LOL!! No wonder you woke up! That sounds disgusting. The unconcious
works in very bizarre ways.

I had sort of the opposite experience once. I woke up, and thought I
heard Smudge crying *outside*. This was back in the days when I used
to let her go out on a leash tied to the stairwell by my front door.
But never when I was going to bed. So I figured I was imagining things,
and that her meowing was actually coming from the living room.

Then I went into the living room, and heard her cry again - and this
time, it was quite clear her cries were coming from outside. So I opened
the front door and called to her. Heard more meows, coming from downstairs.

I went down, thinking that I must have put her on the leash while in
my sleep. This was very alarming to me, as I had no recollection of
doing that. I didn't like the idea that I was capable of doing something
that complex without complete presence of mind.

I got to the bottom of the stairs, and there she was, hooked up to the
leash. However, the leash was attached to her collar. She wasn't wearing
her harness (where the leash would have attached to the middle of her
back - much safer). At that point, it seemed plausible that if I had
put her on the leash in my sleep, that's how I would have done it. I think
trying to get her harness on while sleeping would have been too much.

Still, I carried her upstairs, disturbed that I would be sleepwalking
to that degree, and trying as hard as I could to remember my actions.

Then I got to the top of the stairs, and saw the post-it note on my
front door. It was from my neighbor, who had seen Smudge wandering
around outside off-leash, brought her upstairs and rang my doorbell.
When I didn't answer (because I sleep very deeply), he put her on the
leash so at least she wouldn't run away.

So, how did she get outside to begin with? Apparently, she had been
sunning herself in the kitchen window, which faces toward the back
of the house. I had the window open, but there was an outside-mounted
screen attached to the house. And apparently the screen suddenly
popped off and fell to the ground (two stories down), followed by
Smudge, who miraculously was not hurt. The neighbor who lives in the
house behind mine had been sitting on her porch reading, when she heard
the screen pop out and saw the cat fall. She tried to catch Smudge,
but as soon as Smudge hit the ground she took off.

I did take Smudge to the vet to make sure she was OK, and she was
fine. That cat has undoubtedly used up at least 4 of her lives!!

But at least I'm not living a separate life while asleep!

Joyce

<snip>

Some may remember I'm a retired Army Pharmacy NCO. Many times during
field exercises I'd be the only pharmacy tech, and on call 24/7, and
sleeping in the pharmacy.  To make a long story short, one night one
of the wards needed some narcotics and came to the pharmacy. I got up,
opened the safe, typed out a label, did all the paperwork logging the
narcs out and logging them in on the wards records, etc. Next morning
I didn't remember getting up at all. I have to admit I did, though.
Seems that one of my friends who happened to be working on the ward
had his camera and took some pics - oh did I mention I did all this
without bothering to get dressed.