Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
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Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
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Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
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If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evoloving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
I have a rather bizarre request.
Today, I learned that one of my friends is a sleepwalker.
Weird enough on its own, but in the same conversation, he told me a story where, while doing so one night, he made himself an entire breakfast and went back to bed...while leaving the stove burner on.
He could have possibly caused a LOT of damage, if not for a roommate following him and turning said burner off.
Anyway. What can be done to prevent the body from sleepwalking in the future? Any nutritional ideas? Because I don't trust doctors' pills anymore, and I certainly don't want to tell him to resort to strapping himself down every night to keep himself from becoming a danger to himself and others.
This is a serious issue. Let me tell you why I know that. My Mom lived with a very nice man years ago who ate in his sleep. He was super fastidious in his waking hours, but in his sleep he would drink out of the milk jug, eat peanut butter out of the jar and leave it out on the counter open (one time he even left his keys in the peanut butter jar). While they were together, she saved his life once because she heard a sound in their bathroom and it was him--he was choking. She pounded on his back and dislodged the piece of food and things went on as usual. Some time later they parted ways and each married other people. A few years into his marriage, my Mom and I went to his funeral. He had been found in the downstairs bathroom by his wife. The family wouldn't talk about the cause of death. He was in his early 60s when he died. I'm fairly certain that he was eating in his sleep and he choked to death.
My suggestion when he and my Mom were together was that she urge him to go to a counselor and get at the root of what was going on there because it really did seem like he was physically acting out in his sleep impulses that his waking fastidious self would just not allow.
This is not something to be trifled with. Also, make sure that your friend is not taking Ambien. It causes some of those same kinds of behaviors.
God bless, fren.
Tacks on the floor if it gets really bad...
<ouch>
I would agree on a motion detector, maybe at his bedroom door. Or a hook and eye latch on his bedroom door, placed high enough that the reaching for it should bring him to consciousness (placed on the inside, of course). Or do both, make sure the alarm is loud. I sleep walked, or was confused once. I thought I was awake and saw this light glowing in what I thought was my window-convinced that some alien craft landed, I crept low to the ground to what I thought was my window, and pulled myself up to peek out, I came to when I realized I was pulling myself up on the kitchen sink counter, and was looking at the clock that had a soft glow, which was on the wall over the sink counter. Weird.
An alarm that detects anyone in the kitchen at night. If it's loud enough it should waken him.