Hi guys. My name is Sarah.
I'm a sleepwalker.
If you don't know much about sleepwalking,
you will after hearing my story.
Anyone can be a sleepwalker,
but it's most common among children and teens.
We found now that I was a sleepwalker when I was 8 years old.
One night, I walked into my parents room,
and woke up my mom by shaking her.
Just as she was trying to figure out what was happening,
I slapped her really hard!
I left the room before my mom could calm down.
When I was leaving I was saying things like,
"Give it to me. It's mine! It's mine!"
Obviously my parents got up right away, and followed me.
At first, they checked my room.
When they saw I wasn't there,
They started looking around the house,
but they couldn't find me.
So they got it a little worried.
Guess where they finally found me?
In the bathtub!
The first few times they entered the bathroom,
they didn't see me because I closed the shower curtain
after laying down in the tub.
When my dad finally pulled the curtain open,
he saw me in the tub sleeping!
Unfortunately, my mom spent that whole week with a black eye.
I think she had told me she'd walked into a door.
My mom only told me the true story last year laughing about it.
I was a little upset that I hurt her,
but compared to everything else
that happened to me because of sleepwalking
this incident is pretty innocent.
Especially what happened this one night.
I'm sure you'll agree with me when you hear about it.
But first I need to tell you a little more about sleepwalking.
You know how a movie sleepwalkers walk around
like zombies with their arms raced in front of them.
That's so not true!
Sleepwalking happens in the deepest part of sleep,
but somehow the brain allows the person to move around.
Scientists haven't figured out how exactly this happens yet,
There are people who eat while sleepwalking,
or even drive their cars for hours!
I've been told that when I sleepwalk,
my eyes look like a dolls.
Even though my eyes are open, my expression is blank.
In the darkness, my memory helps me
as if they were light.
For example, I can easily find doors.
One year, we rented a summer house.
On our first night there, I sleep walked.
At home,
the door in my room is to the left of my bed,
but in the summer house it was on the right.
I didn't know the house well yet, so I went to the left.
My parents woke up to the sound of scratching coming from my room,
and ran over there.
I was scratching the wall trying to find the door,
and my nails were making a loud noise.
Doctors usually referred to sleepwalking as a behavioural disorder
rather than an illness.
They still don't know what causes it,
but they're almost sure that it's genetic.
So if you're a sleepwalker it's highly likely that
there's another sleepwalker in your family.
For me, it's my aunt.
One night, when my mom was still living with her parents,
she got up to go to the bathroom,
and saw her sister in the living room,
she was vacuuming the floor.
My mom knew that her sister was a sleepwalker,
but at first she thought that she was just cleaning
because she spilled something on the floor
but then she saw that the vacuum wasn't connected to a power outlet!
Yet in her sleep, my aunt seemed to think she was really vacuuming.
Let me tell you another story about my aunt.
One night, she thought her pillow was her baby daughter.
She panicked turning the pillow over and over.
Her husband woke up, and watched her for a while.
He asked, "Honey what are you doing?"
She cried, "Where's her head? Help me! I can't find her head."
Another thing I want to tell you about is
waking up sleepwalkers.
A lot of people think that if you wake up a sleepwalker
they'll go into a shock and die!
Yes, people actually believe this.
I don't know who made this up,
but it's definitely an urban legend.
As someone who has been researching sleepwalkers for a long time,
I haven't heard of a single person dying because they were woken up.
However it is true that if you wake up a sleepwalker,
they will get confused, and might even become aggressive.
That's why, it's not recommended to do that.
Instead, it's best to carefully lead them to their bed,
and help them slowly lay down.
My parents know this, so they never wake me.
But I did wake myself up once.
Let me tell you about that real quick.
My mom has making yogurt at home for years.
One night, I started sleepwalking,
and went straight to the kitchen.
I took the pot with the yoghurt from the counter,
and put it on the floor.
Then I opened the lid, and stepped inside!
I have no idea why I did this.
That's the only good thing about being a sleepwalker.
Nobody judges you for what you do because you do it unconsciously.
That night after I was done with whatever I was doing that yoghurt,
I decided to go back to bed,
but since my feet were covered in yoghurt,
I slipped and fell!
and that's when I woke up.
When I opened my eyes in pain,
I saw the pot with it yogurt right next to me.
Thankfully, I didn't hit my head.
My feet felt wet, so I touched them and realized
I had yoghurt up to my ankles.
My shock lasted a good 15 to 20 seconds,
but I'm still alive and well
as you can see.
Even though I woke up with a big shock.
I think now you have a pretty good understanding of sleepwalking.
Finally I can tell you about the most dangerous
and silliest and the funniest story
that happened to me because of sleepwalking.
Let me start by saying that;
all I have in my room right now are two beds.
One for me, and one for my mom.
Because she now sleeps in my room,
we had to remove everything else,
and added a special lock to the window.
We also locked the door before I go to sleep,
and my mom keeps the key.
Why do you think my parents had to take such drastic measures?
Why did they become so alarmed recently,
even though I've been a sleepwalker for years?
You'll understand when I tell you about
what happened two and a half months ago.
I forgot to mention one thing.
Sleepwalkers don’t sleepwalk every night. .
There are some findings about what triggers sleepwalking,
but it varies depending on the person
My reason for sleepwalking is usually stress
For example,
if we move to a new apartment or if my parents had a fight
or if I have an important exam the next day,
I definitely sleepwalk!
The story I'm about to tell you, has happened in a much more stressful day
My dad was unfairly fired from the company
where he'd been working for 13 years
For the first time ever I saw him crying
He was having trouble accepting what had happened
It made me really sad to see him that way
I couldn't sleep for a long time after I went to bed
I cried for hours before finally passing out
When I woke up, I was in a different house in bed with a paralyzed eighty year old woman
I can't even begin to tell you how scared I was!
When I opened my eyes, she was the first thing I saw!
She was looking at me with her blue eyes wide open
She couldn't react because she wasn't able to speak or move,
but I could tell she was as scared as I was.
The next day, my dad and I put on our detective hats,
and figured out exactly what happened the night before.
It turns out that I got into bed with the woman, Mrs. Roberts, in three steps.
Step one: Fly through the window.
We figured out that I got out of bed at around 4:30 a.m.
My parents say that my door was closed in the morning.
That means I didn't walk around at home.
When I sleepwalk,
I open doors and I never close them.
So I must have gone straight for the window.
Whatever I was streaming off led me to open the window,
and step on the windowsill.
And I just kind of let myself fly down from the third floor.
I fell onto the awning below,
and then flew onto the patio umbrella of a pizza place
as if I were jumping on a trampoline.
I must have woken up by then because I remember hitting the umbrella quite well.
I tend to confuse dream and reality in this state, so I thought it was a dream.
I think it was pretty natural for me to think so,
since what was happening was quite extraordinary.
Parts of these faults were caught by the security cameras of nearby stores,
and the footage is just like a Hollywood movie.
I'm laughing about it now,
but my parents couldn't recover for days after watching me fall.
Now step two: Running like crazy!
Apparently, there was a refugee working staying at the pizza shop at night.
He ran out as he heard the noise.
And he saw me, a girl who had just done a soft landing,
thanks to the awning and the umbrella,
and who was sleeping like a baby on the sidewalk.
He checked my pulse to see if I was alive.
At that moment, I opened my eyes
before he could realize what was happening I started running.
And he started running after me.
He was screaming,
"I'm just trying to help you!"
He was probably worried about getting in trouble
because he was in the country illegally.
I ran for a while with him chasing me.
But eventually he gave up because he was a little overweight, so he got tired.
Can you believe that I kept on running while I was sleeping?
Well that's exactly what happened.
Finally, step three: Entering the apartment through the window.
There are no witnesses here.
The people who live in the apartment that I walked into,
say that their cat Bella goes out at night during summer
coming in and out, through the same window.
The cat uses Mrs. Roberts window, so it's always open, including at night.
But that night it wasn't just fella who used it.
I don't know how I managed,
but I climbed in through the window, and went straight to bed.
Mrs. Roberts woke up but couldn't do anything because of her paralysis.
As you can see, there's a good reason for my mom to sleep in my room,
and for the window locks.
Thanks for listening.
If you want to send your story,
why don't you email it
to the address in the info section below.
Bye!