Dear Prudence,
I recently moved into an apartment complex with thin walls. The one neighbor I share a wall with has been very respectful and quiet. The problem is actually me. I am prone to night terrors, and about every two or three months I wake up in the middle of the night, pacing, yelling, and crying. It’s hard to say exactly what causes them but I try to eat healthy and maintain my stress levels, which seems to minimize the frequency of these episodes. However, I am in a doctoral program, which means I can’t always avoid stress, and I’m pretty sure my most recent episode, where I awoke loudly sobbing in my living room probably woke my neighbor also. Do I owe it to my neighbor, who I’ve only said “hello” to by the mailboxes a few times, to provide an explanation of why I sometimes wake them up with what probably sounds like a murder scene? Or do I just go on with my life and wait for them to approach me if anything weirds them out? I feel like it’s just too odd a situation to expect them to ever ask me about it, which would just label me as the residential lunatic. What should I do about this?
—Night Terror-ble Neighbor