Anybody ever wake up punching/kicking?

[PugnacAutMortem]

So my wife tells me this morning that I woke her up in the middle of the night punching the ever-loving crap out of my pillow. I barely remember waking up and her asking me something, and I thought she said I was punching something but I wasn't nearly awake enough at that point to understand what she was asking me so I fell back asleep.

It's got me freaked out all day though, what the hell am I doing punching something in my sleep like that? I'm just glad that it wasn't her that I was punching, but I definitely am scared now that it's a possibility in the future. The worst part is she told me that her dad (who is LEO) woke up one time choking her mom. That was when he was on the child sex crimes unit so I'm sure he was stressed out of his gourd 24/7...but I don't want anything like that to ever happen. I think she was said it trying to make me feel better but it just freaked me out more.

Any of you guys have an experience like this? If so, was it stress induced or just a random occurrence?

[Gman]

Another option is pharmaceutical. A co-worker talks in his sleep when he takes NyQuil and is unaware of it. Some people taking ambien do all kinds of crazy stuff in their sleep.

[Gman]

How muscles are paralyzed during sleep: Finding may suggest new treatments for sleep disorders

I read another article that indicated repeated head injuries can also trigger this.

[Kraven251]

My ex grabbed my arm once to wake me, and I almost broke her hand, but that is slightly different.

[Irving]

Happened a few times when my wife and I first got together. One night I had a dream I was violently punching someone. While I was pulling my arm back to punch in the dream, I had a handful of my wife's hair in real life. She was sleeping soundly when I jerked her head right off the pillow. Her scream startled and woke me.

I'd never done anything like that in my life, and only exhibited that behavior a handful of times in about a two week period. Never again after that.

My wife tells me that I do talk in my sleep, often swearing in anger at someone. Our daughter talks in her sleep as well. It's probably just the Parkinson's though.

[Dave]

For about 15 years now different women I've shared a bed with have complained about me kicking in my sleep. I also mumble or moan a lot and my wife swears I have nightmares, even though I never remember having any dreams.

[JohnnyEgo]

I had these problems a lot when I was younger, but I appear to have aged out of them. I used to do the sorts of things people do on Ambien, just without the Ambien. I cracked a guy's rib in the Navy climbing out of my rack and shouting for everyone to get to the helo. Fortunately, I had good shipmates who woke me up, pointed me back to my rack, and elected not to rat me out. In my teenage years, I once found myself urinating in the pantry (Mom loved that one), as well as waking up in the back yard shed with no idea of how I got there. And then there was all the kicking, shouting, and apparently carrying on semi-lucid conversations with people while sound asleep. I once mule-kicked my first wife right out of the bed at 3:00 AM.

Whatever was going on (Parkinsons) tapered considerably in my mid 20s. It's been many years since I've beaten on anyone in my sleep, and I apparently don't talk in it or move around much, either. Every now and then I will wake up in the middle of a dream with parts of it still carrying over into reality, but I haven't gone anywhere and it fades quickly.

There might be something to the life stress component. I am considerably more mellow now than in my youth, and even the most stressful things that happen rarely make it into my dreams. When they do, I am more likely to be angry that I am not being paid for doing work in my sleep than any other emotion.

[Jer]

My wife is an incredibly violent sleeper. On numerous occasions she's punted our little dogs across the bed or, in some cases, even off of the bed entirely. I woke up one night laying on my side with my back to her with her teeth clenched on my back. Hard. Fortunately (in this instance) she grinds her teeth so she wears night guards which probably prevented her from biting a massive chunk out of my back. I had a rather nice bruise/welt for a bit and I generally don't bruise if that's any indication how hard she bit me. She violently jerks herself awake probably 25% of the time when she falls asleep. She kicks, punches, runs and talks like crazy in her sleep. She does fall asleep nearly instantly every night when her head hits the pillow which I'm jealous of and can sleep anywhere anytime which also makes me jelly but it seems her quality of sleep isn't as good. It bothers her that she kicks and stuff because she's worried about harming the dogs. Thanks for thinking of me, sweetie. lol

Anyway, she doesn't take sleeping aids but does have a drug store worth of over the counter drugs for ever ailment you can think of that she takes regularly. I never even owned Ibuprofen before she moved in with me. She has had closed head injuries from being run over on her bicycle as a kid so that's a possibility. I too though have had lots of head contusions from various high speed motorcycle accidents and sports so I'm not sure that's the sole causation but possibly since I know everyone is different. The mention of Parkinson's scares the shit out of me to be honest because it's not like I ever thought it could be the sign of something more serious. I just laugh at her for the most part and keep her talking for my own entertainment generally. Over the years I've grown bored with that and don't even acknowledge it most of the time. I guess for the most part I never really worried about it other than the dogs because I'm a pretty tough dude and if she did clock me or something it wouldn't bother me too much. The choking thing is a bit bothersome and not something I thought of to this point. I do worry sometimes about having guns in the house but they aren't as easily accessible on her side of the bed although her purse hangs on the wall and her carry Glock is in there so it would be the most likely thing she went for in her sleep I guess. She hasn't sleep walked once yet in about 15 years of sharing a bed so I'm not as worried about that.

Interesting to read this stuff though as I didn't realize it was so wide-spread and didn't think it was really that big of an issue before reading this thread.

[PugnacAutMortem]

Well as of now it's only a one time thing, but definitely something to watch out for in the future. I definitely think it's stress induced though as I don't take any medicine and my job has been stressing me out something fierce for the better part of 2 years. Stress does some awful things to the body.

[Irving]

Well as of now it's only a one time thing, but definitely something to watch out for in the future. I definitely think it's stress induced though as I don't take any medicine and my job has been stressing me out something fierce for the better part of 2 years. Stress does some awful things to the body.

Next you'll probably develop a case of shingles. I got a mild case of stress induced shingles when I was in college.