I specifically remember the strangest place I have ever woken up: my own kitchen, five years ago.
My eyelids shot open, and I realized I was no longer comfortably tucked underneath my covers. Quickly, I scanned the room around me, trying to understand what I had unconsciously gotten myself into.
Although I am certain I had turned off the kitchen light before I went to bed, it was already on, illuminating the room. A slight humming emanated from the refrigerator to my left, for which the door sat wide open. I was standing directly in front of the kitchen stove in my pajamas. Then, I realized something I still struggle to explain today.
Gripped tightly in my right hand was a disposable plastic cup filled to the brim with shredded potatoes.
I know where the potatoes came from. I shredded them before falling asleep to prepare for hash browns in the morning. That wasn’t the confusing part; that honor belongs to the reason behind them being in a plastic cup in my right hand.
I tried to make sense of the situation before falling back asleep, but the truth is, I will never understand what events led to that harsh awakening. That event remains my most baffling experience waking up from sleepwalking.
Nowadays, I do not sleepwalk very often at all — that I know of, at least. The shredded potato incident occurred during my senior year of college, during a stint when I lived alone.
At that time, I was on a bit of a sleepwalking spree. I did not wear a pedometer back then, but I estimate cranking out up to 500 steps at a time during some particularly adventurous sleepwalking occasions.
A few weeks earlier, I jolted wide awake — consciousness hit me like a brick wall. This time, I was still in bed, but I had never felt so awake so quickly before. It was as if I woke up at full charge.
Then, bits and pieces from earlier in the night came back to me in a hazy vision. I remembered something about a large cup of cold brew coffee I left in the fridge.
Now feeling as awake as I ever had, I walked to the kitchen to investigate and found the cup sitting empty on the counter. Through context clues, I realized I must have sleep-chugged approximately 14 fluid ounces of straight caffeine juice while completely unconscious.
Thankfully, my days of sleepwalking appear behind me. My girlfriend, Sarah, reports the occasional night stroll around the apartment, but nowhere as frequent or severe as earlier in my life.
Stanford University School of Medicine research found about 3.6% of U.S. adults — more than 8 million people — are prone to sleepwalking.
A release on sleepwalking from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine describes sleepwalking as a common parasomnia that occurs when an individual is partially aware and partially asleep, resulting in complex behaviors — like filling cups with shredded potatoes or chugging coffee.
The Stanford School of Medicine researchers found sleepwalking appears to run in families. Additionally, it becomes less common with age.
That last piece of information allows me to sleep easy at night, literally and figuratively.
