A Wakeup Call to Remember

Growing up I was notorious for sleep-walking/sleeping-talking or if you were lucky (lucky as in you witnessing it and not really me) maybe a little of both. It was not unusual to find me on the couch in the mornings in high school (that’s not where I went to sleep at, mind you) and my Dad would be in his chair reading his Bible and look up at me and ask, “Slept-walk again?” I’d sheepishly grin, nod and go about my day.

I came to see a correlation between my sleep-walking and talking and being overly-exhausted and lack of sleep (ironically).  So it’s not surprising that these embarrassing bouts of sleep walking and talking would come at the most inconvenient of times as a junior high or high school student(at least for me, not necessarily my friends- they loved it!), like sleep-over’s or summer camp. Awesome.

One example that happened at summer camp was so epic that I got my camp name from Pine Cove from it- my friends found me crawling around on the floor saying that I lost my marbles the summer before my freshman year in high school. Thus I got coined the name Toodles, who is from the movie Hook who had lost his marbles in Never, Never Land. So whether it is trying to find my marbles, shouting there is an Indian in the window shooting with bows and arrows, or other ridiculous things, I’ve done my share of humorous things while sleeping.

And I’d like to think that I’ve grown out of it (that’s what studies say is supposed to happen) and because I don’t allow myself to become overly exhausted (if I can help it). It has been told to me however in March that I prayed in my sleep. That’s a new one! There’s something that happened to me last week that makes it an all time first, and it is too good not to share. Let me recount the story:

Last Friday 2 volunteers flew in to Jo’Burg just to leave the next morning to fly to Mozambique. Nothing unusual there. Jo’Burg is the main gateway to get to the surrounding countries from the States. One of them had been at the guest house before, so he was familiar with everything. Before I left them for the night, he asked me if I could give him a wakeup call because he was planning on taking some Night-Quil to get him to sleep that night and didn’t want to wake up late. I told him “That’s a request I haven’t gotten before, but sure why not?” I told him I would call him at 6 a.m. and went about my evening.

You know though how when you are responsible to waking up someone else, you don’t sleep well because you are afraid you’ll oversleep yourself? That’s exactly what I did. I actually dreamt that I woke up at 6:45am (and needed to go fetch them at 7am to catch their flight) and I was mortified. So I quickly called them in my dream and gave them the wakeup call. Or so I thought- about the dreaming part. I thought I was dreaming, until I started waking up and the phone was in my hand. Oh no. Did I really just call them? I frantically look at the call log to see that I did, in fact, call them. Calling them in my sleep was a feat in itself because it’s not just a generic number. It’s like this: xxx-xxx-05 and then the last 2 numbers is the number of their room. I somehow managed to call the right number. That takes talent!

The thought that came immediately after coming to the realization that I just called them was “What time is it?!” I looked at my clock and it is 5 minutes until 2 a.m.!!!  You can imagine the panic I had at that moment. Do I call them back? Or do I pretend that wasn’t me and when they mention it in the morning, just laugh it off and say. “Man, that was a mean prank call someone did!” Well honesty thankfully got the best of me and I called them back and without any explanation, apologized and told them to go back to sleep. The volunteer that answered the phone again said “What time is it- it’s really dark outside?” I reluctantly told him “2 a.m. I’m so sorry.” And then we hang up and I call him back in 4 hours- when the wakeup call was supposed to take place in the first place and they were already up. So really, I had a sleepless night for nothing. Cool.

When I picked them up I explained fully what happened and we all had a good laugh. But really- that actually happened. It’s been funny about recounting this story to friends that have actually witnessed this ridiculosity first hand. I guess it keeps me humble. ;) After hearing this story people have asked me if someone in the  future asks for a wakeup call, will I do it? My answer is: I don’t know- maybe. For their own sakes though I might give a way of warning by telling this story and they can decide to trust in my ability or to use their trusty alarm clock that is provided in their own room. J

So I guess I can now put this in my repertoire:

Sleep-walking? Check.

Sleep-talking? Check check.

Sleep- phoning? Been there, done that in hopes to not have it repeated ever again. But no promises!

The end.