Have you ever woke up and found yourself just standing in a random room of the house? Chances are you probably got there by sleepwalking. Sleepwalking is exactly what it sounds like: walking while fully asleep. Sleepwalking occurs in 15 to 30 percent of children and 4 to 5 percent of adults. It does not happen every time they fall asleep though. Although sleepwalking may seem harmless, it can be extremely dangerous in some situations. When most people sleepwalk they just wander around their room or house, but there have been some instances where people have climbed out of windows, wandered into the street, or even driven a car. When this happens people have no idea what they are doing so they cannot control their actions. The most extreme case of sleepwalking accidents happened when a young man drove to his in-laws' house, killed his mother-in-law, and injured his father-in-law, when he was supposedly asleep. When this case was brought to court, the man was eventually declared innocent because the jury and judge believed he was actually asleep. This story and other incredible sleepwalking stories can be found at http://www.oddee.com/item_96680.aspx.
When I was younger I used to sleepwalk all of the time. I would usually just wander around the house and then fall asleep on the stairs, but one time I walked out of the house and ended up sleeping under a tree. After that my parents made sure to lock the doors so I would not hurt myself somehow. Now that I am older I rarely sleep walk, and if I do, I never leave the house.
I think sleepwalking is important to understanding humans because as stated above, sleepwalking can be very dangerous. Sleepwalkers do not know when their next episode will happen so they have to always lock the doors and windows to ensure they will not hurt themselves. I wonder if psychologists will ever find a way to stop sleepwalking. If not, maybe they could find what exactly causes people to sleepwalk and then be able to predict when the next episode will be.
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