Sleepwalk — a short story for English reading and speaking

Read the story below carefully and try to understand what is happening. Some parts of the story may seem mysterious or confusing at first, but continue reading and pay attention to the details. As you read, think about what might really be happening to Sale.

Sale had trouble sleeping. Again.

This was the — what — third night? Fourth?

She knew that after about a week, she would get back into a healthier sleeping pattern, but until then it just made her life unbearable.

As a teacher, she needed to be mentally and physically alert. And she was not.

She dragged herself into classes and — kids being kids — they noticed that their teacher was not looking so great.

Sale had tried everything to battle her insomnia.

Yoga, meditation, going to bed early, going to bed late.

She had contemplated taking medicine but she was worried that if she started to do that, she would become dependent. And she didn’t want her life to be governed by any pills.

The doctors were stumped.

They had no real answers.

One had even said to her, “Try to get some sleep. Sleep is very important for a healthy life.”

Good grief!

That’s why she was talking to him!

She had read every article she could find on insomnia and sleep. Read books. Watched videos on the subject.

Nothing helped.

Then, one day, while telling a colleague at school about her lack of sleep, she heard something she had never tried.

Her colleague said that her husband used to have insomnia. He was advised to video himself while sleeping.

The reason for this was that he could then see if he moved a lot during his sleep. If so, then it could mean a change of bed or harder pillows.

Or sleeping in a different room altogether.

But they found the reason (it was the pillows) and after buying firmer ones, he slept like a baby.

Sale had a small moment of positivity in her mind. Maybe this was what she had needed to do all along.

That night, she went to bed, but before doing so, placed her phone in a small holder on the chest of drawers opposite her bed.

Then she clicked record and waited for the results.

She lay in bed, waiting for sleep to come gently knocking on the door of her exhausted mind.

What usually happened was that she would sleep for a couple of hours, then wake up around 2am. Then she could not get back to sleep.

After a while, her eyes flickered closed, her breathing assumed a deep, regular pattern, and she fell asleep beneath the phone’s unblinking eye.

As soon as Sale woke again, she knew that it was the middle of the night.

Just that feeling in her body that it was at that time when the whole world was sleeping.

She sighed with the resignation of having this awful sleeping sickness that just takes and takes.

Her hand automatically reached out for her phone that she had left on the bedside table, but it was not there.

Then she remembered putting it on the chest of drawers.

With another sigh of resignation, she pulled back the bed covers and got up to retrieve her phone.

She may as well scroll through her phone while staring at the screen now she was wide awake.

Three steps and she fumbled with the phone, extracting it from the holder. She turned off the record button, then returned to bed.

What a waste of time that was. No point in even looking at the video. She had only been asleep for a short time.

Sale lost herself in a feed of news and updates from her contacts.

Pictures of people smiling as if they got eight hours of sleep every night.

No dark shaded area under their eyes.

No look of mental exhaustion on their faces.

These people were happy. Because they were able to sleep every night.

Sale continued scrolling until she found herself just staring at the screen with her jaw open.

The thought came to her; I may as well look at the video. See if it shows anything of interest.

She found the video and clicked play.

It was quite long. Almost four hours. But maybe something could help her.

The video showed an image of her lying down. Moving from side to side. But after a short while, it showed her asleep.

The video continued. All she saw was herself sleeping in bed. Not moving around. Fixed in one position.

Then, a sudden movement.

Sale watched as the video showed her getting out of bed in one deft movement. She was up and on her feet in a second.

This was it, she was sleepwalking!

Now she knew what was causing the insomnia, she had more chance of finding a cure.

Sale in the video walked past the phone and disappeared. Clearly she had got up just after falling asleep and left the room.

Now she finally had proof. She could show the doctor and get more defined answers.

The video continued playing.

Just an image of an empty bed.

Sale continued to watch but nothing else happened.

The video played on.

If she had left the room while sleepwalking, where did she go?

And what did she do?

Sale pressed fast forward on her phone and the video played at double speed.

Nothing happened. Just an image of the bed.

Sale had heard of people doing the strangest things while sleepwalking. People going for long walks. One story of a woman who got in her car and drove way out of town.

She was concerned about her whereabouts while in this state.

Then finally, a change in scene on the video. A shadow appearing to the left of the image.

And then an image of Sale reappearing in the room.

She must have been gone for at least two hours. Where had she been? Where did she go?

Then Sale in the video turned to the camera.

She leaned in close until her face filled the screen.

Then she winked and placed a finger against her lips like she was telling someone not to speak. Not to reveal the secret.

This was not sleepwalking.

She was wide awake.