Sleepwalking: The Most Frightening Way to Wake Up, Ever.

I just thought of another story. This one deserves its own post.


This happened when I was an undergraduate in Davis, California, -about four years ago. I lived in an apartment with my friend Laura. This apartment was where my sleepwalking activity really started to pick up.


One night I woke up in pitch blackness. My bedroom is never that dark, so I was confused. I tried to sit up, and hit my head on something hard. I fell back down into a laying position and tried to bring my hand up to my head, but my hand came in contact with whatever I had hit my head on. I felt with both hands, and found a layer of solid wood about a foot and a half above my face. Feeling around with my hands, and trying to kick out, I found that the wood stretched the length of my whole body. I realized that i was also laying on a wooden surface. I felt to the sides, and found hard wooden surfaces on both sides.
I was in a coffin.

I was very close to a panic attack. I felt frantically on all sides, finding only solid wood. I broke out in a sweat. It was pitch black, and I was in a coffin. I closed my eyes, and forced myself to calm down. It took several minutes.
I tried to think rationally. It was highly unlikely that I was in an actual coffin. When I had my panic under control, I felt around more carefully. The ceiling and the floor were very solid, so was one wall. But when I pushed hard at one of the sides, it gave a bit. I felt it very carefully, and found a crack in the corner. I forced my hand in, and pushed it sideways.

In the hallway of that apartment, between the two bedrooms, there was a large closet with a sliding wooden door. The shelves inside were big, about 6 feet across, and two feet high, maybe 2 feet deep. I had somehow climbed into the bottom shelf, and closed the heavy, wooden sliding door while I was asleep.

It was still night when I climbed out of the shelves, but I couldn't go back to bed for a while. I think I took a shower and then watched a Disney movie or something.

I don't recommend this to anyone. It is not a pleasant way to wake up.