Comments (68)

1. Me, personally, I dont sleepwalk, but, my brother is notorious for it. Once, while my other siblings and I were in the dining room playing a board game with several friends, My brother, Nick, walked into the hallway dropped his pants and started to pee. He then, casually, pulls up his pants and walks back into his bedroom. We were all dumbfounded as to why he would do that. My other brother Richard then (bravley) jumps over the puddle, and , goes into the bedroom. He came back out and told us that Nick was asleep and did not remember getting up at all.

   posted by Gilbert on 4-8-2008 at 7:59 am

2. My girlfriend in college used to do the sleepsex thing. Just like sleepwalking, completely asleep the whole time but you do anything you would have done while you were awake.

   Can’t say that I complained.

   posted by Kevin on 4-8-2008 at 8:01 am

3. Unfortunately, my strange waking stories have to do with college and much alcohol consumption. I’ll never forget the time my roommate called my best friend at 3 a.m., hysterical because she thought I was dead. Good times, good times.

   When I was little, my mom once sleep-walked into the shower, and soaked herself with water trying to get out, thinking the knob to turn on the shower was a doorknob.

   posted by bre on 4-8-2008 at 8:05 am

4. I’m glad you’re doing a trial run with Ambien as it’s been known to cause hallucinations and other sorts of disturbing effects upon awakening, especially if you wake up before it has worn off entirely. My grandmother took it once and my mother found her on the floor of her bedroom, halfway under her bed. When asked what she was doing, she replied, “Fixing my bicycle”. My dear Nana was perfectly healthy so we can’t blame any sort of dementia in this case - ’twas the Ambien! Funny story nonetheless, but be cautioned.

   I used to sleepwalk when I was young and woke up once with my head in the toilet of our 1st floor powder room. I was only about 8 years old, way before my college days when I actually passed out FIRST in the throes of the Porcelain God. Around the same time, my step-brother (same age as me) spent the night at our house and I woke up because I heard the sound of my window opening. He had it halfway open and had just thrown his leg out, saying something about being late for wrestling practice. Since my bedroom was on the 2nd floor, it’s a good thing I woke up when I did!

   posted by Jill on 4-8-2008 at 8:09 am

5. This article from the NY Times(2006) describes a strange effect very few folks have had with taking Ambien. Sleep driving, unfortunately, its very real - I have an acquaintance who’s dealing a very real DWI case as he was apparently sleep driving his car and was arrested - he went to bed after taking an Ambien and then ‘woke up’ in jail.

   I can’t post a link, but google sleep driving and ambien (NYT article is in the top 5).

   posted by Chris P. on 4-8-2008 at 8:13 am

6. I have had the same thing happen, waking up with my arm raised or something. Its very odd… and of course, my arm is tired all the next day.

   posted by Sarah on 4-8-2008 at 8:16 am

7. Just one hour ago I woke up and couldn’t turn off my alarm. My phone is right next to the alarm so I was picking it up thinking that would turn it off. After lifting up the receiver and pounding on the phone for a while I decided to unplug it thinking that would stop the infernal racket. I unplugged the phone and only then realized that the alarm was making all the noise. I bet my roommate isn’t very happy.

   Ambien can be one crazy drug. My friend called his mom and other people after taking it and never remembered a thing. Never take more than one if you think they aren’t working,

   posted by Josiah on 4-8-2008 at 8:27 am

8. Well, that explains the 4am phone call with heavy breathing on the other end.

   To avoid sleep driving, put your car keys in a locked case, have your wife hide the key to the case, then you hide the case. That way neither of you will be able to get the car going without the help of the other.

   posted by Dave on 4-8-2008 at 8:33 am

9. I laugh in my sleep. Most of the time it just wakes me up, but I have been kicked out of bed for it and I once caused my Mom a night of embarrassment. One year my husband and I were home for Thanksgiving. All night as my Mom checked on the turkey she kept hearing giggling coming from our room. She was more than a little embarrassed by the thought of what was going on in there all night long. Thankfully, when we brought up the sleep laughing the next day, she shared her suspicions and we all had a good laugh.

   posted by Laura on 4-8-2008 at 8:33 am

10. Back in ‘96 I started a job at Starbucks and after working a double on my third shift I came home, and just collapsed into a deep sleep. A few hours later my boyfriend woke me up because I was calling out drinks in my sleep.

    A friend of mine who takes Ambien regularly has told me of incidences of sleep shopping. He’ll wake up with confirmation emails for odd things. Like costumes for his dogs… in March.

    posted by Nikki on 4-8-2008 at 8:51 am

11. Ambien is a Demon Drug! While on Ambien I have jogged, eaten an entire jar of pickles with peanut butter, masturbated, hemmed a skirt, vomited uncontrollably, told my boyfriend I didn’t love him and I wanted to marry his cat, re-enacted my own birth, and hid from my ceiling fan.
    In case you’re wondering why I continued to use it- the answer is it was during a time of my life when all the aforementioned side effects were less disturbing than the dreams the drug spared me.
    Thankfully that time has passed :-)

    posted by karen on 4-8-2008 at 9:02 am

12. A couple years ago, my wife woke up in bed next to me. She started yelling “Out! Out!”. I looked under the covers to see if I could find blood or a mouse or who knows what and she kept yelling at me. I finally was able to turn on the light, she recognized me, and was fine after that.

    It was freaky. She never had that happen before or after.

    posted by Scott on 4-8-2008 at 9:05 am

13. Three things.

    I sleep-talk. My girlfriend thinks it is hilarious and has long conversations with me after I fall asleep. She’ll tell me the next day about our conversation and I’ll have absolutely no recolection of it ever happening. It scares me. It’s like being unwillingly hooked up to a polygraph. Apparently I either don’t have very much to concele from her or I am a good sleep liar. But I have smoething on her to retaliate…

    #2 She used to take Ambien. Apparently when she was taking it it was not uncommon for her to wake up, well rested, but uneasy. I’m sure anyone would wake up uneasy if they were covered in purple paint and there was paint on all of the light switches. Or maybe if they had made an interesting concotion of pepto-bismol and peppermint schnapps the night before.

    Last thing. The stangest place I ever woke up was in a ditch with my car still running and the passenger door open. Don’t ask because I don’t know.

    posted by Gary on 4-8-2008 at 9:08 am

14. I’ve actually woken up paralyzed before. After a year or two I was told it was sleep paralysis. Scariest thing ever to realise that you just cannot move at all and to see a little girl crying outside your room!

    Perhaps more recent, I woke up thinking I was in my mom’s room instead of mine. I was scared shitless trying to figure how I was magically transported into another room.

    posted by ning on 4-8-2008 at 9:17 am

15. I would suggest taking “Tylenol Sleep” instead.

    posted by Kevin on 4-8-2008 at 9:17 am

16. Often times I wake up in the middle of the night when my legs or arms fall asleep. It makes no sense at all to me, but the sharp pins and needles always wake me up. If anyone had a good explanation for that, I’d love to hear it.

    Once in college, after a particularly rowdy night of drinking, I got into my pajamas and went to bed in my dorm room. When I woke up, I was lying on the floor outside my room, locked out. I still to this day have no idea what happened to me, but it was quite embarassing when I had to go to the front desk at 7am to get a new key…

    posted by Pam on 4-8-2008 at 9:28 am

17. Oh yes and I laugh out loud in my sleep all the time, too. I’ve freaked a lot of people out with that one…

    posted by Pam on 4-8-2008 at 9:32 am

18. I don’t understand why take sleep medication just to fight jet lag. Isn’t that extreme?

    posted by septer on 4-8-2008 at 9:33 am

19. I have chronic sleep paralysis and nightmares. It makes sleeping really hard. I usually only get 3-4 hours of sleep a night.

    posted by Jake Le Master on 4-8-2008 at 9:44 am

20. In high school, I had a sleep walking incident where I got up and started rummaging through a hallway closet. When my mother asked me what I was doing, I shouted “I need to turn the thermostat down on the chocolate!” loud enough to wake myself up.

    I looked around, said “Never mind” and went back to bed.

    posted by EMStoveken on 4-8-2008 at 9:44 am

21. Ambien has been a lifesaver in my house. No morning fog at all. Sweet, everloving, good, sweet sleep. Drowns out the sound of my housemates roaming around and making noise at all hours. It will hit you like a ton of bricks (or feathers)pretty fast so get cozy and comfy before you take it.

    Crazy awakenings? I have woken myself up calling out for my Mom like a little kid. (pre-Ambien) Strange, as I have been out of the house for over twenty years. Hate it, too, when I wake up and I’m talking to someone on the phone - and then wondering what in the world we’ve discussed prior, and I’m too cool/embarassed to admit that I’ve been asleep.

    Which brings up another question, why do people always deny being asleep when awakened by the phone? The shame of being caught off-guard? Or not wanting to make the other person feel guilty for waking you up? hmmm….

    posted by vapid on 4-8-2008 at 10:16 am

22. Interesting post! I’m a sleep tech who works in a sleep center. We have around 800-900 patients, and I’ve only had 1 patient (that I know of) to complain about the side effects of Ambien. One of them took Ambien, and tried to stay up for a while after taking it. If you read the bottle, it says to go straight to bed after taking it, because it’s very strong. Anyway, she took it, and decided to watch some TV in her living room before going to bed. After she was done with that and ready to go to bed, she stood up and said that she felt “drunk”. She tried to make it to her room, but she tripped and hit her head really hard on the corner of something. She sent us a picture of it the next day with the caption “This is why you take Ambien and go STRAIGHT to bed!”. There is another medication, it’s for Restless Leg Syndrome, it’s called Requip. I had a patient said that it made her go shopping a lot! She said that in one outting she spent close to $2,000. Needless to say, her husband was very upset with her, and she quit the medication after that happened. I’ve also heard that another side effect of Requip is excessive gambling. Kind of scary!

    posted by Tara on 4-8-2008 at 10:16 am

23. first of all, know that ambien affects everyone differently. and also keep in mind that when they tell you that you have a half hour, that is what you have. i popped one once then played on the interweb another hour. smacked my noggin in the doorway to the bedroom because it kicked in while i surfed.
    i woke up once in a baby pool in the middle of a living room once with nobody around in college. needless to say, it was alcohol induced.

    posted by theYerg on 4-8-2008 at 10:32 am

24. When I was a kid I was a notorious sleep walker. My parents said that I would often come down in the middle of the night, sit on the sofa and then demand that cartoons be put on.

    The best though was the nite I went running into our up stairs hallway (old farmhouse so it was more of a square with doors) and slammed my bedroom door. My dad came out and asked what was wrong. I informed him that there were bugs in my bed. After spending some fruitless minutes trying to explain to me that there probably are NOT bugs in my bed, he brought me into my room, pulled back the covers and said “See, no bugs.” I said “ok” and jumped back into bed.

    My brother in law has a tendency to choke his wife in his sleep. It’s not any sort of sub conscious “I hate you” thing ’cause she’s the bestest (I want one!), just a very scary way for her to wake up. He’s much better to her when they’re awake.

    And yes, sleep paralysis SUCKS! Even worse when they turn into night terrors.

    Oh, I got my first job as a cashier in a grocery store right when I was learning how to drive and I would wake up scanning stuff with my hands and trying to coordinate the gas and clutch with my feet. Man was a sore 16 year old.

    Ok, I’m done.

    posted by Jessica on 4-8-2008 at 10:36 am

25. I’ve had short little dreams right before I wake up where I’m spitting at something. I wake up as I’m physically spitting on my pillow! This has happened like 5 times, and it’s gross.

    posted by Alec on 4-8-2008 at 10:45 am

26. Having been on a 16.5 hour flight, sleeping is a good thing, but really nothing prepares you for a 14 hour time difference. I religiously woke up every night at 4 am to use the bathroom and I never do at home. You feel just odd and “out of sorts” after flying for so long. In addition, I felt turbulance for awhile after getting off the plane.

    I read somewhere (can’t remember where) that it takes one full day for every hour of time difference to get caught up. I felt crappy for the first ten days I was in Australia and crappy for the first two weeks I was home. Hope you’re going to New Zealand for more than two weeks so you can actually enjoy yourself!

    As far as the Ambien goes, try some over the counter sleep aid first. I’ve taken Nytol or Tylenol PM and always woke up in my own bed.

    Don’t forget, the cars drive on the opposite side of the road….you won’t remember this after getting off the plane. I almost got hit by a taxi at the airport because I instinctively looked the wrong way when crossing the road.

    posted by Jamie on 4-8-2008 at 11:01 am

27. I don’t usually sleepwalk per se, but I have been known to be up and around before I’m truly conscious and aware. In college, I got up in the middle of the night once and was standing in the middle of the room looking quizzically at a washcloth. My roommate asked if I needed something and I asked her if she had a beanie I could wear. She thought that was odd and so did I because I then asked, “Didn’t someone tell us to dress Irish for class tomorrow?” I have no idea what that was supposed to mean or why I thought a beanie was Irish…

    Another time I woke up in the middle of the night absolutely convinced that there was a huge spider on my nightstand. Eventually my very confused husband calmed my hysterics and turned the light on to point out that there was nothing there, but I was pretty freaked out at the time.

    I have also been known to yell at my little brother in my sleep and there have definitely been a few times that I’ve become very consternated after just waking up because my husband had no idea what I’d been talking about for the last 5 minutes. I’ve never tried Ambien, but I’m afraid of the things I would say then :).

    posted by Fruppi on 4-8-2008 at 11:09 am

28. I used to live by the bathroom in a shared house and I woke up to a weird clinking sound in the bathroom so I went in and my roommate at the time was kneeling in front of the toilet with a huge butcher’s knife, stabbing the toilet…I slept with a chair by the door the rest of the year…

    posted by thejebo on 4-8-2008 at 11:15 am

29. I have woken up weeping a few times (during times of high stress), but no actual walking.
    My brother did some sleepwalkng when he was 5 or 6 years old. He would go to the fridge and get out an egg, then put it under his pillow. Never broke even one!

    posted by Keeker on 4-8-2008 at 11:28 am

30. I once sleep walked into a hotel hallway, and called my dad… at 2 in the morning. I woke up as soon as he answered, and couldn’t explain it.

    posted by Zach on 4-8-2008 at 11:34 am

31. I took ambien for a little while after my dad passed away while I was in college. I remember the first night I took it, I had no idea how quickly it would take effect, and tried to continue writing a paper. When I told my roommate that I thought the keyboard was “waving and rippling like an ocean,” making it hard to type, they made me get in bed. The next morning I had to delete about a page of jibberish. Besides that, no ill effects!

    posted by Kelly J on 4-8-2008 at 11:34 am

32. Also, I once woke up having already showered, all though I didn’t remember doing so, then another time I went to sleep with a shirt on and woke up with two shirts on.

    posted by Zach on 4-8-2008 at 11:46 am

33. So while I have never taken ambien I was a pretty notorious sleep walker when I was younger. Perhaps the funniest story was I got up still asleep thinking I had overslept for school, missed the bus and needed to get ready ASAP. I ran into my mothers room and shouted at her “WE OVERSLEPT I MISSED THE BUS YOU HAVE TO GET UP AND TAKE ME” then pounded on my brother’s door and shouted “THE ELECTIRC MUST HAVE GONE OFF I WOKE UP LATE YOU’RE LATE TOO” and then went and got in the shower.

    Sometime while I was in the shower my mother or brother not sure who woke up enough to look at the clock and realize it was 1:30 ish. By then I was out of the shower so she came in and told me I wasn’t late. I proceded to argue with her and everytime she asked me to look at the clock and tell her what time it was I told her 7:35 several times apparently. She informed it it was in fact 1:35 and to go back to sleep. to which I apparently replied “oh”, and climbed back in bed

    I remembered none of this the following morning despite waking up already showered 1/2 ready to go to school. However I did remember a dream about being late for school.

    My mother and my brother don’t let me live it down to this day.

    I think I’ll avoid ambien for fear of things like this happening regularly.

    posted by Sabrina on 4-8-2008 at 11:48 am

34. My mom once “woke up” in the middle of the night and politely told the man next to her in bed that she was sorry but she didn’t think she knew who he was.

    It was my dad, of course. My dad said the most disturbing thing about it was how polite my mom was when telling a “strange” man in her bed that she didn’t think she knew him.

    posted by Melodye on 4-8-2008 at 12:09 pm

35. AMBIEN! Took it one night after a couple of glasses of wine. Woke up in the morning on the guest bed (not where I sleep) dressed in a suit jacket, jockey shorts, black dress socks, and noghing else. No idea how I get there! No more Ambien for me.

    posted by Peter George on 4-8-2008 at 1:04 pm

36. About a year ago I was out with my friends until about 5am. When I got home, I went straight to bed. About 5:30am I woke up and SAW someone standing in the door to my bedroom. I could tell you what he looked like, what he was wearing, and what he was doing. It was VERY clear, and VERY vivid. I live by myself, and I’m always someone is going to break in, so, of course, I was terrified. I “woke up” screaming (very loudly), and I turned my lamp on by my bed. I looked again, but no one was there. I thought that maybe he went downstairs or something when he saw me wake up. I called 911 and told her that I thought someone was in my apartment. While I was on the phone, I suddenly thought “Did I really see him, or was I asleep?”. I told her that I thought it may have been just a dream, but to send someone over just in case. When I FULLY came to, I was standing by my window looking out thinking “Did I just call the cops?”. I realized that I had, and in about 5 mins they came and knocked on my door. They searched everywhere in my apartment, even in the closet! I felt really stupid that I called them there because of a dream that I had, but I would rather have done that than to have someone really break in.

    posted by Tara on 4-8-2008 at 1:11 pm

37. My younger sister (who’s quite a sleeptalker herself, by the way) has a story where she found me crouched on the edge of the top bunk (we’d taken the guardrail down), gripping the edge of the mattress and looking out like there was a vast chasm in front of me. Then I said, “Oh no! How are we going to get across!”

    Fast forward a few years: When I was a senior in high school, I fell off a ladder while putting Christmas lights on our house and broke my wrist. They put me under in the ER, but my mom told me later that when the doctor was setting the bones I told him to keep his hands off the trees.

    Fast forward a few years more: All through college, any time I had a final earlier than, say 9 a.m., I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all the previous night. I would lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, sometimes fully dressed, until it was time to get up. Oddly enough, it never seemed to hurt my scores (no, lack of studying took care of that…).

    I also have to sleep with two clocks: One on the other side of the room to get me up, and one by the bed so I can check the time if I wake up early. Otherwise I can’t go back to sleep.

    posted by Joanna on 4-8-2008 at 1:21 pm

38. I used to have night terrors as a kid, which made it hard to have a babysitter. Something about the kid you put to bed suddenly screaming uncontrollably for no reason will do that.

    One time I woke up and found my comforter in my brother’s bedroom on the floor, but for the most part I don’t seem to sleepwalk.

    I do, however, talk quite a lot in my sleep. Most of the conversations are one-sided, though.

    posted by Katherine on 4-8-2008 at 1:25 pm

39. I would stick with an OTC sleep aid for your flight. You don’t want to be completely incapacitated if there’s some kind of emergency in-flight. To fight jet-lag, don’t take any naps after arriving if you can possibly resist. Stick to the new “schedule” and don’t go to bed too early the first few nights.

    posted by Maria on 4-8-2008 at 1:27 pm

40. apparently im very polite while i’m unconscious. i spent more than a year sleeping on my friends’ couches every weekend. whenever anyone entered the room in the morning, i would roll over, say “good morning” and then roll right back over.

    i sleep like a corpse also. my friends have written on me, picked me up and moved me, and placed me in different positions without any response. however, i do have entire coherent conversations with them without any recollection.

    my ex-bf once popped staight up out of bed, called his friend which was sitting at the end of the bed, yelled “odie odie odie”, and then kicked his friend in the head. then my ex went right back to sleep.

    posted by imelda on 4-8-2008 at 1:36 pm

41. I am a notorious sleep-talker and an occasional sleep-walker. In elementary school My sister and I had bunk beds. One night she woke me up to tell me to shut up, she couldn’t sleep because I was yelling at the top of my lungs about ducks playing trumpets. I had no idea what she was talking about. In College, my roommate would WRITE DOWN the stuff I said in my sleep and we would go over it in the morning. My husband says I laugh in my sleep too. I only figure I’ve sleep-walked once: I started the night with a warm comforter on my bed and woke up at 3 ish without it. I checked everywhere on the floor it could be (even my roommates bed- maybe she had stolen it)- eventually gave up and got another blanket. Imagine my surprise when I open my closet the next morning and out comes my comforter. Wierd. I suggest taking NyQuil. I don’t usually need a sleep aid, but when I’m sick, I can’t sleep at all. The NyQuil works.

    posted by ashley on 4-8-2008 at 1:42 pm

42. once i woke up to find that i’d put a bra on over my nightgown while asleep.

    years later, during a particularly stressful period of time, i scared a boyfriend by twirling my hair and grinding my teeth, with my eyes wide open yet totally asleep.

    watch out for the ambien, if i take it and don’t go right to bed, i’ve done all kinds of things, nothing bad luckily, including home improvements (take apart and paint the shelf in the bathroom at 11pm? that’s a great idea!), that seem perfectly normal at the time, but are a blur the next day, it does strange things to you. i would not want to take on a plane full of people…

    posted by lady macbeth on 4-8-2008 at 1:59 pm

43. I don’t recall this myself, but my mother tells me she once found me peeing in the catbox when I was two.

    posted by Meredith on 4-8-2008 at 2:32 pm

44. I have been known to sleep with my eyes open. I’m not much of a sleep walker though. I’d just lie there. The first time my mom noticed it, she became terrified I had died because she couldn’t feel my pulse (She’s a nurse too!). My other big thing is I talk in my sleep but not about random things. My friends all know if I am asleep because the only thing I talk about are boats or monkeys when I’m out.

    posted by Jill on 4-8-2008 at 2:51 pm

45. Our seven year old recently began night time shenanigans. Just last Friday my husband caught him peeing in a trashcan. He couldn’t wake him, but he just finished his business and went back to bed - impressive since he sleeps on a top bunk. When we tell him about his adventures, he looks thoughtful for a moment and gently tells us we are mistaken, it must have been someone else. This makes it even funnier.

    posted by elizabutt on 4-8-2008 at 3:02 pm

46. I used to sleepwalk when I was young, usually after a very active day or when I was in a new place. Usually these incidents just invloved me rumaging around in my room for a little while and then waking up on the floor somewhere. Once though, I woke up under the sink in a hotel bathroom and started screaming, thinking I had been buried alive.

    Another time, in mid-December, I apparently got up and turned all the Christmas lights on, then sat on the couch until my Mom found me, fast asleep, the next morning.

    My favorite though was actually an incident of sleepwalking and talking. At a slumber party, the girls thought they’d have a little fun with me and started asking me questions while I was still asleep. Apparently they asked me where I lived, to which I responded “In a house.” When they asked me, “Where’s your house?” I replied matter-of-factly, “On the ground.”

    posted by Amy on 4-8-2008 at 3:16 pm

47. Ransom, I agree with the other posters about trying OTC meds instead of Ambien. Benedryl is great for sleeping and fighting any allergens on the plane. I’ve flown to Australia and back 4 times. I usually sleep(unmedicated - I fall asleep when I’m bored or anticipating something that I know won’t happen until a specific time), about half the big flight on and off instead of one, long sleep. I’ve found it very helpful to get up, stretch, “take a lap” to the self-serve drinking water, and drink at least 8 oz. every hour or so that I’m awake. Take a washcloth, face soap (and/or Wet Wipes), deodorant, and clean undies in your carry on, too. You won’t feel as wrecked when you arrive.

    Hope this is helpful, and have a great trip!

    posted by elizabutt on 4-8-2008 at 3:17 pm

48. I have taken both the Ambien and the Lunesta. While having a whole night’s uninterupted sleep is nice,I know that I have:
    slept walked (I opened the door to my apartment, left it open, and went back to bed. Luckly, my apartment has a secure main entrance so nothing bad happened);
    slept talked (I woke my mom up once while she slept in the room with me and amuse now my boyfriend when he sleeps over);
    had sleepsex (pretty self-explanitory); and
    made myself, and ate, breakfast _hours_ before I was supposed to.

    How fun…

    For a long flight, though, if you have never taken Ambien before, I would go with something OTC- having a wierd reaction with just your S.O. around is one thing. Having it with a plane full of densly packed strangers….

    posted by Karen on 4-8-2008 at 4:00 pm

49. I’ve always been a bad sleepwalker; here is a short list of my worst episodes. 1) When I was 15, a pair of my father’s friends asked me to babysit their toddler son while they went to the bar for the evening. I was not supposed to stay the night, but they came home way too late (and hammered) to take me home. I was thus forced to sleep on the couch. I didn’t wake up on the couch, however. Instead, I woke up in the middle of their dark master bedroom at about 4 a.m. as the wife asked me what the hell I was doing with their dirty laundry. I didn’t respond. 2) When I was 20, I attempted to sleep on the top bunk of a friend’s bed. I remember dreaming that there were bats flying near the ceiling and was thus leaning over the edge to grab them. The bats were really the ceiling fan, and when it hit my hands I fell out of the bunkbed. 3) I had to share a hotel bed with a teammate. She said I woke her as I was screaming about some goats and then proceeded to slug her in the gut.

    posted by Lindsay on 4-8-2008 at 4:40 pm

50. You’ve heard it before, but maybe some OTC would work well. I’ve had good luck with Dramamine (doubly-good if you hit some turbulance, which can happen over the ocean) and Tylenol PM.

    Bringing a neck pillow also helps me, because usually I wake up on planes because my neck hurts from some weird position. Ear plugs and a sleep mask are also good. Will you look like a dork? Yes. But it sounds like you might look like an even bigger dork if you take the Ambien. :)

    Also, to other overnight travelers, Elizabutt’s list is great, but I’d also add a travel toothbrush and small tube of toothpaste in your carry on.

    Another good tip is to go to South America instead. Long flight, but minimal jet lag (at least if you’re in North America.) :)

    posted by kate on 4-8-2008 at 4:56 pm

51. I had a dream once about my ex-husband. Dreamed we were still married. Woke up screaming.

    posted by Olivia on 4-8-2008 at 4:58 pm

52. i honestly cannot thank all of you enough for sharing these stories… my coworker and I have been laughing our asses off for the past 30 minutes at these stories.

    posted by Amy on 4-8-2008 at 5:04 pm

53. Fortunately, I have yet to need prescription sleep aids. Unfortunately, I still do some pretty funny things in my sleep. I’ve been known to talk (in person or on the phone)and laugh like a crazy person, but I recently made a discovery after sharing a room with my sister, an ex-roommate, and boyfriend- I sing. It is not actual singing, more of a really intense humming. Anyway, we had a good time over breakfast when we got to talking about what fabulous things I have done to keep each of them awake on separate occasions.

    posted by Lizzy on 4-8-2008 at 5:29 pm

54. I’ve been known to wake up a few hours after falling asleep absolutely convinced that I’ve forgotten to take out my contacts, even though I took them out earlier. When I insist that I need to take them out, my wife tries to tell me to go back to sleep and I argue with her. The last time this happened, she let me try to take them out and I woke up pretty quickly after I stuck my finger in my eye.

    posted by Pete on 4-8-2008 at 7:00 pm

55. I used to be a BIG sleep talker when I was younger.. my mom would have whole ‘gibberish’ conversations with me when I was between the ages of 6 to 10.

    I also have VERY vivid dreams. More than once I have woken up by screaming or crying and it takes me a second to pop out of it. I often dream that I am late for work and startle myself awake - it usually takes me a minute to realize that I am not late. One time I woke up thinking I was late for work, got up and QUICKLY got dressed while freaking out.. then realized it was my day off… so got back into bed. I was pissed!

    Regarding a previous poster.. I also woke up spitting into my pillow once, it was gross and I can’t remember the dream but it must have been weird.

    I have never taken sleep medication though, and Ambien scares me now, especially with all of these stories!

    posted by Kelly on 4-8-2008 at 10:04 pm

56. I’ve been pretty lucky-my only issues with sleep are not being able to fall asleep or stay asleep. No sleepwalking. I do have some pretty realistic dreams sometimes. There have been times where I truely did not know if something really happened at work or in a dream.

    My pharmacology instructor tried Ambien. He took it twice. The second time was to see if he could recreate the side effect from the first time. He was running around and over his bed, barking like a dog.

    My dad does the sleep talking thing. It became a rule pretty early on that we were not allowed to ask him for permission for anything if he was in bed. Couldn’t have him sign school papers either :) He also has some problems with nightmares/flashbacks. He was in Vietnam. I’ve had to wake him up because he was muttering and then yelling in his sleep. We have to be careful when waking him up-shake his feet, not his shoulder (Friends woke you up at the foot of your bed, enemies shook your shoulder.) Otherwise you might need to duck a fist. He’s almost clocked me a few times.

    posted by Danyel on 4-8-2008 at 10:07 pm

57. Oh, I almost forgot!!!

    In addition to the above.. I have also

    1) dreamt I was being attacked and smacked my husband in the privates… which also startled him awake! I immediately realized what I did and apologized!!

    2) Tried to grab my husband and head-butt him and knee him while he was getting into bed, also thinking he was an attacker. He had to grab me and shake me awake in order to get me to stop.

    At least he knows that if anyone tries to attack me in my sleep I will kick their ass.

    posted by Kelly on 4-8-2008 at 10:11 pm

58. I frequently half-wake and think I see animals. Usually, I think I see worms, insects, maggots or spiders crawling on the wall by my pillow. I jump out of bed before I realize that nothing’s really there.

    Once, I was convienced that my pillow was - and don’t ask me why - an aardvark. Maybe my parents just didn’t read Arthur the Aardvark enough when I was a child. I don’t know. All I know is that I freaked out and threw the pillow.

    I also need three alarms to wake up. I have a loud alarm by my bed, and then the alarm that’s on the other side of my room goes off ten minutes later. The third, my wimpy cell phone alarm, is what actually does the trick. Go figure.

    posted by Ash on 4-8-2008 at 10:34 pm

59. Ambien And Pop Tarts! I was having trouble sleeping, so my doc gives me theese pretty blue pills, the all nighter ambiens. This was new and noone had really admitted to driving or forgetting that they had had sex or whatever yet, so I popped the pretty little blue pill and slept like an angel. I woke up feeling well rested and great, until my hand landed in some sticky stuff that surely didn’t belong in my bed! After investigating I found the remains of a large box of Cherry Pop Tarts, all open, some eaten some squished in my sheets. I was the only one home that night and I hate pop tarts! I am scared of Ambien now too, I could have handled that somehow if I was drinking, but not from a pretty blue pill. Better luck to you I hope!

    posted by Julie on 4-8-2008 at 11:18 pm

60. Needless to say, basic military training is a high stress situation. While going through training myself, bizarre sleep acts occurred every night to everyone. Being awake for these was worth having to preform guard duty. Some examples:

    Student training leaders would constantly call out commands in the middle of the night. You’d be standing in the dark, desperately trying not to fall asleep, and some one would call out a ‘Forward March!’

    Maniacal laughter. I eventually found the girl who was doing this. She never remembered her dreams later on, but apparently was having a good all time.

    I slept by the back door. During midnight checks, the Training Instructors would come in through that door rather than the front convinced it would be quieter- Until I woke up and threw my running shoe at one. I don’t know why, but I remember being very very upset the TI was letting the ants in. there were no ants and I didn’t get much sleep after that.

    One girl would ‘call’ her mom in her sleep, and another was caught trying to clean the mirrors with soap.

    Good times….

    posted by Liz on 4-8-2008 at 11:33 pm

61. When I was 17, a cashier at the largest grocery chain in Michigan, the night after my first shift on THE DREADED EXPRESS LANE, my sister says late at night I was sitting up in bed, moving invisible items down the conveyor and entering prices on the cash register. (this was before scanners)

    The same sister used to sit up and talk to me occassionally when I would come home late and enter our shared bedroom. Her eyes would be open and it wasn’t until she said something totally non-apropos that I would realize she’s asleep. For instance I might ask “when did you get home?” and she might reply “put peanut butter on my toast”.

    It was seriously creepy.

    posted by LALA on 4-9-2008 at 2:38 am

62. Anything you can do awake, you can do asleep.

    I got my mom interested in playing video games as a way of blowing off steam after a hard day at work, usually a first-person shooter (Quake 2) or fantasy hack-and-slash (Diablo 2). The game isn’t as important as the fact that she often asked me for advice in certain situations, as I frittered away many more hours unraveling the intricacies of the game design.

    There were a couple times that she woke me up and asked me how to do things, defeat bosses, and I responded thoughtfully and lucidly. She would tell me “Thanks for helping me with that” later and I didn’t remember any of it.

    Now, though, I live on my own and sleep regular hours, so I don’t have… somnologorrhea? Or anyone to tell me about it, at least.

    posted by Ramsey on 4-9-2008 at 8:17 am

63. I went to a military college and we had to provide gaurd duty around the clock. One time an officer came into my room to awaken me for my shift and made the mistake of just grabbing me instead of saying my name first. I hopped out of bed and punched him out cold with one shot and then went back to sleep. Another member of the gaurd team came up to my room to get me since I hadn’t reported in yet and saw the OC on the floor and my room mates laughing hysterically. They saw what happened and were laughing too hard to do anything and too afraid to try to wake me.

    I also woke up one night wearing only a t-shirt and one sock, in the snow, trying to unlock my car door with a fork. I told my wife I had to save “Julie” so that we could get married. My wife’s name is Kris and I swear, to this day, I don’t know who “Julie” is or was.

    One more thing- try NyQuil. One shot right before they serve the first meal on the flight and you are good to go until you are about 3-4 hours out of SYD.

    posted by S on 4-9-2008 at 12:41 pm

64. I was at an afternoon death by powerpoint exercise when the guy two roaws ahead of me fell asleep. He just stood up and started to make sounds that sounded like a duck mimicking a cow- at full volume. The speaker just stopped and looked at him as did all 150+ of us in the audience. The guy just sat back down and the rest of us burst out laughing. Apparently we were laughing loud enough to wake him and he just woke up and started clapping as if the presentation was over. Once he realized we were laughing AT him, he sheepishly got up and walked out.

    posted by Tombone on 4-9-2008 at 1:19 pm

65. I’ve really enjoyed reading some of these stories!

    On Sunday I was on a plane from Chicago to Seattle, and the lady sitting next to me was asleep… until suddenly she started laughing. She had dreamed something so funny that her own laughing woke her up. (She didn’t tell me what her dream was, but she was anxious to let me know she wasn’t laughing at me.)

    That has happened to me a couple of times. The first, and most vivid, dream I had was when I dreamed a musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (This was during season 4 or so, so there weren’t even rumors of the season 6 musical ep yet.) I remember that I dreamed the music and the rhyming lyrics, but what woke me up was when the giant singing spiders started tap-dancing. That made me laugh so hard I woke myself up, and I was giggly the whole day.

    posted by Rachel on 4-9-2008 at 3:22 pm

66. As other people have already said, I think Ambien is going a bit far just to get a few more hours of sleep. The last thing you want to do is wake up disoriented in a different country. Not to mention the risk of something going wrong on the flight. You and your poor wife will be completely incapacitated! Nyquil and Benadryl always put me right to sleep. In fact, I’m working at a psych hospital this semester for nursing school and they often give patients Benadryl to make them sleepy if they start acting out. They even use it in regular hospitals if you’re having trouble sleeping due to stress or anxiety. I’ve never seen a doctor prescribe Ambien, even with patients that have been at the hospital for months. So I suggest Benadryl/Nyquil, comfortable clothes, a warm blankey, and a neck pillow. You could also download a book from itunes and listen to it on your ipod…that would put me right to sleep.

    posted by Leah on 4-9-2008 at 5:25 pm

67. One more nursing-related tidbit! Make sure you both get up and walk around frequently. One of the main complications with long flights is deep vein thrombosis due to being immobile for long periods of time. Walking around will move the blood in your legs and prevent it from forming a clot which could travel to your lungs causing a pulmonary embolism. Very dangerous! This is another reason I don’t think you should take Ambien…you’ll be immobile the whole time!

    posted by Leah on 4-9-2008 at 5:31 pm

68. Hey everybody,

    All your concerned comments regarding Ambien alarmed my wife and I to do a trial run last night, and all is well. No weird side-effects, I felt fine in the morning. in fact, it didn’t seem very strong at all — certainly didn’t have more effect on me than your average tylenol PM usually does.

    demon drug? really?

    posted by Ransom on 4-9-2008 at 5:59 pm

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