Not the normal night life

Usually being tired makes people sleep, but for some, it leads to strange behaviors that actually cause them to lose sleep.

Sleepwalking, sleep talking and sleep eating are three of those behaviors.

Kelli Mitchell, a senior majoring in biology composite teaching, said she started eating in her sleep when she was a senior in high school.

“It was a stressful time, and I was really busy and completely exhausted,” Mitchell said. “I think that’s what triggered it.”

Mitchell would wake up around 3 a.m., walk to the kitchen and eat either a graham cracker or Life cereal. Sometimes, she said she would wake up in the middle of it and would be in the kitchen, or the next morning there would be a cereal bowl by her bed.

“It was frustrating,” Mitchell said. “Not because I was worried I was going to gain weight, but because I needed my sleep.”

Many people who sleep eat actually do gain weight though.

It’s called sleep eating disorder, Mitchell said.

“It’s most common in teenage females, and they mostly eat high-carbohydrate foods. So it’s exactly what I was doing.”

Mitchell devised a plan to get the sleep eating to stop. She tied a bell around her ankle so that she or her parents could hear it and wake her up. It didn’t work though. She just untied it then continued to the kitchen.

After she graduated from high school, Mitchell said her sleep eating slowed down a lot. Before, she was eating in her sleep about four times a week. She said she has done it a few times since she came to college, usually when there is a change in her life. Last summer, when she moved into a new apartment, it happened three times in the first week. Since then she has only walked in her sleep a few times, but never eaten.

“If I see anyone it wakes me up. If I see my roommate, I wake up and start making excuses for why I’m up walking around,” Mitchell said. “I don’t know if it’s going to continue forever, but it gives me something to talk about. It makes life exciting. My roommates love it.” Sleep eating is a form of sleepwalking, which can be rather dangerous. Symptoms of sleepwalking range from sitting up in bed to actually leaving the house or driving a car long distances, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

It is a myth that sleepwalkers should not be woken up. The Sleep Foundation Web site said it can be much more dangerous to allow them to walk around.

Other than just walking around, there are other symptoms to sleepwalking. Sleepwalkers will usually have little or no memory of walking. It is hard to wake them up, and sometimes they become violent toward the person waking them up, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Other behaviors, such as screaming and urinating in closets, which is common in children who sleepwalk, also occur.

Miranda Hamblin, a sophomore majoring in English, has a very different problem. When she goes to sleep, she talks.

Ever since she was 9 or 10, Hamblin said she has been talking in her sleep.

“My parents would find me walking around or sitting up and talking. One time I was in my parent’s closet,” Hamblin said.

The sleep talking doesn’t happen every night though. Hamblin said it usually happens when she’s stressed out and tired, and it often happens at the first of the school year.

“I usually don’t make sense, so I’ve never spilled any personal secrets,” Hamblin said. “I feel bad for my roommate. Sometimes it’s good when she sleeps in another room.”

Hamblin said she and her roommate sleep in bunk beds. Her roommate told her she was leaning over the edge of the bed and staring at her one time.

“I remember trying to look down,” Hamblin said. “I wasn’t looking directly at her, but I’m sure that’s what she saw.”

Hamblin said she doesn’t remember what she is saying while asleep, but if a roommate tells her, she can remember the dream and understand.

“I freaked out one roommate,” Hamblin said. “I would be talking and she would ask if I was awake and I would yell, ‘Yes I’m awake,’ but I wouldn’t be.”

“It’s better when people don’t know the embarrassing things you do when you sleep,” Hamblin said. “I have really understanding roommates.”

More information about sleep disorders can be found at sleepfoundation.org.-hollyadams@cc.usu.edu