Sleep Walking and 5 Other Crazy Things People Do in Their Sleep

Sleeping people do weird things, from swimming to having sex.

ByABC News
October 22, 2013, 1:49 PM
A woman in Boston believes her fall from a train platform happened while she was asleep.
A woman in Boston believes her fall from a train platform happened while she was asleep.
Courtesy MBTA

Oct. 22, 2013— -- intro:Sleep walking can be embarrassing – especially if you happen to, say, wander onto the subway tracks in Boston and stir up a panic among fellow commuters who have to rescue you.

That's what happened to one Boston woman earlier this week in the city's Davis Square station. The woman told first responders she fell asleep on a station bench and woke up on the tracks, according to Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority officials.

The woman escaped with only an arm injury because no train was coming when she fell, officials said.

On the bright side, she didn't sleep-swim, sleep-have-sex-with-anyone or sleep-shoot-herself-in-the-knee.

Click through to check out some more wacky things people have done in their sleep.

quicklist: 1 category:5 Crazy Things People Do in Their Sleeptitle:Sleep-eatingurl:text:This is not your typical midnight snack.

Sleep-eaters, who suffer from Sleep Related Eating Disorder, get up in the middle of the night and eat a snack -- or nine. Some people have no idea they're doing it.

Read about a young girl who used to wake her mother up for Girl Scout cookie tea parties without ever realizing it.

quicklist: 2category:5 Crazy Things People Do in Their Sleeptitle:Sleep-swimmingurl:text:There have been a few people who reported sleep walking outside and going for a swim. A New Hampshire woman did it twice last summer, landing the in the hospital with hypothermia the second time. She would sleep-walk to the door, unlock it, and wind up in the river.

"It's definitely scary and it worries me," 31-year-old Alyson Bair told ABC News at the time. "I haven't tried to drive or anything yet, but it just scares me what I could do. We've locked up all my medicines and made sure that our guns are locked up. Everything I could harm myself with is put away because I don't know what I'm going to do when I'm sleeping."

Read the full story here.

quicklist: 3category:5 Crazy Things People Do in Their Sleeptitle:Sleep-having-sexurl:text:People who have sex when they're completely asleep typically don't remember it the next morning, which can understandably freak out their partners.

It's called sexomnia, and doctors have said they think its underreported because people don't want to talk about it.

Watch this couple talk about how baffled they were about sleep sex.

quicklist:4category:5 Crazy Things People Do in Their Sleeptitle:Sleep-drivingurl:text:Sleep-driving may sound like a stretch, but it's actually not so rare.

The Food and Drug Administration asked for a label change because people taking Ambien, a sleep medication, often got behind the wheel without being fully awake.

By definition, the driver often doesn't remember driving after he or she wakes up, according to the FDA.

quicklist:5category:5 Crazy Things People Do in Their Sleeptitle:Sleep-shooting-yourself-in-the-kneeurl:text:A New Hampshire man woke up over the summer thinking that he'd just been having a nightmare about guns.

Instead, he looked down to discover that he was holding a gun and had shot himself in the knee.

Read the full story here.