Walkabout

Our dog Sophie sleepwalks. Once Sophie is down for the night, she is very difficult to wake up. So we were surprised to see her one night getting up from the big dog pillow bed she sleeps on to pace around the living room a couple times. Before she went back to bed she stopped to put her nose next to David on the futon. Finally, she would return to her corner and plop back down on her bed. When we went over to check on her, she was fast asleep and couldn't be roused. Since we also noticed that she sleeps at times with her eyes open, we believe this little stroll around the living room was really sleepwalking.  

Sophie's sleepwalking made me recall my own sleepwalking. When I was In college I woke myself up in the middle of the night trying to pull the mattress off my bed. The sheer effort of this task woke me up. Thankfully, I hadn't woken my roommate up since this would have been embarrassing to admit during my first week on campus my freshman year. As far as I knew, I hadn't done any sleepwalking since my ninth birthday.

I am amused that in this strange way our dog would take after me. I know that dogs can pick up the fears and anxieties from their owners, but sleepwalking seemed to be a stretch. In fact, it seems that I pick up emotions from Sophie more often than the other way around. After playing with Sophie or just petting her I am more relaxed and at peace. So, I figure it is either one of those strange coincidences that she sleepwalks or perhaps this is a more common occurrence among dogs than I had realized.

Curious to find out more, I read up on sleepwalking. First, as could be imagined, sleepwalking occurs most typically during stressful times. I don't recall if we had had an Obedience Class with Sophie during the day before or not, but that would have done it for me.

When I was nine years old, I remember sleepwalking the night I had a slumber party with four or so friends over. I really didn't have many friends and the sleep over involved a bit of risk taking on my part. My friends and I slept on the floor of our TV room with a pile of blankets and pillows. Evidently some time after I had fallen asleep, I abruptly stood up, pulled off one of the blankets and started to leave the room with the blanket. The other girls who were still awake asked me where I was going. They assumed that I was angry at them because I only mumbled something and walked out to sleep elsewhere. I awoke the next morning bewildered to find myself in our formal living room, not knowing where I was or how I had gotten there. The other girls remembered my sleepwalking very clearly.

I was also curious about sleeping with one's eyes open which I discovered is called nocturnal lagophthalmos. In our townhome, my husband and I used to sleep in a large bedroom with a vaulted ceiling. For lack of a better spot, we assembled a weight machine in one corner of the bedroom. I hated having this thing in our bedroom because in the middle of the night I would fixate on this and only as I gradually woke up enough would it occur to me that it was our weight machine and not some horrible creature I needed to keep my eye on. Of course, this really wouldn't be a problem if I didn't sleep with my eyes open at times. The explanation of this phenomenon doesn't seem to fit, attributing it to an inability to fully close one's eyes during sleep. It isn't that I can't, it is more that I just don't. Or perhaps I was actually not really asleep, but yet also not really awake - sort of in the same state that Sophie is in when she does her little walkabout.

According to Wikipedia, a walkabout is a rite of passage during which the Australian Aborigines male "would undergo a journey...and live in the wilderness for a period as long as six months" retracing the paths or "songlines" that their ancestors had taken. To the Aborigines everything is expressed through songs, gestures and words.

I happened upon a blog posting by Betsy Lewis for a Walkabout Woman Project where she invites other women "to explore living their longings." see http://thewalkaboutwoman.com. Days away from turning 53, a rather insignificant age, other than just being "old," I decided to take inspiration from little Sophie, the Aboriginals and the blogger. This will be my walkabout year, only my eyes will be open. Just as the Aboriginal makes the world exist by singing it, I will make my world exist by writing about it.