From texting colleagues to waking up in a field – our sleepwalking nightmares make Covid insomnia seem like a dream

One time when I was 17 I was camping with some friends in one of their gardens.

The next morning I was woken up by my phone ringing. Bleary eyed, I answered it, and my mate said: “Jamie where are you?”

I had no idea! I’d woken up to find I was sleeping against a fence in a farmer's field!

Turns out I had sleepwalked over two-and-a-half miles through fields and across a train track. I couldn’t find my way back either as I had no idea where I was.

I was dead embarrassed at the time but now I’m older I realise how dangerous it was."

'I took the lift 32 floors down - there was a six-lane highway outside!'

Rachel Darke, 46, is a writer who lives in Taunton. She also suffers with insomnia and reckons she just doesn’t need as much sleep as anyone else.

She says: “For me, sleepwalking happens when I’m away from my home and in an unfamiliar bed.

I used to travel once a month or so for work. As soon as I’d check in to my hotel I’d warn reception to let whoever was on nightshift know the room I was in and that I was likely to sleepwalk.

They seem to be used to it. Usually hotel staff don’t wake me, they just take me back to my room.

The most memorable time was when I was staying at a posh hotel in Dubai.

I was still asleep when I got into the lift and travelled 32 floors down to reception.

There was a six-lane highway just outside the hotel doors! Fortunately I was intercepted just before I reached them. I dread to think what could have happened.

I was told that I had been spotted on camera leaving my room at 2.03am. Scary!

I always wear shorts and a t-shirt to bed when I’m away and I always know when I’ve been on a nocturnal walkabout - I just sense it!

I used to go to an annual bridal trade show in Harrogate. When checking into my hotel, I told them at reception about my sleepwalking and they said: “Oh yes, we remember you from last year!”

The previous year I’d found myself in a corridor a long way from my room. I got woken up by people partying and it’s why I never sleep without anything on!"

'I could have burnt the house down'

Dog walker Caron Holland, is 57 and lives in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. She says her sleepwalking kicked in during her mid-teens and went on for a decade.

She says: “It came out of nowhere. It was in the 80s when perms were popular and I’d go to bed with my curlers in.

The next day I’d find my rollers in odd places around the house. I’ve got three brothers and a sister and was convinced someone was messing about.

One day I went to work and could taste dry roasted peanuts. I kept finding bits in my teeth. I didn’t even like them.

I wracked my brain trying to think what I’d eaten that morning with nuts hidden in it.

That night after dinner mum went to a drawer and roared, “Who has eaten my dry roasted nuts?”

She’d bought them the day before. All that was left was a crumpled packet.

On one occasion a box of jumbo fish fingers mum had bought for our tea went missing from the freezer with just the empty box left.

What convinced me I really was sleep eating was when I stayed over at my boyfriend's place.

I’d bought a chocolate covered arctic roll. He was working away and didn’t get back that night so I was home alone.

The next day I noticed the empty artic roll box in the kitchen bin and no sign of the contents.

As suddenly as it started – it stopped. We didn’t take it seriously at the time when the truth is I could have burnt the house down.”

'I text my colleagues and mum in my sleep'

Katie Mallion, 24, works in PR and lives in London. Her sleepwalking was so bad, her parents insisted she stay in a ground floor room when she went away to school.

She says: “At sixth form I went to a boarding school. Usually girls slept on the first floor but mum and dad were worried I’d start sleepwalking in unfamiliar surroundings and that I could fall down the stairs.

I had a roommate who said I’d regularly walk around the room and go into the bathroom. I'd wake up sitting upright in bed.

It’s been a real compulsion. I’d wake up in the middle of the night and find I’ve put towels away or rearranged the cutlery.

Even today I get up and walk around while I’m asleep. I’ll tidy my room, pack and repack my bags if I’m going away.

I sleep text too - once to a colleague, when I was stressed about work. Another time to my mum when I was worried about my A levels.

I know it sounds weird but I’ve never sought help. It seems to happen when I’ve got loads going on in my mind.”