Sleeping Beauty

I woke up this morning with a sore muscle in my upper back, just inside my left shoulder blade. I know I’ve always been an active sleeper, but what on earth could I have done to injure myself while asleep? On Sunday, my left knee was bothering me when I got up; for a few minutes, it hurt whenever I bent my knee. Thankfully, it felt better shortly thereafter, so I could still go for my walk. A few months ago, I had a sore shoulder in the morning. I’m too young to feel old!

I’ve known since I was very young that I move around a lot when I sleep. When I was four, I fell off the bed during an afternoon nap. Also about that age, my mother asked me, "What did you win?" as soon as I entered the kitchen for breakfast. According to her, she checked on me the previous night, and I had told her, "Mommy, I won! I won!" I don’t remember speaking to her at all. None of my college room mates ever said I talked in my sleep (although two of them did).

A couple of months ago, I woke up and discovered that one of my pillows (not the one I had been using) was on the floor. Easy: I just pushed it off the bed. Right? Wrong! 1) It was on the floor at the foot of my bed, not the head. 2) It was on the opposite side of the bed from where it had been. 3) It was neatly lined up, off to the side, and parallel to the foot of the bed. 4) I never woke up that night, and I don’t remember moving the pillow.

The oddest thing that ever happened to me while sleeping is this. While I was still in elementary school, I woke up one morning and felt that something wasn’t quite right on my way to the bathroom. When I looked in the mirror, I realized my pajama bottoms were on backwards! To do that, I would have had to take them off completely, all while asleep. How’s that for weird?