When my son was 3 weeks old I was marveling to someone that he slept through the night already. My husband thought I had lost my mind. Apparently the baby would cry, I'd tell husby to bring him to me and then I would breast-feed the baby, even turning sides, then nudge hubby to take baby back to crib. (In my defense I had a c-section and was on bed rest for weeks afterwards, I don't think laziness is actually built in ; ) But the baby upset reflex hasn't worn off and my son is now 17 years old.
My husband has also woken up to me petting him and reassuring him that he's alright, he just had a bad dream. I have no idea if he actually did (he doesn't remember dreams so can't tell me). There IS a hereditary component though, my son sleep terrors, sleep paralysis(s), sleep walks and sleep sings. Luckily we've always had a dog around that would corral him or call us so we usually caught him before he got outdoors.
My own father is so violent in his sleep that he usually sleeps on the floor, afraid of hurting my mom. I would never touch him to wake him, dangerous! When he had neurosurgery for a bleed (caused by a self-injury while sleeping) his nurses in the ICU kept ending up in strangle holds because they would try to take his pulse without waking him. Finally the head nurse wrote "VIETNAM VET - DO NOT TOUCH WHILE SLEEPING" on a sign on his door.
In my own case my husband weighs more than twice as much as me and is 20" taller so I don't worry overly about hurting him : D
ps: I don't think that the gent describing his wife's "sleep sex" is fibbing, he might be joking about how he teased his wife but sleep sex is apparently as common as sleepwalking; just fewer people willing to do a sleep study to confirm is is all. Can't imagine why ; ) Prudish USA (yes, I'm American)
My husband had shoulder surgery 6 months ago, and he would wake me up for several weeks doing his arm exercises in his sleep! It was quite annoying so I completely sympathize with the husband in this story. Thankfully he has pretty much quit doing it.