Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulismor noctambulism, is a sleep disorderbelonging to the parasomnia family.[2]Sleepwalkers arise from the slow wave sleep stage in a state of low consciousness and perform activities that are usually performed during a state of full consciousness. These activities can be as benign as sitting up in bed, walking to the bathroom, and cleaning, or as hazardous as cooking, driving,[3] violent gestures, grabbing at hallucinated objects,[4]or even homicide
(http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepwalking)
Well, there are supposedly varying reasons for sleepwalking, depending on the age and circumstances of the walker.
That makes them sound like zombies...sorry...
One theory is that stress is involved, causing the body to work overtime to set its systems back to normal while you are supposed to be sleeping. That's the only explanation I can think of for my particular incident.
Now, I'd had incidents of sleep talking before, but not sleep walking.
I've been told (by roommates who were reportedly awake at the time) that in my teenaged years I would occasionally mumble nonsensical things while sleeping, or say good night to people without being aware of it. The weirdest occurrence was one night when my sisters witnessed me flailing my arms around and (if reports are to be believed) quoting the entire sword - fight scene from The Princess Bride.
Sleepwalking though? I'd never thought of something that could happen to me. But I simply have no other explanation for what happened.
It was during my last year of college, and I had no roommate to tell me what happened.
I lived on the end of the hall at the back of the building, right near the doors. I knew I moved around in my sleep, because I would find bruises on my shins from where I'd kicked the desk next to my bed during the night. Then one morning I woke up more tired than usual.
I looked down, and noticed that the blanket was covered in dead grass.
There were dried leaves stuck to my feet.
There was a pile of grass and dirt on the floor by the bed.
I brushed off my feet and made my morning cup of tea, confused as you can imagine. How on earth had all that stuff gotten on my feet and blankets? It wasn't until later that I thought to myself, "Did I go outside barefoot, and not remember? "
Surely I would have remembered doing something like that, particularly since I couldn't have gotten in and out without my student ID card! It just didn't make sense, and frankly, the thought was concerning. There were wild animals around campus, you see, such as deer, angry geese, a big bobcat, and several coyotes with temper problems.
To this day, I don't really know what happened that night, but I tend to think that it might have been, to some extent, a kind of sleepwalking.
