Service members are very well trained to be alert and be concerned for their safety, and the safety of others, at all times. After coming home, you need to be careful of a few things:
1. Is there a weapon under the bed?
Many vets sleep with a weapon under the bed. If you have children in the home, or who visit even once in awhile, they could get ahold of the weapon.
You could also take hold of the weapon when you are not fully awake.
2. Approaching you from the back?
Teach your husband, wife or partner not to hug you from the back, if that may cause you to take a swing at them. Most service members do not like to be approached from the back — their loved ones may not know that!
3. How to wake you?
My military friends say it’s better to call your name! Touching you when you’re in a deep sleep could cause you to swat your mom.
4. Attacking the enemy in bed
Rarely, a service member may think someone s/he is sharing a bed with is an enemy. A soldier friend of mine slept next to his sick child, and woke up with hi
Barbara Schochet, Ph.D. 