Rare disorder causes woman to 'shop in her sleep' and buy bizarre items
A woman has spoken out about how she found out there wasn’t a scammer spending almost £1,000 on items with her credit card; it was actually her buying them all in her sleep.
Nicola Edwards is a sleep shopper who appeared on This Morning to talk about the rare disorder that was causing her to buy items online whilst she was fully asleep.
The ITV show will commonly have people of all walks of life on, just last week having on a ‘sex therapist’ who has slept with over 400 clients.
To kick off this week, though, they brought on Nicola, who explained that at first she thought it was a scam or a cruel prankster sending the items to herself rather than a health issue, but added: “Why would someone be using my credit card to send me things?”
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“One night, apparently, my husband said to me: ‘You were on your phone last night and I said to you ‘put your phone down’ and you just completely ignored me’.
“He told me the time and I had a look on my phone and I’d made a stupid purchase, that’s when I put two and two together and realised what was happening.”
Nicola said she was confused as to how she was buying them as 'sometimes I can't even navigate these [websites] when I'm awake', adding: "It was really complex things as well like setting up subscriptions. 50 meringue bars arrive one day, and I’d set up a monthly subscription for these.”
She brought onto the show some of the items she had purchased whilst asleep, including a wig for her Doberman, a miniature cash register set, a signed Stormzy album, and ballet shoes that were not in her size.
“One time I bought the inner tyre tube for a wheelbarrow… I don’t have a wheelbarrow,” she added.
When asked whether she had tried ‘locking her phone away’, she explained that both her parents are in ill health and her daughter has autism, so she wants to be able to be contacted late at night if an emergency arises.
She has recently begun trying to ‘train herself’ to simply put things in her basket but not buy them, something she said paid off because she woke up to an £800 coffee machine in her basket.
Dr Sophie Bostock, a sleep expert, appeared on the show to discuss the rare form of a sleep disorder that she was likely suffering from.
Dr Sophie explained that whilst it was an ‘unusual sleep disorder’, it was an example of a ‘family of sleep disorders called parasomnias’.
This covers any disorder that brings about unwelcome behaviours in your sleep, such as sleepwalking or, in more extreme cases, in which people have been found to get up and try to drive their car whilst asleep.
She explained: “[Parasomnia is caused by] faulty transitions between the stages of sleep and wakefulness, so in Nicola’s case, most of your brain is in deep stage three non-REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep.
“She is not consciously, rationally aware of what she’s doing and trying to find rhyme or reason in these purchases is tricky, but part of her brain is heading towards wakefulness, and, as your husband commented, your eyes can be open.
“You can absolutely do automatic routine behaviours… it’s almost an element of shame sometimes, and that’s why I’m so grateful for Nicola coming forward so we can talk about these things.”
Nicola had suggested this may have been brought on by the start of her perimenopause, with Dr Sophie saying: “Anything that can deprive someone of sleep can lead to these faulty transitions, it’s almost like having sticky gears. Your brain is stuck wedged between two types of sleep.
“Any form of stress can trigger these behaviours in someone who is genetically vulnerable.”
She pointed to how Nicola had mentioned her sister's sleepwalking, suggesting that there will often be 'a family history', and that alcohol can be another trigger for this.
She finally added regarding perimenopause, however: “These fluctuating unpredictable levels of hormones so progesterone and estrogen, when they happen in a regular cycle, they help to stabilise our sleep, and during menopause, they are all over the place… that can be enough to push someone to parasomnia.”
Topics: This Morning, ITV, TV and Film, Health, Sleep
Michael Slavin