I'm a sleepwalker

It's true. Have been since I was little. I'm also a sleep talker. I'm not really sure what triggers it, but it makes for some great stories. I usually don't go far, rarely out of my room in fact. But what I think is so odd is that if I wake up while sleepwalking, I get super embarrassed. I don't know why because I always think it's so funny the next day. But you just feel so shameful when someone catches you sleepwalking. Here's a few examples:

One time in elementary school I woke up searching my bed like I had lost something. Well, not just something..........it was my leg. That's right. I couldn't find my leg and I was searching all over in a panic. I wasn't quite conscious yet and I found myself going into my mom and dad's room, waking my mom up, and asking her to come into my room. But by the time I got back to my room and my mom came in I had fully woken up and realized what was going on. Of course the embarrassment phase of sleepwalking kicked in which then turned to the cover-up phase by lying, and I just told my mom never mind, I had found what I was looking for.

I've noticed that when I'm in a pitch-black room, I almost always sleepwalk. Usually I'm searching for light, so I wake up in the act of trying to find a door or window. When I lived in Guatemala our room was completely dark and had three sort-of beds crammed into it. The foot of my bed touched the foot of Kerianne's bed and the window was over her bed. One morning Keri was freaked out and convinced that we had rats. She said she woke up in the middle of the night because in felt like someone had grabbed her ankles, but when she looked around, Heather and I were asleep. So it had to be rats. I started laughing and told her about my sleepwalking issues. I hadn't woken up that night, so I'm not really sure what happened, but I must have been trying to get to the window to open it. Not too many nights later I went to bed early but I woke up hearing Keri ask what I was doing. I was kneeling on my bed leaning over and searching through my bag which was under my bed. I had no idea what I was doing, but of course I had to lie because I had been caught. Again, I was " just looking for something."

One of my favorites was Christmas a few years ago. I was staying at my parents house and sharing a room with my sister. I was on the bottom bunk and she was on the top. Again, the room was pitch black. I remember dreaming that I was in a mine-shaft or something and it had been boarded shut on me so I was using my legs to lift boards up. I heard my sister shouting my name. I realized I was laying on my back on my bed, legs in the air, pushing her mattress about a foot up off the top bunk. Sudden shame. All I could say was "oh, sorry." Oh sorry? Good one Kirst. The next morning I thought it was hilarious though.