Sleepwalking.
Huh.
When I was six years old I walked in my sleep for the first time. I only knew about it because my grandfather told me. I grew up with my mother, my sisters and my grandfather all in one big house. I opted for the room in the basement, so I wouldn't have to share. My grandfathers room was beside mine. One night while watching late night TV he heard my door open around 1am. My door alway made a distinguishable squeak when it was opened or closed. So he got up and poked his head to see me pattering up the stairs. He said that he just followed me up, not knowing I was still asleep, to see if I was up to something. He thought maybe I needed a snack. When I got upstairs though, instead of turning into the kitchen, I walked down the hallway to the livingroom. Now, all my life we've had this massive portrait of Jesus Christ that hung in the hall behind the front door. It was a large painting, taller than me. Although no one is my family was religious, it was a priceless antique and we kept it hung there until the day we moved.
As my grandfather watched, I stood there in front of the Jesus painting for a long time. Then he tried to tap me on the shoulder to get my attention, but it didn't work. Then he realized what I was doing and he picked me up and carried me back to my bed.
At two other times during my childhood, I remember waking up in front of the Jesus painting.
I don't know what ever caused it. The last incident I had occured before I was 9. I never really read into it because I was a child, and at the time it seemed insignificant. How many times had I seen characters sleepwalking in cartoons? Enough for me not to wonder. And why the Jesus painting? Like I said, we weren't religious.
And now it's 12 years later and I've had another late night wander. I wouldn't have known if my roommate hadn't been awake when it happened. I came creeping down the stairs from my room and stayed on the landing for a bit before I passed my roommate in the livingroom, into the kitchen and out the back patio door. Lucky for me, I shared with Sean my encounters as a child and he immediately followed me outside, grabbed my hand and guided me back to the house. I woke up in the livingroom and it was the strangest thing ever. I remember going to bed, and then waking up downstairs, standing and alert.
I read that you shouldn't wake a person when they're sleepwalking but it had no effect on me, other than sheer confusion.
What is it that causes my sleepwalking? How does it correlate to the times it happened in my childhood. How many times have I walked in the night that I don't even know about??
