Woman With Rare Disorder Shops In Her Sleep. Wait, What?

A woman from England has come forward to discuss the effects of her rare disease. Kelly Knipes, 42, suffers from parasomnia, a rare sleep ailment that has caused her to accrue a debt of nearly $3,800 (roughly Rs 3 lakh). Diagnosed with the condition in 2018, Knipes engages in online shopping while asleep. You might wonder what could have cost her over Rs 3 lakh. In her sleep, Knipes has purchased unusual items such as a full-sized plastic basketball court complete with a net, pole and backboard.

“It’s really upsetting and frustrating to go to bed thinking, ‘I don’t know what the night is going to lead to,'” Knipes told South West News.

According to Yale Medicine, a person with parasomnias may appear alert when they are eating, talking, walking or engaging in other activities of that nature, but they are not aware of it since their brain is only half awake. Her illness is characterised by odd and unwanted sleep-related behaviours.

She has also placed orders for paint jars, books, pepper and salt shakers, kids’ playhouses, refrigerators, tables and countless Haribo candies.

“I was racking up debt everywhere,” she told the news outlet.

Knipes went on to remark that since her phone stored all of her credit card information, she would never really enter it while making an online purchase.

Knipes’ sleeping habits intensified after she inadvertently disclosed her personal financial details to fraudsters via text messaging.

She acknowledged providing all of her information while she was sleeping, and when she awoke, they had stolen $317 (over Rs 26,000) from her bank account.

“I wouldn’t have replied to it if I was awake,” she claims.

Kelly Knipes stated that the first incident triggered multiple fraudulent attempts on her accounts, but her bank was able to halt the transactions.

Kelly added that she believes the scammers sold her information. She has deactivated cards several times and made several attempts to withdraw money from her bank.

Meanwhile, Knipes was unable to return the majority of the things she had bought.

“I couldn’t refund any food purchases, like the Haribos,” she stated.

She claims that when the playhouse and paint tins arrived, her kids noticed them and she was forced to keep them. Kelly Knipes attributes her unusual diagnosis of parasomnia, which has become worse over time, to her sleep apnea.

According to WebMD, it’s a severe sleep condition characterised by periodic cessations in breathing throughout sleep.

Knipes, a mother of three children with learning disorders, epilepsy, and deafness, avoids sleeping drugs so she can stay alert through the night in case her children need her.

Knipes had unusual sleeping patterns following the birth of her first child. She started sleepwalking, which eventually led to her spending habits.

The disorder has led her to engage in other risky behaviours, such as taking too much diabetic medicine, leaving doors and windows open, and even requiring hospitalisation.

Knipes wears a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device to keep her airway open at night as part of her ongoing treatment for her sleep condition. However, she unintentionally removes the gadget from her face, undoing the benefits of the device. This is because the equipment causes her jaws to lock as she sleeps. Despite the challenges, she acknowledges, “It’s just something that happens that I have to deal with.”