Notes & Queries by David Herkt

Thanks for sharing

How fascinating, thank you! I also pored over that news report. She parked up in the driveway of her old home in Mt Maunganui, and then stopped! Such a purposeful journey, and she must have driven fairly competently all that way.

I'm sure states of consciousness are much more complex than awake vs. asleep.

Thank you for your insights: fascinating and chilling.

Yes. I too have had the early morning-in-a-strange-hotel--locked-out-naked situation on several occasions - and a nightmare it is. As you describe, nothing to do but go for assistance while trying to retain some dignity, which of course isn't possibleThat's the only time it seems to happen though. Common factors usually air travel/jet lag, extreme fatigue and alcohol...

Yes, Martin, it is a nightmare… In retrospect I can (just slightly appreciate) the debate whether one covers ones’ genitals with a hand, or wanders out insouciantly without hand-cover…

After the writing the piece above there were a number of things I also wanted to say.

The major thing that is weird for me, is the number of times it has happened versus the number of times THAT I DON’T KNOW ABOUT… I don’t always wake. And the number of unexplained remnants in my head are fairly high, those small flashes of place I described. The road in Sandringham is a fairly vivid example – I’m 100% sure I must have been a couple of hundred meters away from the house. There are also things like the remnants of grass clippings in the bottom of the bed you find the next day. I went through a minor stage of locking things a lot but my sleepy self seems to be able to negotiate locks and deadlocks fairly well, although as I said, doors are somehow a feature of things recalled. They obviously present themselves as an annoying obstacle. I suspect they are an irritant which has to be dealt with and the mind has to change track for a second to deal with the problem.

I don’t tend to be social in these things. I do have empathy with people who claim the sleep-walking defense in a sexual assault case. I do know someone that has happened to – finding themselves in someone else’s bed – but it was taken in good-humour by the bed-owner.

As I said as I finished the piece, the weird thing is the after-memories, when there are actually any memory-remains of the event. They are really odd nocturnal visions of streets and lawns, but it is like looking at them with different eyes, The rotary clothesline in the moonlight, that I remember from one, is such a strange picture because the emotional and intellectual apprehension one has for it in real life is REALLY different compared to the sleep-walk version…

Often over the years I've woken up in the morning and feeling like crap. Literally dead on my feet. I say that to someone in the house and they inevitably say I've been banging around and doing stuff the whole night.
The worst thing to date is waking up outside of my apartment building when I lived in the north of England. I was in my undies and it was minus 5 or something. I somehow got into the lobby but the lift wouldn't work. I had to ring the security company on the little phone in the elevator. They turned up with a blanket and a hot chocolate 5 minutes later. They said, "you're not the first and won't be the last..."

They turned up with a blanket and a hot chocolate 5 minutes later. They said, “you’re not the first and won’t be the last…”

Wow, the things security guards must see! Glad they came to your rescue. :-)