vendredi 16 novembre 2007

Hotels wake up to sleepwalking clients

Few things are more disconcerting on a trip than to wake up in a hotel room, and for a few bewildering seconds wonder where I am, which hotel, which city, why am I there? Even which day it is, never mind the time.

But a release the other day from British budget hotel chain Travelodge, reporting that sleepwalking among guests increased seven-fold in the past year, mostly involving naked men, has set me worrying about a more alarming kind of amnesia: What am I getting up to while I'm asleep?!

According to Travelodge, which runs 310 hotels in Britain, more than 400 night-time wanderers appeared at reception in the past year asking such questions as "Where is the bathroom?" "Do you have a newspaper?" or "Can I check out, I'm late for work?" One naked male sleepwalker even managed to get himself locked out of the hotel and later arrested. On other occasions, hotel staff were able to direct somnambulists safely back to their rooms.

Travelodge commissioned a national survey, from OnePoll in July 2007, showing that three million British adults sleepwalk more than once a week. The top five sleepwalking activities are: opening the curtains, watching TV, getting dressed, eating and drinking, and going for a walk.

Studies have found that sleepwalking can be brought on by such factors as stress, alcohol, cheese, eating too late and too much caffeine.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/15/travel/trfreq16.php?WT.mc_id=rsstravel

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