I fall into the 'only new/unlucky adventurers need to fear the boogies' camp.
Fires: Surround yourself before they come out. If you are not fast traveling they may not even come if you just walk. If you sneak bonus points for them not being able to see you (although they should keep vanishing/reappearing next to you)
When you get woken up and are surrounded by fires, they wont go into the fire. They will only roll/get knocked into the fire as a result of combat. They will burn like you they stay in the fire, though. Grabbing them to keep them in place may work . . . once you have some kind of armor/blocking/dodging skill. Myself, If I build a firepit I leave one opening that takes several turns to traverse, so I have time to wake up and throw stuffs. So maybe sleeping on pebbles.
Another trick is to sleep directly outside a village house. The boogies come, and if you get into trouble just walk inside. As a bonus, anything outside should be hostile to the boogies, including peahens and cats. They die relatively quickly, tho :/
A third trick is to not venture outside or stick to beaches.
I did some science a bit back, and I found out that sleeping while sneaking does reduce the chances of boogie attacks . . . by like 10% or something. Its not 100%.
A note on horns. Will kill you dead. So even a skilled adventurer can get ambushed while sleeping and gored repeatedly. I usually set my boogeyman numbers to 5 or 10, something low, to discourage wackiness.
Otherwise, keep charging them to knock them over, don't let more than two attack you on any given turn (by running away as required) and remember they are small (irrelevant) and agile (relevant).
I don't usually see reliable hits on them until I hit at least competent weapon skills.
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If you realy feel the need to specialize in boogies, try a spearman/wrestler. On D1 get a spear, quiver, shield. Go get food, water. Wrassle a small animal/fish a bit, sneak around a bit to level ambusher, and pick a spot where you can use trees and other object to provide LOS breakers/cover. Them being fast its important to break their pathing. Throw some stuff and knap some sharp rocks.
Also remember: setting tree on fire will provide distractions/force them to path around flames, buying you time to do whatever.