Sleepwalking?

[R DAVIS]

I don't think posting the question here was pointless. I got a lot of valuable feedback. I'm capable of making my own sound decisions when it comes to my safety. I was looking for advice and/or experience from other gun owners. Not looking for advice from a doctor, or expecting to get professional advice on a forum. If I felt that I needed professional help, I would certainly seek it elsewhere. Thank you to everyone for your responses.

Quote from your original post: " I would like to think that because I am so safety conscious and trained with firearms that this would carry over into my subconscious mind if I were to ever sleepwalk and pick up my gun. But at the same time I'm afraid I might pick it up and shoot a wall, or my dog, or anything who knows."

Oh yes. It really sounds like you are capable of making your own sound decisions when it comes to your safety. What about the safety of others ? Who knows ?

[Lauren3323]

Sorry if I've offended you, that was not my intention. I'm not looking for confrontation. I appreciate your feedback.

[R DAVIS]

Sorry if I've offended you, that was not my intention. I'm not looking for confrontation. I appreciate your feedback.

Lauren: I'm not offended, and don't mean to be confrontational. I commended you on your concern in my first post.
I only want to discourage you from seeking an easy answer that might be what you want to hear, but may be bad advice. Your comment about being afraid you might shoot the wall, or your dog, leads me to believe you DO have concerns about the possible gravity of the issue. That's why I think medical advise is your best course of action. It might cause you to alter the method of night time access to your gun, or may allow you to dismiss any worry about the issue entirely. Either way, it will put your mind at ease. My bet would be that a doctor will tell you that you are worrying unnecessarily.

A friend of mine once opened his second story bedroom window while sleepwalking, and almost fell out. He is lucky his brother stopped him just in time. His mom decided to place a mouse trap on the window latch. She didn't want to lock or seal off the window for fire escape reasons. One incident with the mouse trap ended his window adventures. You might consider placing a couple mouse traps next to your gun. In any event, the fact that you are concerned speaks well of you.

[couzin]

I frequently have violent nightmares, my wife often waking me, calming me down, and telling me that I was yelling and fighting with pirates or Indians, or such. A couple of years ago when she woke me I was holding the m1911 and, had she not waked me and calmed me down, my next automatic action might well have been unconsciously racking the slide, and then .... Who knows?

I also fight and carry on in dreams (bad stuff long ago). My wife bit me once to stop a wrist lock where I was going for the break (all she did was put a hand on me to wake up and calm down). I have jumped out of bed and smacked into the wall trying to bug out, but so far no reaching for a weapon. I too worry about access while asleep / parasomnia. But I am not so concerned at this time to put some sort of lock on my ready weapons.

[MadMonkey]

My buddy (a combat vet) awoke in his underwear, in his car, 3 blocks from his house (he had driven there). He was taking Ambien. If you are not taking Ambien--I would not worry.

I took half an Ambien in Afghanistan, had breakfast, threw up into a trash can, drove to my tent and went to bed... I don't remember doing the last half

I was worried about sleepwalking years ago when I first started shooting regularly, but after a while with zero issues I was comfortable with it. I don't have a history of it though.

[baldeagle]

I know absolutely nothing about sleepwalking, so any advice I gave you would be pure speculation. However, I do know how to use Google, and it appears that sleepwalking can lead to bad results when guns are involved. My advice would be to heed your own concerns and put the gun in a safe until you know more. See a physician who specializes in sleepwalking. And I think Charles' suggestion to put up a web cam is well taken. You may be concerned about something that isn't even happening.