How Camp Counselors Can Deal With a Sleepwalking Camper

Over the weekend, news broke that a sleepwalking camper in Kentucky walked out of camp. He had an episode and sleepwalked off a cliff! He sits about 60 feet. Fortunately, he should make a full recovery. A whole story for him and his group.

I had maybe one or two sleepwalking campers throughout my career. He had many more dream talkers. These children generally fall into two categories: those who spoke because of nightmares, and those who said basically anything. The first group was difficult to deal with because you felt bad for them. The second group was harmless and sometimes he got an interesting story out of it. Children are fascinating when you watch them through the years. People are fascinating.

I can’t recall too many sleepwalking incidents in my camping career anyway. But it could be a very real problem, as the news above shows. So what should I do? You’ve heard the old advice to never wake a sleepwalker. But it is true?

According to Mental Floss, it’s pretty harmless to wake up a sleepwalker. The only dangers are that they startle when they wake up and hit you, and that they can’t easily go back to sleep when you wake them up. A sleepwalker is in stage 3 REM sleep. This is one of the deepest of the four stages. It is also the stage in which nocturnal enuresis usually occurs. The deepest stage, stage 4, is when you dream. If you’ve ever been woken up just before you started dreaming, you can understand how surprising and frustrating it can be. You are so close to the most restful and restful period of sleep and BAM: something wakes you up. Now it is difficult to return to the land of dreams. The article recommends that instead of waking the person up, you guide them back to bed by lightly holding their hand. You can do this without waking them up. Sounds good to me.

Hopefully, a camper or their parents will inform you that they are sleepwalkers. This is useful information. You wouldn’t want that camper sleeping on top of a bunk bed. Even if the bunk bed has railings (which I think all ACA-accredited campgrounds should have), they can still climb over them. That can lead to broken bones. It’s not fun and it’s a huge headache to deal with in the middle of the night. It can be helpful to have your bed close to the campers bed so you can try to pass on any sleepwalking episodes quickly. It would also be a good idea for the camper to sleep in a corner, away from any doors leading to the outside.

But what if you’re outside, like the camper in the news? The best thing I can think of is to surround the sleeping area with objects that make noise when touched, but won’t trip a person. Things like dry leaves that crunch under footsteps. A tarp that makes noise when you step on it is also a good idea. Also, have campers who are sleepwalkers sleep in your tent. If you sleep outdoors under the stars, stay next to the caravan. You may wake up when he starts his nightly walk and then you can safely get him back to his bed.