25 Bizarre Things People Have Done While Sleepwalking

One Redditor claimed when they sleepwalk they usually make a sandwich, put it on the floor, and go back to bed. However, on one rare occasion, they ripped off the headboard firmly secured to their wall with their bare hands and severely injured their wrist.

While sleepwalking, a 44-year-old logged on to her computer and started e-mailing party invitations. Understandably, the e-mails were bizarre and had poor grammar and spelling. One read: “Come tomorrow and sort this hell hole out. Dinner and drinks, 4.pm. Bring wine and caviar only.”

After her divorce, a 51-year-old woman named Mary would eat in her sleep five times a week for a decade. Every morning, she’d wake up to find wrappers, peach pits, and empty plastic containers. She once woke up to find she’d eaten an entire bottle of ketchup and would get in frequent trouble with her roommate because she’d steal her food at night.

One Redditor claimed that she rearranged, cleaned, and sorted her best friend’s fridge all so that she could put a 25lb bag of dog food inside it.

In 2003, a nurse in Denver took an Ambien and went to bed. While sleepwalking, she drove her car wearing only a thin nightshirt in 20-degree weather. Then, she got in a fender bender and urinated in the middle of the intersection. When police arrived on the scene, she grew increasingly violent with them. Afterward, she said she had no memory of the event, but pled guilty for careless driving.

In Germany, a sleepwalking teenager jumped out of a four-story window, falling 32 feet (10 meters). When he landed, not only did he not die, he just kept sleeping.

After a Muslim husband uttered the word “talaq” three times while in his sleep, he and his wife were forced to divorce or else face a social boycott by their community. They had been married for 11 years and didn’t want to divorce, but once the Muslim leaders got wind of the incident, they ruled the “talaq” had to be implemented.

One Redditor woke up sitting at the kitchen table to find they had fully cooked a turkey. They were stuffing and basting it at three in the morning when their roommate found them doing it. Their roommate wasn’t too happy about it since it was their turkey. Since the Redditor was still asleep at the time, the roommate stayed up with them to make sure they didn’t burn the house down.

A classical music fan, Harry F. Rosenthal has also been a sleepwalker since a young age. One day, his wife woke up to find him conducting an orchestra while sleepwalking. He was waving his hands about and even making the various instrument noises to go along with it.

One Redditor went outside and let a total stranger in their house. When they woke up, their laptop and wallet were gone and they almost had a heart attack when their neighbor said, “I thought she was your friend.”

One Redditor claims that she and her mom are both sleepwalkers. One night as a nine-year-old, she took the family savings they kept at home and threw it out of a window. Her dad couldn’t get mad at her because he knew she was asleep while doing it.

When Kate Archibald attended the university for her first year, she noticed a significant amount of weight gain but couldn’t figure out why. In the short amount of time, she went from a size 10 to a size 16. It wasn’t until she woke up covered in chocolate wrappers that it occurred to her she was binge eating in her sleep.

In another sleep eating case, a Redditor claims her ex-boyfriend woke up to find her chowing down on a stick of butter, wrapper and all. She also ate mayo right out of the jar by the handfuls and drank vegetable oil. Needless to say, she stopped taking Ambien.

Michael Lamalfa, a 28-year-old New York man, was found by police disoriented and unsteady on his feet. When asked, he claimed he was sleeping walking, having no idea how he had gotten in the neighborhood. Turns out, prior to discovering him, he had broken into several of the neighbors’ vehicles and stolen items, like a laptop, golf clubs, and a golf bag.

While sleepwalking on Ambien, a woman went on a shopping spree, ordering $2,980 worth of products from Anthropologie.com. Later, she got a call from her credit card company claiming the unusually large charge. Aghast, she thought it might be credit card fraud, but when it all looked familiar, she couldn’t exactly claim credit card fraud when she knew she probably bought all of it while sleeping.

Timothy Brueggeman, a 51-year-old electrician, was found frozen to death about 90 yards from his rural home on an early Tuesday morning. It was determined that he sleepwalked out of his house in only a fleece shirt and his underwear. With temperatures at only -16°F, he had died of hypothermia.

A 77-year-old man with a history of sleepwalking had no idea what it would lead him to. One night, he took his cane and sleepwalked out of his house and stood in a pond. He woke up with his feet stuck in the mud and couldn’t escape the pond. To make matters worse, he was surrounded by alligators. While fighting off the alligators with his cane, he screamed for help and was thankfully rescued by a neighbor who had heard his cries.

Rebekah Armstrong noticed her husband, Ian, wasn’t in bed. Hearing a noise coming from the garden, she investigated further and was surprised to find her husband naked, mowing the lawn at two in the morning. The next morning she told him about it. He didn’t believe her until she said to look at the soles of his feet. They were filthy.

23-year-old Kenneth Parks from Toronto was married and had an infant daughter in 1987. He was struggling with joblessness and gambling debts which only perpetuated his insomnia. One night, while sleepwalking, he drove 10 miles (23 km) to his in-laws’ house, stabbed his mother-in-law to death and attacked his father-in-law, who survived. Afterward, he drove to the police station and said, “I think I have killed some people…my hands.” He had severely cut his own hands.

A nurse by day and artist by night, Lee Hadwin creates beautiful masterpieces in his sleep. When he wakes up, he has no memory of drawing or creating anything but finds the pieces nonetheless. What’s even more strange, he has no interest or talent in art while awake.

A man named Dean Sokell woke up to find himself beating his wife to death with a hammer. However, once he realized what he was doing, rather than stopping, he stabbed her to silence her screams.

35-year-old Alan Ball went to a New Year’s Eve party, got drunk, and fell asleep on a sofa. He sleepwalked up the stairs of the house, got in a bed with an underaged girl and kissed her on the lips. Afterward, he claimed he’d been sleepwalking and had no memory of the events. Of course, he was still charged with molestation. However, later, a court acquitted him of the act after two experts examined him and confirmed his sleepwalking history.

In 2005, a fifteen-year-old girl climbed a 130-foot (39 meters) crane while sleepwalking. She had been seen by a passerby curled up and fast asleep on the crane. Eventually, a fireman climbed the crane to get her but didn’t wake her for fear she’d panic and fall. Instead, they had her parents call her cell phone number and thankfully she made it safely to the ground.

In 2003, Jules Lowe told the authorities he murdered his 82-year-old father while sleepwalking and had no recollection of the event. In court, he was acquitted due to insanity and was given psychiatric care. From 2000 to 2005, there was 68 reported homicide sleepwalking cases.

In one case, a married Australian woman would sleepwalk and go have intercourse with absolute strangers. The behavior happened frequently for months, and she had no memory of it afterward. She was able to stop her nocturnal activities after psychiatric counseling.