By Arden Berry | Staff Writer
The first time I sleepwalked, I think I was in elementary school. I’m not even sure you could call it sleepwalking — I’m often half-awake for most of my sleepwalking escapades. It’s like being half-asleep and in a dream, but having my eyes open and retaining everything that happens while I do it.
I had a routine every morning. I’d turn on the light, get out of bed, make my bed, put on my clothes, go to the bathroom and head downstairs. This routine was so ingrained in me that I could literally do it in my sleep, and I know this because I did so multiple times. What was strange was that there was always something completely different going through my head.
Sometimes I’ll be completely convinced that I’m a character from a book I’ve been reading or a game I’ve been playing. For example, there was one morning that I woke up, made my bed, got dressed and immediately returned to lie on my already-made bed. The whole time, I was half-dreaming about various Pokémon sliding down a mountain and into a lake. After a while, I snapped out of it and realized what I really needed to do was use the bathroom.
Another time, I had made it all the way downstairs and turned on the TV, but I started crying because I thought I was the main character in a book I was reading, who couldn’t speak.
I mostly stopped sleepwalking as I got older, but had a strange incident during my junior year of high school, when I was stressed about AP chemistry. I had two flowers hanging on the wall above my bed. I thought I was in an escape room, so I sat up, took one of the flowers down, checked the back of it and, finding nothing there, set it on the desk beside my bed and went back to sleep. This moment terrified me, so my parents set up a baby monitor in my room for a bit. I didn’t end up sleepwalking again for years after.
One night recently, at around 1:20 a.m., I was half-dreaming that I was going to receive a prize at 1:30 a.m. I was so excited that I thought I should make sure to use the bathroom before they showed up at my dorm to give me the prize, so I went down the ladder leading up to my lofted bed, passed my roommate, who was still up studying on her futon, and waved at her excitedly, thinking, “She doesn’t even know it yet, but we’re about to get a prize.” Then, I went to the bathroom, came back and climbed back up into bed.
When I realized what had happened that morning, I knew something would have to change. It’s not safe for me to be climbing up and down a ladder in my sleep, and I don’t want to keep freaking my roommate out. I already had an incident last year where I allegedly sat up and stared at her when she climbed into her bed, which I had no memory of, and she recounted to me the next day. To prevent it from happening again, I’d need to figure out the root cause.
According to the Sleep Foundation, sleepwalking, or somnambulism, is a sleep disorder with episodes that can be triggered by sleep deprivation, certain medications or stress, to name a few factors. I get good sleep, and I haven’t started any new medications, but I have had a busy semester. And so I think it’s stress-driven. The good news is that it does not happen to me very often, so it’s just a matter of taking a step back when it does.
Even if you’re not stressing in your sleep like I am, you may be experiencing stress symptoms in a variety of physical ways. According to the Cleveland Clinic, these physical effects can include exhaustion, headaches, digestive problems, chest pain and more. Pay attention to your body. For me, when I’m sleepwalking, is when I pump the brakes, but everyone’s stress can look different. Listen to your body, take it easy and sleep tight.
