Sleeping is quite a normal thing for most people. All you have to do is close your eyes for a few minutes then you fall asleep and the rest of your night is uneventful, apart from maybe a dream or two. For other people, sleep is a scary part of their lives though. Sleepwalking is one of the most common sleeping disorders in the world and those that suffer from it can do anything from waking up and making a sandwich to going out for a drive while dead asleep. If you realize that you invited a stranger into your home and gave them all of your savings while sleepwalking, you may never want to sleep again. Here is a look at the most bizarre things people did while sleepwalking.
Got Trapped In An Alligator Pond
James Currens’ story from 1998 is one of the scariest sleepwalking stories of all time. The 77-year-old retiree had a history of sleepwalking. One day he walked out of his house into a deep pond where he suffered a bad fall. He woke up stuck in the mud and surrounded by alligators, some over 3ft long. He poked at them with his cane and shouted to keep them at bay. Luckily, a neighbour saw him in distress and called the police who came and rescued him.
Cooked a Turkey
Stuffing and cooking a turkey is reserved for Thanksgiving in most homes unless you are this Redditor Untapped-bEnergy. They were sleepwalking at 3.am when they accidentally turned the night into a party, stuffing and cooking a Turkey. Luckily, their partner woke up and recorded them doing the cooking while keeping watch to ensure the sleepwalker didn’t burn down the house. The Turkey allegedly turned out better than they would have made on Thanksgiving, so it wasn’t that bad in the end.
Hitting It On With Strangers
Sleep Sex is one of the worst sleeping disorders in the world although it is very rare. Experts say that it can be genetic. It happened to one woman in Australia who had a stable relationship but would still wake up at night and have sex with strangers. She didn’t have any recollection of it when she woke up. Her partner discovered condoms all around the house and got suspicious. He then caught her in the act one day and realized she had no idea what she was doing. It is not clear how the partner reacted, but maybe those who had sex with her were to blame!
Climbing a Crane
If you are afraid of heights, then you should be more scared of sleepwalking. The 15-year-old girl in this case made news all over the world when she was discovered curled up asleep on top of a crane. She had sleepwalked her way up there and continued sleeping on top of the 130ft crane. A passerby saw her and thought she wanted to throw herself down when they called the police. Rescuers found her asleep and refrained from waking her up, choosing instead to use her phone which she had carried with her to call her parents. She was rescued and probably switched to handcuffing herself to the bed afterwards.
Inviting Strangers In
Some sleepwalkers stay social and will even go out to party and have a great time without knowing it. Others bring trouble home though. Mrcoldplay, a Redditor went outside and invited a stranger into the house while sleeping. The stranger was definitely a woman since the neighbour told them that they thought she was their friend. The problem is that by the time the sleepwalker woke up, the stranger was gone with their laptop and wallet.
Throwing Out The Family Savings
Throwing them out or giving them away to a total stranger are all things you could do while sleepwalking. Bnanrp, a redditor, said they are a sleepwalker who once chose to throw the family’s money out of the window. Their mom is also a sleepwalker, so their father is forced to stay up all night to watch them so that no one burns down the house before the morning. They also said they once bit their cousin while both of them were sleeping, among other bizarre things they just can’t explain when they wake up.
Jumping Out Of A Fourth-Floor Window
Stuart Miller is one of the most popular victims of sleepwalking in the world. On Sep, 2 1993, he was aged just 9 when he sleepwalked out of the fourth-floor window of an apartment in Reading, UK. He was badly injured and got paralyzed from the waist down being forced to use a wheelchair to move. The owners of the building were found responsible for not installing child unfriendly windows on the building and forced to pay $2m to Mr. Miller in 2,000 when he was aged 16.
Cooking Bacon With Tinfoil
Yes, that is very dangerous. This Redditor’s sleepwalking was caused by a prescription of Ambien that they took to sleep comfortably after switching from night shift to day shift at work. It started as dancing to inexistent music which their wife ignored as harmless. However, as they continued to use the medication, they became more active. The worst came when they found themselves cooking bacon on tinfoil. The wife woke them up with the smoke alarm on and the house nearly catching fire.
Nearly Ate Herself To Death
Sleepeating is one of the negative impacts of sleepwalking. Lesley Cusack is a department store owner from Cheshire, England who suffers from this condition. She said that she wakes up at night and raids the fridge eating up to 2,500 calories worth of food a night. She became overweight and resorted to eating a fruit or a light snack during the day then leaving her sleep to take care of her needs at night. She also joined a weight management program to deal with her weight gain. She isn’t only attracted to food though, she once tried to eat paint and sometimes, she chops food and tries to cook all while sleeping.
Went Shopping
Some people drive to the store while sleepwalking but this one went shopping online, so the risk of death wasn’t imminent. However, She had nearly sleepwalked herself to bankruptcy by the time her credit card company called her. She had gone shopping at anthropologie.com at 2 am and loaded her fantasy wardrobe worth $2,980 into her cart before checking out. The sight of the e-receipt on her tabs in the morning was enough to tell her that there was no thief.