Sleepwalking much more common than scientists estimated

Sleepwalking is far more common than scientists have
estimated. Even Linda Thomas has taken a trip around the
house while catching some zzz’s.

So if you don’t know where you went last night, you’re not
alone. In the largest study of its kind, scientists found
that 30 percent of people reported a history of
sleepwalking. In 2011, only 3.6 percent of people said
they had ever experienced sleepwalking.

Studies on the subject are sparse, but Dr. Maurice Ohayon,
director of the Stanford University Sleep Epidemiology
Research Center that conducted the study, told WebMD that people
who sleepwalked are sometimes on certain medicines or have
certain disorders.

Sleep apnea, insomnia, alcohol abuse or dependence,
depression and obsessive compulsive disorder could all be
linked to sleep walking. Ohayon also found that
sleepwalking is common in children.

Sleepwalking also happens to be common in the 97.3 KIRO FM
newsroom. Well, not in the newsroom, but anchor Seattle’
s Morning News anchor Linda Thomas said she has done
some nocturnal wandering in her day.

It was before she had kids. Thomas said that she used to
get up three or four times a month and wander around. Her
husband could tell by the look on her face that she wasn’t
really awake.

What was Thomas looking for? Raiding the fridge? Was she
heading for the door? She said, even though she would have
no memory of it when she woke up, she thought she was
probably looking for her husband.

Her current sleepwalking status is nonexistent. “Now I
think I’m just so exhausted that actually I collapse and
sleep through the night.”