How can I sleepwalk more productively?

December 27, 2008 12:47 PM

I'm a sleepwalker. While asleep I can accomplish basic tasks, but nothing which requires higher brain function. I've heard of lucid dreaming; is there any way I can train myself to do simple household chores while asleep?
posted by the latin mouse to grab bag (7 comments total)

Try to fall asleep with a pen and paper in your hand. See what happens.
posted by rabbitsnake at 1:22 PM on December 27, 2008

I had a roommate who was a sleepwalker. He bought a gun.

Two days later he woke up with the gun on his bed and bullets lying all round. He sold the gun. This story could have been better a better story, but a far worse incident.

I think sleepwalking is generally regarded as dangerous. Lucid dreaming is thought of exciting and liberating. One thing you do to test if you are dreaming is attempt to fly. Does this seem like something you want to combine with sleepwalking?
posted by kingfisher, his musclebound cat at 1:32 PM on December 27, 2008

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I think those two are mutually exclusive. In sleepwalking, your physical body is disconnected from your conscious mind. Your subconscious mind is busily dreaming, your conscious is sleeping, but your body is wandering around frightening the cat. But in lucid dreaming, you are (supposedly) waking your conscious mind and connecting it with your unconscious mind, but in reverse. The physical body isn't part of it.

I'd suspect that if your conscious, unconscious and physical aspects were all connected and doing the dishes, you wouldn't be sleeping. You'd be doing the dishes.
posted by gjc at 1:39 PM on December 27, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

(Oh, the stories I have from the sleep lab...)

Sleepwalking does not usually occur during the dream (REM) phases of sleep. Therefore, not likely. Get a sleep study done, before you throw something or someone important out of the window one night.
posted by cobaltnine at 1:42 PM on December 27, 2008

As far as I understand sleepwalking, you're not in a restful part of sleep when you do it so you might as well put an alarm on your bedroom door to wake you up and then just do the housework while conscious. You wouldn't be out any (useful) sleep and would be less likely to wake up in the ER when you try to wash the knives or change the light bulb at the top of the stairs.
posted by Ookseer at 1:44 PM on December 27, 2008

I just want to take this opportunity to plug (promote) lucid dreaming.

It changed the way i sleep...completely. Say goodbye to nightmares, and hello to a completely new world. You will be amazed at what your mind is capable of. To anyone considering it: DO learn to lucid dream. You can thank me later.


www.dreamviews.com
www.lucidity.com
posted by FusiveResonance at 9:45 PM on December 27, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I have lucid dreams and part of having a lucid dream is that you know you're dreaming. For example, if someone is chasing me, I know that I can will myself far enough ahead of them that they can't catch me. I can sometimes control what I want to dream about next. AFAIK, when you sleepwalk, you're asleep... you don't know what you're doing.

I also occasionally suffer from sleep paralysis. (I recall a few AskMe threads about sleep paralysis as well, if you're inclined to search.) No idea if the fact that I experience one makes me more susceptible to the other.
posted by IndigoRain at 10:09 PM on December 27, 2008