Sleepwalking - TV Tropes

Joy: Just look at this! I still don't even understand what I'm watching. Riley was still asleep but she was walking around and...
Sadness: In the manual, it says...
Joy She was walking and she was also asleep. Asleep and walking? I mean what do you even call that?
Sadness: Sleepwalking.
Joy: No, no, no, Sadness. [beat] Actually that's not bad.

—Joy and Sadness (perplexed at Riley's sleepwalking episode), Dream Productions

Somnambulism, commonly known as sleepwalking, is the phenomenon where a person, while sleeping, performs physical activities, often with their eyes open but unresponsive to the world. Within the real world, the sleepwalker will typically have their eyes open and will move as normal, if sometimes a bit slower as if tired. Any complex action that is performed while awake may be replicated while sleepwalking, including unlocking of doors, catching trains, driving cars, even sex and murder.

The sleepwalker typically avoids obstacles, but still may be injured by non-routine events such as tripping hazards or closed doors. The disorder is common in children, but is typically grown out of. It is rarer in adults and consistent bouts of sleepwalking may indicate various psychological or brain disorders. Because sleepwalking typically occurs outside of REM sleep, dreams very seldom correlate with the actions while sleepwalking.

Likely symptoms include:

Eyes open during sleep
May have blank look on face
May sit up and appear awake during sleep
Walking during sleep
Performing other complex physical activity of any type during sleep, including cooking, eating food, drinking and cleaning
Not remembering the sleepwalking episode when they wake up
Acting confused or disoriented when they wake up
Rarely, aggressive behavior when they are awakened by someone else
Sleep talking that does not make sense; alternatively, the sleeper may be able to engage in limited conversation with others when prompted, but ultimately has no memory of what was said when they wake up.

In fiction, sleepwalking is generally portrayed with the sleepwalker having both arms extended in front of them, eyes closed (and in some extreme cases, blindfolded), and possibly even snoring. The sleepwalker will again perform complex actions, but will almost always have an uncanny ability to avoid dangers in their world that they really shouldn't be aware of.

Folklore regarding sleepwalking states that waking a sleepwalker is dangerous, but in reality, the worst that may happen is confusion as they awake in a strange place.

See also Talking in Your Sleep, a related phenomenon, and Escort Mission or Badly Battered Babysitter for the frequent trope involving other characters trying to shepherd the sleepwalking character past danger without waking them due to the old wives' tale. See Supering in Your Sleep for moments in which a superpowered person uses their powers while asleep.

Examples:

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Advertising

In one old commercial for Post Fruity Pebbles, Barney pretends he's sleepwalking to get Fred's Pebbles; Fred doesn't wake him up, afraid that it's dangerous, but when he's upset that Barney's eating his Pebbles, Barney tells him there's more in the cupboard... And blows his cover as a result.

Animation

Happy Friends: In Season 5 episode 51, Headmaster Tele finds Little M. sleeping during the school day in numerous situations, including sleepwalking outside the school building.
Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Joys of Seasons episode 12 is about the goats trying to cure Tibbie of the effects of some sleepwalking grass that she ate, which causes her to sleepwalk and hurt the others.

Anime & Manga

CITY's Riko Izumi is perpetually asleep, but a whole volume is dedicated to her involuntary antics while sleeping the whole time. Being Late for School, her body goes on autopilot to get to her destination—which includes sleep tinkering on high speed gadgets that she can still operate while snoozing. However, things go awry, and she sleeps her way to a deserted island.
Early in Doraemon: Nobita and the Animal Planet, Nobita accidentally sleepwalks through a portal leading from the titular planet to earth, which inexplicably appears in his house. Nobita ends up accidentally stepping through the portal, encounters a group of andromorphic animals, picks up a plant from the planet before he finds his way back through the same portal and falling asleep when he got back, waking up the following morning when Doraemon found Nobita asleep outside the toilet. Nobita wonders if the whole thing is just a dream, but then the flower he collected from the other world is still there.
Fam from Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing has a pretty bad case, especially since she's a Sky Pirate. The first scene of the entire show is her stripping off, opening the hanger door of their airship and walking out, saved only by a rope with a bell on it tied to her leg. Episode 4 also shows that there's a mat placed below the entrance to her loft bedroom to cushion her inevitable falls.
In one Magic Knight Rayearth omake, Hikaru nearly sleepwalks out of the tent and shouting "Let's go!" while Umi tries to hold her back... and then Fuu catches it and starts sleep-tickling Umi. The next day, they're quite puzzled by Umi's inexplicable fatigue.
Asuka attempting to kiss Shinji in his sleep in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Subverted, she later claims that she was faking it. Then again, this is Asuka we're talking about.
Cavendish from One Piece has a second personality, Hakuba, that only appears when he is sleeping.
Ranma ½:
- Akane takes this a step further: she fights in her sleep.
- Ranma has a couple of sleepwalking episodes, each time when he's been starving and hence makes a beeline to the fridge in his sleep.
Soul Eater Not!: Meme at one instance does sleep fighting, she was able to fight off her opponent without waking up, even while taking off her own clothes in her sleep.
Rito from To Love Ru. Stated to be "wild" when he's asleep according to Momo. And by that, she means that should a girl get close enough to him while he's asleep (say by getting into his bed alongside him), he'll eventually grab on to her and start fondling her without ever waking up... while talking about sweets.
In World Conquest Zvezda Plot, Professor Um has a tendency to sleepwalk, at one point sleepwalking into Asuta's bed during the night. Itsuka jumps to the wrong conclusion upon finding them together in bed in the morning and is ready to beat Asuta up, but the other Zvezda members quickly let him off the hook because they're used to Um sleepwalking.

Comedy

Comedian Mike Birbiglia has this problem, which he details in his book Sleepwalk With Me. One incident had him jump from a window while asleep, which almost took his life. As a result, he only allows himself to sleep on the first floor of a building.

Comic Books

Howard the Duck: Paul Same had a sleepwalking alter ego called the Winky-Man who committed parodic acts of vigilantism that the meek Paul would never do while awake.
Magic: the Gathering (IDW): The villain Ashiok creates a curse that causes mages to sleepwalk and commit crimes in their sleep.
Nintendo Comics System: In "Bedtime For Drainhead", Mario, after binge-reading his "Dirk Drainhead" comics for 72 hours, falls asleep and sleep-acts like the superhero. According to Luigi, this has happened before. He spends the story wandering all over creation and busting heads, eventually defeating King Koopa. When Mario wakes up and Koopa learns the truth, the evil king was not happy.
ORPHANIMO!!: In the third story, both Bruno the dog, and Alice do this at the same time while dreaming of their loved ones. Hilarity ensues when they run into each other.
Richie Rich: In one story, Richie's dog Dollar pretends to sleepwalk so that he can binge on what is in the kitchen refrigerator without Chef Pierre stopping him. However, Chef Pierre ends up pretending to sleepwalk so that he could chase Dollar out of the kitchen the next time he pretended to sleepwalk in order the raid the kitchen.
Sleepwalker: Rick Sheridan's body is taken over by the titular Sleepwalker at night when he's asleep.
Spider-Man: One of Venom's early appearances — as the symbiote rather than as just clothes, and before he was separated from Spider-Man— has him take Peter Parker out for a swing while Parker is completely asleep. Parker later wonders why he's so tired.
Superman: Superman suffered from this due to the events of The Supergirl Saga, causing him to go out and fight crime as the vigilante Gangbuster. When the Guardian snaps him out of this, Superman is so freaked, that he exiles himself from Earth for a time.
Star Wars (Marvel 1977): Luke once goes into a Force-induced coma where he has to fight a Vader-shaped manifestation of his own fear. Meanwhile, he gets captured, stripped, and Strapped to an Operating Table. As he starts to win, his eyes open, he breaks free of the table, and he fights off a horde of guards while still fighting in the dream. He's rather surprised when he wakes up.

Comic Strips

In Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin's parents often think he's been sleepwalking whenever the "homicidal psycho jungle cat" (that is, Hobbes) jumps him while he's going to get a drink of water. In one strip, Hobbes goes sleepwalking and makes a tuna sandwich, while Calvin follows him in a state of confusion and mild concern, and ultimately gets the blame for making a mess in the kitchen.
Crabgrass: Played with in the August 06, 2023 strip; Miles pretends to be sleepwalking so he can sneak into the kitchen and get some cookies. His dad catches him in the act, but pretends to also be sleepwalking while ordering Miles to return to his room.
Garfield:
- Played with in the September 16, 1979 strip, where Garfield pretends to be sleepwalking so Jon won't punish him for eating a whole chicken. Jon almost falls for it, but Garfield blows it when he begins to shred the curtains too.
- In the March 11, 2007 strip, Odie went sleepwalking while dreaming he is burying a bone, and ended up burying Garfield in the backyard.

Fan Works

The Danny Phantom Facing the Future Series implies that Jack does this if he drinks carrot juice before bed, leading to crazy things happening, as mentioned when he came out of a trance and discovered he was wearing a jester's outfit (actually the rest of the town being transformed by Aragon).
First Love: Discussed — Leni asks Lynn, who has gone quiet, if she is sleepwalking.
In Midnight Misstep Harry is seriously injured when he falls off one of the moving staircases while sleepwalking.
Naru-Hina Chronicles: Sasuke and Sakura are both surprised to see Naruto able to eat ramen while still being asleep.
Patchwork (FFVII): Aerith is prone to it when she's stressed. It happens a couple of times after their escape from Shinra and when Tseng finds them, making her nearly frantic with worry, she sleepwalks out into a freezing night, forcing Sephiroth, Vincent and Zack to drag her home and then warm her up.
Twinkling in the Dark: In Chapter 13, Majorina finds Mai sleepwalking while looking for Bad Energy.
Us and Them: Pregnant Cetra are apparently prone to sleepwalking episodes, among other things.
Vow of Nudity: Haara uses this as an excuse when three beggars find her naked in an alleyway in the middle of the city. (In truth she'd just escaped a gang's interrogation chambers and was fleeing the city for her life).
Your Alicorn Is in Another Castle: Part of what happens when Bowser tries to avoid his destiny:
Bowser: I would sleepwalk, wake up at my desk, find plans I'd sketched during the night.

Films — Animation

Wilhemina Packard from Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire is said to sleepwalk, though we don't see her do it. The fact that she sleeps in the nude probably has something to do with it. The other characters wear sleep masks because of this.
Dory from Finding Dory not only still sleep-talks, but she's also started sleep-swimming as well. Marlin and Nemo even note that she's been doing it often.
The Grinch: While the Grinch steals the Whos' holiday decorations, he encounters a sleepwalking Who, whom he gets rid of by giving him a glass of milk.
Sleepwalking Who: Thank you, Mommy.

Films — Live-Action

Trope Maker for the "arms extended in front" pose is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
Frankenstein's Monster and zombies are usually portrayed as walking like this, with hands outstretched. While they're not technically asleep, they are resurrected dead — death often being compared metaphorically to a permanent sleep. In the original Universal film series, Frankenstein's Monster only did this after an incompatible brain transplant, making him blind. And arguably, making him no longer the same character. It was then Ygor's brain in the monster's body. Most parodies of the Universal Frankenstein use this pose though, without bothering with the reason why.
In Phenomena, main character Jennifer is a sleepwalker, and the plot of the movie kicks off when she witnesses a murder while sleepwalking. Notably, during her second sleepwalking episode, she actually realises that she's sleepwalking and tries to snap herself out of it. She fails, but then she hears a gunshot and wakes up.
One of the side effects of an experimental antidepressant called Ablixa in Side Effects is sleepwalking. Emily, who has tried many other antidepressants to no avail, is determined to keep taking it despite sleepwalking, during which she prepares food for three people... even though it's just her and her husband at the apartment. Then, one night, she stabs her husband during one such episode. In the end, her psychiatrist finds out that this was all a scheme by Emily and her former psychiatrist to cause the stocks of the manufacturer of the drug to plummet and cash in on the knowledge; killing her husband, whom she secretly hated, was a bonus; her new psychiatrist's ruined career was just collateral damage. Fortunately, the psychiatrist ends up proving himself a Magnificent Bastard, and the women end up paying for their crimes.
In Secondhand Lions, Hub is a sleepwalker who does weapons drills by the lake at night.
Curse of the Crimson Altar: Under the effects of hypnosis, Robert almost sleepwalks into a lake, but is saved by a passing policeman.
In Razors: The Return of Jack the Ripper, Ruth follows a sleepwalking Sadie, trying to keep her out of danger. However, Sadie enters a room where they find the Ripper killing a victim. Despite her best efforts, Ruth cannot wake Sadie up and she is forced to watch as the Ripper slits Sadie's throat. Ruth then wakes up and realises that this was a dream (although Sadie's odd choice of sleeping attire should have been a subtle clue). There is no evidence in the rest of the film that Sadie actually suffers from somnambulism.
In Embrace of the Vampire, Charlotte starts sleepwalking when she begins being plagued by nightmares, and finds herself waking up in strange places, such as the courtyard garden in the middle of her dorm building.
Doctor in Distress (1963), a side effect of falling in love with Iris is that Sir Lancelot has begun to sleepwalk around the house and even sleep-play the piano and sleep-swordfight!

Literature

In 50 Below Zero, the dad sleepwalks through the entire house—and eventually out the front door into -50° weather—without ever realizing it. The kicker? Jason ends up inheriting the habit by the end.
At the end of The Berenstain Bears and the Missing Honey, it turns out that Papa's honey was "stolen" by none other than Papa himself, who walked out to the shed and ate it in his sleep.
In The Bobbsey Twins, Freddie suffers a bout of sleepwalking where he gets up and stands in front of Flossie's bed, making her think there's a ghost.
In The Doubtful Guest by Edward Gorey, sleepwalking is one of the annoying habits of the eponymous Doubtful Guest.
In the night through the house it would aimlessly creep
In spite of the fact of it being asleep.
In Dracula, Lucy is a chronic sleepwalker who sleepwalks all the way across Whitby to the cemetery overlook the night she's first bitten by the eponymous vampire.
In The Entail Daniel sleepwalks to repeat the actions of the night he committed a murder. Then his ghost continues it.
Sara, in Girls Kingdom, manages to cause a ghost scare due to her sleepwalking and her sheer white negligee. She starts sleepwalking due to what Lady Angelica calls Mistress Deficiency Syndrome, where a maid who is especially compatible with her mistress and is forced to be apart from her for a long period, desperately starts missing them and starts behaving oddly in response.
Heidi starts sleepwalking in Frankfurt as her health fails due to homesickness. At first the servants believes the Sesemann's Big Fancy House is haunted, until the doctor and Mr. Sesemann find a sleepy Heidi in the front door murmuring about her home.
Used as a cover-up by one of the characters in Heralds of Rhimn. When Silamir freaks out about waking up in Rowan and Crislie's tent — because Navaeli temporarily re-possessed her body in her sleep — Rowan lies and insists that Silamir ended up there through normal sleepwalking. Silamir narrowly accepts this, likely because Navaeli's last possession left her standing in the doorway of her tent without explanation.
The Long Walk is a Deadly Game where the contestants walk until they die, with no breaks for eating, sleeping or even taking a dump. Inevitably people fall asleep while walking, and Garraty saves McVries's life when he's about to sleepwalk off the road, which would get him shot by the guards.
At the beginning of The Mermaid's Mirror, Lena wakes up at the beach, having walked there in her sleep. Later in the book, she dreams that a voice is calling her. She follows it out of her room, and wakes up halfway down the stairs.
A plot point in The Moonstone.
The Finnish children's book series Mr Clutterbuck is about an anthropomorphic goat who gets in bizarre sleepwalking adventures every night and is completely unaware of them in the morning.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation: Under the influence of an experimental drug named Infirmiterol, the narrator starts performing complex tasks while blacked out, including going to parties and booking spa days. She always wakes up with no memory of what transpired.
Dr. Seuss in The Sleep Book:
Do you walk in your sleep? I've just had a report
Of some interesting news of this popular sport.
Near Finnigan Fenn there's a sleepwalking group
Which not only walks, but walks a-la-hoop!
Every night, they go miles. Why they walk at such length
They have to keep eating to keep up their strength.
So Every so often, one puts down his hoop
Stops hooping and does some quick snooping for soup.
And that's why they are known as the Hoop-Soup-Snoop-Group.
King Melos, of Threadbare suffers from a tragic case of this. Due to his peculiar situation as the Dungeon Master of the realm, when he sleeps, his DM avatar performs evil deeds to hurt him.
According to Thud!, Sergeant Colon has perfected the traditional watchman's ability to sleep standing up to the point he can go on patrol while asleep. Vimes knows this because, if he were awake, he wouldn't let people write graffiti on his armour.
When Women Were Warriors: Tamras learns that Maara sleepwalks and talks with her dead relatives in that state, apparently due to how much their deaths had affected her.

Live-Action TV

9-1-1: In "Red Flag", a woman with a history of sleepwalking ends up sleepdriving a (stolen) car into the fire station.
A victim in 1000 Ways to Die is a woman who lives in a boat and dies by falling into the sea when she's in a sleepwalking daze, drowning herself as a result.
Angel has an episode called "Somnambulist", in which there is a string of murders that seem to be committed by a vampire, in Angelus' Signature Style no less. Angel starts having (and enjoying) dreams about killing at the same time the murders are occurring, so naturally he suspects he has been sleepwalking and doing the killing. It turns out to be Angelus' former protégé, who is then killed.
On A.N.T. Farm, Olive does this during a slumber party. While sleepwalking she makes rooster noises, plays golf and sleep-knits, and isn't aware that she sleepwalks.
Colin From Accounts: Shortly after they have just met, Ashley sleepwalks into Gordon's bedroom, pulls down her underwear, opens the draw of his bedside table and pees into it in the belief that she is in the bathroom. Gordon mentions this casually the next morning, causing Ashley to rush out to buy him some new furniture.
The Crown (2016). While on a grueling Commonwealth tour, Prince Philip complains that he's now doing the royal wave in his sleep. Apparently this was Truth in Television.
El Chavo del ocho has a two-parter episode in which Don Ramón, mortified by the fact El Chavo is always hungry, starts sleepwalking at night, and leaving an empty plate inside his barrel. Doña Clotilde also sleepwalks, apparently due to her "little yellow-chested sparrow" escaping from its cage (and mistaking Don Ramón for it while she's asleep). For some reason, Quico and Doña Florinda are also seen sleepwalking.
In Cougar Town, Jules has trouble sleeping, so she takes a sleeping pill. The next morning she wakes up fine, but everyone else is tired. Turns out the pill caused Jules to sleepwalk, keeping everyone awake with her antics.
CSI has an unusual take on this where the victim - a football coach who was killed via blunt force trauma - performed his morning routine before walking out of the house and keeling over dead, with a minor difference - he wasn't asleep, he was brain-dead. Oddly enough, this was based on a real case!
CSI: NY has "Night, Mother," where a sleepwalking woman was suspected of stabbing a woman with a wooden stake. It was found that the real killer stabbed the victim, then the sleepwalker went through the actions she'd seen used to try and save her young son, who died in a car crash years earlier. She did CPR, then tried to reach in and massage the dead woman's heart.
Desperate Housewives: In season 4, after Bree and Orson's house is damaged during a tornado, they temporarily move in with Mike and Susan. Orson's guilt over running over Mike with his car in the season 2 finale, which indirectly led to the painkiller addiction Mike has been dealing with in this season, eventually causes him to sleepwalk while muttering apologies. For added embarrassment, he Sleeps in the Nude.
An episode of Diagnosis: Murder had Mark's sleepwalking brother suspected of accidentally smothering another patient. It turned out he was framed by the real killer who planted the pillow in his hands.
The Dick Van Dyke Show had a two part episode with Rob's brother, who was shy and nervous awake but outgoing and funny while asleep. Rob and the others try to help him see that he can be the same way awake as asleep and do a comedy show.
Doctor Who: In "The Haunting of Villa Diodati", Dr. John Polidori's penchant for sleepwalking makes him immune in that state to a Perception Filter that is involved in the house being twisted into a Mobile Maze, and also allows the Doctor to figure out how everyone can escape from where they're currently trapped and move around the house again.
The Drew Carey Show had the title character sleep-eating.
Dystopia (2021): Tess sleepwalks in "Sleepwalker", ending up inside Harry's truck. Later it turns out she's capable of taking control again when Cecilia is possessing her as Cecilia's asleep through sleepwalking too.
One episode of Family Matters centered around Steve sleepwalking into Carl and Harriette's bedroom in the middle of the night and repeatedly hitting Carl over the head with a rolled-up newspaper. While visiting a therapist, it's discovered that Steve was doing this because he was mad at Carl because he overheard him say that he hated Steve and wished that he would move away after he accidentally broke a model ship Carl was working on.
Forever: In "Skinny Dipper" Henry tells Lieutenant Reece, after he's arrested for Skinny Dipping, that he's a somnambulist and he Sleeps in the Nude. She makes the rather sensible suggestion (given what she doesn't know) that he invest in pyjamas.
Hannibal: In the fifth episode Will Graham starts sleepwalking and ends up several miles away from his house. He only wakes up when two police officers approach and shine a flashlight in his face. Once he's awake he realises that his dog Winston had followed him and had been trying to wake him up by licking Will's hand.
On Happy Endings, Max accuses Dave of eating his food while asleep, so he sets up a video camera to catch him in the act. Turns out Dave does sleepwalk, but he's not the culprit; the real food thief is the guy secretly living in their attic.
Henry Danger: The episode "Holey Moley" has Piper walking and texting with her phone in her sleep. According to Jake, it is extremely dangerous for someone wakes her up while she is sleep-texting, as it causes her to become "punchy and bitey".
Hogan's Heroes: Hogan has Newkirk fake sleepwalking in order to distract the guards. As Newkirk's wandering around outside, Schultz comes up to him and tries to wake him up. Newkirk "mistakes" him for a beautiful lady and begins to stroke Schultz's face... until he comes to his mustache.
House:
- One of House's clinic patients is a women who got pregnant because she had sex with her ex-boyfriend while sleepwalking.
- Another patient is a sleepwalker who went as far as to buy cocaine in his sleep.
An episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent had a sleepwalking cop as a suspect. His neighbour had deliberately hidden his condition from him so she could use him as a fall guy.
The Malcolm in the Middle episode "Hal Sleepwalks" features a mostly-realistic depiction of this when Hal suffers from sleepwalking when stressed out from gift ideas for his and Lois's upcoming 20th anniversary. Hal pulls Reese from his room in the middle of the night and takes him to the kitchen to talk about his troubles, and once Reese becomes aware Hal is actually sleepwalking, he takes advantage to make Hal his subconscious slave. But Reese soon grows weary of it and gets Lois to resolve things by telling Hal what she'd like for their anniversary as Hal sleep-cooks in the kitchen. It works, and Hal's sleepwalking goes away.
The M*A*S*H episode "Hawk's Nightmare" has Hawkeye suffering from this (up to and including shooting imaginary baskets in his sleep) in addition to bad dreams.
Midsomer Murders: In "The Great and the Good", the killer takes advantage of the local schoolteacher's sleepwalking, combined a little strategic Gaslighting, to make her believe she might be the murderer.
Mikayla from The Millers pretends to be sleepwalking, complete with outstretched arms, when Carol catches her in the kitchen late at night digging into meat lasagna.
One episode of the anthology series Murder in Mind featured Deborah, a student (Keeley Hawes), who suffered from episodes of sleepwalking. Then she woke up one morning to find herself clutching a bloodstained hammer, and her cheating boyfriend was nowhere to be found. The boyfriend turned up at the end, alive and well. Not so Deborah's best friend, who she'd subconsciously realised was the woman her boyfriend was fooling around with.
One episode of Parks and Recreation had Leslie discovering Ron has a disorder that occasionally causes him to have "sleep fights", which startled her when he suddenly started punching the air while passed out on a couch. When Leslie asks him if that's terrible, he replied "Only if I'm losing."
One episode of Perry Mason had this be the plot of an episode, where the defendant allegedly commits murder while sleepwalking.
In one multi-part episode of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Bulk and Skull (who were, at the time, police cadets) were trying to figure out who the graffiti artist was who kept targeting the juice bar. As it turned out, the culprit was Skull himself, who was doing it while sleepwalking. (He actually claimed he did this before, having spray-painted his parent's whole house once. Sure, it's kind of hard to believe, but still...)
Phineas and Ferb: In "Road Trip" when Candace takes a nap, she begins walking and complaining about Phineas and Ferb in her sleep, which Linda describes as "sleep-busting". When Candace awakens to see the boys are not here and tells Linda about it, she thinks she's still sleep-busting and sends her away.
Candace: (in her sleep) Mom...bust...boys...
Red Dwarf: A futuristic variant occurs in "Queeg", when the new computer forces the hologram Rimmer to do his mandatory exercise routine. Rimmer faints after jogging 500 yards, but Queeg forces his body to run the next two and a half miles unconscious. He then administers several electronic slaps to bring Rimmer round.
Shakespeare & Hathaway - Private Investigators: In "The Chameleon's Dish", Frank and Lou's attempts to establish their client's innocence are complicated by the fact that he was found sleepwalking near the Body of the Week, and that earlier that night he attempted to strangle someone in his sleep.
In the Shining Time Station episode, "Mr. Conductor's Big Sleepwalk", Mr. Conductor gets a job as the Sandman's helper. He accidentally sneezes sleepy sand in his eyes, causing him to walk and talk in his sleep. He wanders around, gets lost and cannot spread his magic dust at night to help everyone sleep. Meanwhile, the kids try to keep Schemer and J.B. King from seeing and hearing Mr. Conductor.
Silverpoint: All the kids in the Greenfront facility sleepwalk at predictable times each night. It turns out Greenfront are replicating the noise used by the Artefact to summon the kids, and are using this to study them.
In the early seasons of Smallville, Clark actually flies in his sleep a few times. At first he just hovers above his head and fall down when he wakes up, but in a later episode he wakes up several miles away from his house in the middle of the road and and Lex nearly hits him with his car. He had been having a dream of flying and suspects that it was actually happening.
In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "One", Tom Paris is revealed to be a sleepwalker when Seven of Nine catches him fallen in the doorway to the room where the stasis chambers were located during the crew's trip through a dangerous nebula.
An episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody had Zack sleepwalking and sleep-barricading the hotel he stays in after watching a zombie flick. Needless to say, his mother was not pleased.
An episode of Two and a Half Men displays an unusually realistic example of sleepwalking. Alan wanders around at night doing things like vacuuming and baking, seeming for all the world like he's awake, apart from his speech consisting of absolute nonsense and the fact that he hasn't turned the vacuum on (he provides its sounds himself) and that he didn't bring a mixing bowl, resulting in his "baking" leaving a mess all over the dining table. Another episode reveals that Charlie routinely makes surprisingly good homemade chili while he's blacked-out drunk.
On Yellowjackets, Taissa Turner has a history with this and bad things happen when she does. In the woods in 1996, she fell asleep and climbed in a tree in sleep while she was supposed to be on watch, resulting in fellow plane crash survivor Van getting badly mauled by a wolf. In 2021, she has started doing so again, causing Sammy to see a "Lady in the Tree" and the "bad one" and quite likely causing the family dog Biscuit to run off when she left a gate open.

Music

They Might Be Giants has the song "Sleepwalkers," which is about, well, what you'd expect, and references the "arms held out, eyes closed" thing.
The main character of Megadeth's "Sleepwalker" kills people in his sleep.
Averting this trope is hailed as one of the few positive results of insomnia in The Go-Gos' "You Can't Walk In Your Sleep (If You Can't Sleep)".
Metallica's "Sleepwalk My Life Away" is written in the perspective of a sleepwalker who knows he has no consciousness when he does it.

Tabletop Games

In GURPS Supers, one of the possible side effects of the "Uncontrollable" power limitation is that a sleeping super will activate their powers in their sleep. This is explicitly discussed as being a particular problem for teleporters, as the nature of their power makes it difficult to catch up to them and wake them up.
Pathfinder second edition has the Sleepwalker archetype, which allows you to enter a sort of half-sleeping trance that protects against mental attacks while still allowing you to move and act as normal. The archetype's highest-level feat, Ever Dreaming, makes it so that even being fully unconscious doesn't prevent you from being able to act, though you are heavily slowed.

Theatre

Macbeth features the famous sleepwalking scene of Lady Macbeth, which demonstrates her Sanity Slippage due to guilt. She sleepwalks, sleep-talks, and tries in vain to wash imaginary blood from her hands.
Bellini's opera La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker) revolves around its heroine, Amina, being Mistaken for Cheating by her lover Elvino after she sleepwalks into another man's inn room. Her innocence is eventually proven when she sleepwalks across a dangerous bridge in front of the whole village, all the while singing about her love for Elvino.

Video Games

A world event sidequest in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla has Eivor come upon a sleeping guard named Eyvind who does this. They try to yell that they're about to go off a cliff, though his natural instinct to go down the zipline kicks in, which wakes him up. Eivor follows him down and has to tell him he's been sleepwalking due to his lack of sleep, which he attributed to worrying of the ways the raven clan settlement could be attacked.
In Bugsnax, Gramble Gigglefunny can be found sleepwalking around Snaxburg at night. The player can speak to him to wake him up...or feed him Bugsnax in his sleep, something he vehemently refuses to do while awake.
Cassette Beasts: There's a move called Sleep Walk that can only be used (and will replace your current movesets with two other moves with similar stats) when your monster is put to sleep. It has high attack power, but the hit chance is extremely low. At least if you can give it accuracy buffs and/or give opponents evasion debuffs, it can actually be useful.
In Day of the Tentacle, Dr. Fred has a noted sleepwalking problem, which thankfully doesn't manifest because he drinks so much coffee that he doesn't sleep. Which, in typical adventure game logic, therefore means you need to figure out how to put him to sleep so that his sleepwalking can help you solve a problem.
Amos from Dragon Quest VI turns into an enormous monster while sleeping, and doesn't know about it.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II: One of the debuffs that can be chosen as part of Hardcore Mode is "Somnambulant", where Henry has a chance of awakening in a random place every time he goes to sleep. This is exacerbated by Hardcore Mode disabling fast travel and removing both the player marker on the map and the cardinal directions from the compass, making it likely for him to be completely lost.
Muse Dash has Sleepwalker Girl Rin, who is stated to be powerful enough to save the world when sleepwalking and dreaming about food and her friends. Sure enough, her ability is essentially the auto play function in a typical Rhythm Game, in that she'll automatically clear a chart but (obviously) not record the score afterwards.
In Mystery Case Files: Prime Suspects, one of the suspects is a narcoleptic named Constance Noring. What were the prior arrests this lady faced? She had a huge history of stealing cars while sleepwalking. No wonder her nickname was "The Snoozy Cruiser".
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies: Jinxie Tenma often wanders around the village at night, leading to many rumors that she may be possessed by Tenma Taro. In truth, she's sleepwaling due to the stress and fear due to getting caught up in the village's superstitions about youkai.
Pokémon:
- Two moves, Snore and Sleep Talk, allow the Pokémon attack while under the "Asleep" effect. (Often done in combination with the Rest move, where the Pokémon goes to sleep on purpose to heal itself.)
- Pokémon Sun and Moon adds a Pokemon Komala, which due to its Ability is treated as constantly being asleep by the game for most purposes. It can still attack normally, and is immune to Poison, Burn, Freezing, and Paralysis due to the fact that a Pokemon an only be affected by one of these status effects at once.
There's a card in the Richman series called Sleepwalk, which lets the player choose another player in a set range and make them sleepwalk. When sleepwalking, the player can only roll the dice and move, and is unable to collect rents.
Robotic Operating Buddy: Professor Vector does this in game B. Somehow, he is able to climb ropes while doing this. You have to protect him from hazards.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Mythra sleepwalks into Rex's bed. When she wakes up, she yells at him for being in her bed, calls him a pervert and runs off. Pyra apologizes later. In the prequel, she does the same thing to Milton, only to end up fighting Milton when she wakes up. Even Addam, her driver, gets hit a few times in the confusion.

Webcomics

In Faux Pas, Randy grabs the tranq rifle and scares Dusk off the farm, while sleeping off a pain pill.
Girl Genius: Agatha's first successful act of Mad Science was converting a tractor to a clank designed to find and retrieve her parents' stolen locket, in her sleep. Because all her prior attempts at building something had failed (thanks to the locket suppressing her Spark) it takes a couple more feats of somnolent engineering before she's confident enough to do it while awake.
Similarly, in Kurami, Bree Kay is seemingly capable of playing video games in her sleep.
There's no sleepwalking in Ménage à 3, but lead character and dedicated rocker Zii can play "Enter Sandman" in her sleep.
Pocket Princesses: In #50, Aurora sleep-dances with one of Merida's dresses, believing it to be Phillip. Rapunzel comments to Cinderella that Aurora only sleepwalks on laundry day.

Websites

The SCP Foundation:
- SCP-6234 (appropriately named "Somnambular Shenanigans"') features a sleepwalker who travels to some pretty odd locations, including Queen Elizabeth's bedroom at Buckingham Palace, the Pentagon, and even the surface of the Moon.
- SCP-716 ("The Train"). Anyone who enters REM sleep within 100 meters of a contained SCP-716 will sleepwalk in its direction and enter it.

Web Videos

Dayum: In "Types of Kids at Sleepovers Portrayed by Minecraft", one girl sleepwalks and dances in her sleep.
Smosh: In one video, Ian suddenly sleepwalks at night to create baked goods in a mini-oven.

Western Animation

One episode of the Italian animated series A.E.I.O.U, which is animated in sand instead of on paper, has the main character, a little boy who plays the violin, walk around late at night and making a lot of noise while the Sandman tries to make him fall asleep and be quiet. Somewhere around the middle of the episode, the Sandman does manage to make the boy sleep... only for the boy to immediately start sleepwalking all over the place, with the Sandman having to chase him.
American Dad! episode "Cock of the Sleepwalk" focuses on Stan sleepwalking. He ends up doing a lot of good deeds while unconscious such as adopting a dog and helping out an orphanage. This is due to Stan's subconscious feeling guilt over having killed so many people and his unconscious self does everything it can to stop his conscious self from taking another life, right when he's supposed to assassinate a dangerous criminal.
The Animaniacs short "WhoDonut" has the Warner Siblings trying to find out who ate Wakko's donuts. Turns out Wakko sleepeats when he crashes from a sugar high.
The Berenstain Bears Show: Referenced in "To the Rescue", where a flashback shows the cubs trying to earn their "overnight camp" badges, and Papa sleepwalking away with their tent.
Bluey: In the episode "Sleepytime", it's revealed that Bingo has a habit of wandering around the house whilst she's dreaming.
Bob the Builder: In "Runaway Roley", after working hard to dig a trench, Roley sleep-rolls out of the yard and causes havoc all over town. Bob, Wendy and the machines have to get Roley back to the yard quickly.
In one episode of Codename: Kids Next Door, when the rest of Sector V try to keep their Rogues Gallery at bay to prevent them from waking Number 1, he suddenly walks out of his room sleepwalking to use the bathroom. After getting him back to his bedroom, Number 5 exclaims that was too close to call... which makes Number 1 shout out of the room asking them to keep it down.
DC Super Hero Girls: In "#SuperSleeper", Kara Danvers (a.k.a. Supergirl) is shown to be sleepwalking... or rather, sleep-flying, because Kryptonian. Batgirl spends the whole short trying to bring her back to the bedroom, with great difficulties.
One episode of Dexter's Laboratory has Dexter's father manage to sleepwalk into Dexter's laboratory through all of his security, then wreak havoc. Once Dexter manages to get him back to his own bed he slams the door... which then causes his dad to wake up and chide Dexter because he's a light sleeper.
Dream Productions: Played for Drama, Riley had a sleepwalking episode as a result of Paula and Xeni fighting over the camera. The production crew saved Riley before she tumbled down the stairs.
Ed, Edd n Eddy: "A Glass of Warm Ed" had Ed sleepwalking and sleepeating.
Enchantimals: In "Just Bear-ly Asleep", Bren Bear sleepwalks while she hibernates and Bree Bunny and Sage Skunk tries to wake her up before she hurts herself.
On Family Guy, Stewie observes Joe sleep-dragging.
The Flintstones:
- Wilma states that every time Fred goes on a diet, he sleepwalks to the fridge.
- In another episode, Barney sleepwalks to his fridge, and he drags Fred out of bed with him since they're both glued to a bowling ball. Subverted; it turns out Barney was faking it because he was afraid to tell Fred he was hungry.
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: In "Reap Walking," Grim is accused of reaping rare white owls while sleepwalking. It turns out it was Billy's mom who was getting rid of the owls and she tried to frame Grim for it. As for Grim's sleepwalking, he was merely headed to the kitchen for a midnight snack.
Hey Arnold!: An episode deals with Phoebe trying to stop Helga from sleepwalking to Arnold's house.
In the Camping Episode of Milo Murphy's Law, Zack and Melissa have to chase down a sleepwalking Milo. Hilarity ensues. Also includes a debate about whether you Never Wake Up a Sleepwalker.
Mr. Bogus does this in the claymation short shown after the third act of the episode "Bogus To The Rescue". His sleepwalking results in knocking a glass off the bathroom counter before it shatters into pieces. The crash sound is what wakes up Bogus, before he notices the broken glass, inquiring if he really did do that but not remembering anything about it.
In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Sleepless in Ponyville", while scouting ahead, Scootaloo dozes off on her scooter, harkening near danger several times but only to end up landing safely in a bush a bit down the path.
One of the episodes of PAW Patrol had Rubble trying to catch a Bedsheet Ghost who turns out to be a sleepwalking Marshall under a sheet.
Phineas and Ferb:
- "Bowl-R-Ama Drama": Phineas and Ferb literally break the record for the world's largest bowling ball in their sleep.
- "Road Trip": Candace attempts to bust her brothers while asleep. Her parents find it adorable.
- "Sleepwalk Surprise": Doofenshmirtz discovers he has sleep-invented a "Cake-o-Hug-o-Fetti-Inator".
PJ Masks: In "Gekko and the Snore-A-Saurus", the PJ Masks have to handle a sleepwalking Cameron as they fight Luna Girl.
Olive Oyl sleepwalks in the Popeye cartoon "A Dream Walking", while Popeye and Bluto frantically try to keep her safe.
In one episode of The Powerpuff Girls (1998), Professor Utonium, after being overworked in the lab, starts sleep-shoplifting.
In Rocko's Modern Life, Ed Bighead experienced his childhood trauma of pirates when watching a play. He begins sleepwalking on his roof as a pirate in search of a treasure map.
Rocky Kwaterner: In "Mystery and Mammoths Trunks", Rocky is accused of wrecking the statue of a mammoth. In an attempt to clear Rocky's name, Theo and Luna ultimately discover that, while Rocky did do it, he was sleepwalking at the time and reliving a memory about how he once had to save himself and his pet tiger from an angry mammoth by tricking it into getting tangled up in vines.
Rugrats:
- Rugrats: "Real or Robots?" is an episode where Stu sleepwalks and the babies believe he is a robot after watching a scary movie.
- All Grown Up!: An episode has Tommy sleepwalking and stealing all the items on the neighbors' front lawn as a result of pressure from the fifth grade test. He is unaware he is sleepwalking and everyone thinks there is a thief in the neighborhood. Dil ends up getting blamed for it when he is caught trying to return all the stuff Tommy had stolen.
The Simpsons:
- In "Crook and Ladder", Homer starts sleepwalking as a side effect of taking a sleep medication called Nappien. Bart takes advantage of the situation and uses Homer as his personal "zombie".
- In "Penny-Wiseguys", Lisa has a dream fueled by her uncertainty over her new insect diet potentially violating her vegetarian beliefs. When she wakes up, she finds herself at the fridge with a drumstick in her hand, and she bemoans that she was "meat-walking" again.
Sitting Ducks: Aldo the alligator is said to have a habit of sleepwalking, but in "Midnight Snack", during one of his sleepwalking episodes, he nearly eats Bill after stuffing him in a sandwich. The whole ordeal nearly costs Bill and Aldo their friendship until a runaway fish cart, and a newly discovered mutual like for fish saves it.
Star vs. the Forces of Evil:
- In "Sleep Spells", Star doesn't just walk and talk in her sleep, she also cast spells through her wand, with naturally disastrous results. Marco decides to use therapy to figure out why. It turns out she was actually doing this to defend herself from a princess who had escaped from a Boarding School of Horrors. After she's defeated, Star presumably stops sleepwalking.
- In the third season, Star finds she's not only been sleepwalking again, but turning into her Golden Super Mode and flying through different dimensions, without the use of scissors. It turns out she was following a noise she was hearing, which came from the unicorn she created from the last piece of magic that wasn't corrupted by Toffee.
SpongeBob SquarePants:
- "Survival of the Idiots" has SpongeBob and Patrick sneaking into Sandy's treedome while she is hibernating after they are told not to via a videotape at her front door. After all the antics they pull while trying not to wake her, they still manage to wake her up anyway. While she never fully wakes up, their antics cause her to sleepwalk in a feral state where she mercilessly beats them up when she mistakes them for "Dirty Dan" and "Pinhead Larry".
- In "Don't Wake Patrick!", Patrick sleepwalks into SpongeBob's house, awakening the latter, then sleepwalks all over Bikini Bottom while SpongeBob tries to stop him and wake him up. Patrick eventually wakes up after stepping on a tiny pebble, then it's SpongeBob himself who starts sleepwalking, though Patrick doesn't wake him up, insisting he'll be fine.
The Story Store: During the episode The Night and the Music it is revealed that Granny Clump has a habit of doing this. Apparently Sammy wasn't in on this, which is why he becomes worried when Granny Clump goes missing.
WordWorld: "A Kooky Spooky Halloween" involves Pig sleepwalking around WordWorld, stealing the letter B from his friends belongings while covered in his bedsheet, making him look like a Bedsheet Ghost.
Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!: In the episode "Moo Moo's Snoozity Snooze", Wubbzy and his friends go on a wacky adventure to stop the said magician when he begins to cast spells everywhere in his sleep around Wuzzleburg.

Real Life

Homicidal somnambulism — an extreme form where a sleepwalker commits murder while asleep.
There have been many reports of Ambien and related drugs causing this type of behavior. People taking these drugs have eaten and/or prepared food, sent incoherent texts and e-mails, and most frighteningly, gotten into their cars and tried to drive somewhere, all while sleeping. They usually wake up with no memory of their activities.
There are cases of people who sleepwalk ending up naked in public, such as this case where police loaned a person their jackets to preserve "what remained of their dignity" to get them back to their hotel room.
Officers were satisfied that it was a case of somnambulism, and not a dare. The person involved was grateful to the officers for their help, saw a funny side to what had happened, and even asked for a selfie with the officers (when they were fully clothed) as a memento of their unusual encounter with GMP.
Sharks, which must remain in motion in order to breathe, are able to "sleep-swim", resting while their bodies remain in motion.

Sleepwalking
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Sleepdriving

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Sleepwalking 10 Following

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Sleepdriving

Sleepwalking
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