Have you ever accidentally slapped/hit your significant other?

[NickB79]

A couple of years ago, I had a very vivid dream about spiders. LARGE spiders. FOOTBALL-SIZED spiders, with yellow stripes. I HATE spiders. I woke up at the point in my dream where the spiders were right next to me, and when I opened my eyes I swore I saw one on the pillow next to me. I hauled off and started swinging at it. It turned out to be my girlfriend's face :-(

She wasn't hurt, but it was one hell of a way to wake someone up from a dead sleep with an open-handed slap across the face.

Last week, the same thing happened again! Thankfully this time she was up and getting ready for work when I started swinging a pillow at her side of the bed. She came running into the room to find me looking confused, searching for an imaginary spider under the sheets. If she'd slept in that day, it would have been a very one-sided pillow fight.

My fiance thinks it's a funny story, and tells it to all our friends, but I still feel bad and embarrassed about it.

[Inchworm]

1. I woke up like that for 17 years

My daughter used to dare her friends to wake me up.

It stopped after my divorce, but I still feel bad and embarrassed about it too.

:hug:

[UTUSN]

2. Um, well. I'm thinking now about NOT "accidentally." But that's just me. n/t

[UTUSN]

4. A better post would have been, "Not yet. But, now that you mention it...." n/t

[Ikonoklast]

3. The ex had night terrors.

A fat lip or bloody nose was not unusual at least once a year.

[siligut]

5. I started having night terrors.

My doc put me on 25 mgs of Trazadone and they stopped. However, before that I smacked Mr.Gut hard. I had bruises on my arms from him holding me down. After the second night of it, he just started sleeping in the spare room.

[petronius]

6. I woke up once to my girlfriend pounding on my head - she thought I was

the alarm clock. In general, however, I tend to be extremely skeptical of anyone who 'accidentally' hits anyone. (Present company excluded, of course...)

[rurallib]

7. I used to sleep walk when stressed and when overtired.

I used to be a pretty good racquetball player. Often (couple times a month in my playing days) I would "play" in my sleep. I was a very aggressive player. Well you can imagine what would happen. I would push off my wife or swing for a kill shot or even start "running" full speed (lying down). There was no way I could control myself. And it wasn't always after a game. It might be during the summer when I hadn't played for a month or two.
I still have the "restless" legs and will start running or walking in bed.
One night when my wife was lying near death in the hospital apparently I went out and twisted the no parking sign next to my yard about 4 o'clock in the morning. My neighbor told me about it the next day.

[Blue Diadem]

8. I've been on the receiving end

from my husband during a really stressful time when he was unemployed after his 2nd plant closed. He told me he was dreaming about being attacked. My DIL tells me my youngest son has done the same thing in his sleep.

There are other REM sleep disorders in our family. Our youngest granddaughter began sleepwalking this past summer. Our oldest granddaughter suffered from night terrors and sleepwalking for years. Let me tell ya, waking up to a blood curdling scream and then having to chase her through the house, down the stairs or up and down the hallway sure gets your heart racing at 2:00am. Luckily, just as the pediatrician said, she outgrew them. We just have to be watchful because if they begin again, the Dr. said he'd put her on medication.

Don't be embarrassed. You have no control over it. If it continues though, you may want to have a sleep study done or at least speak to a Dr. about some type of medication.