Kelly Knipes, from Essex, England, began to notice that she was sleepwalking regularly after the birth of her first child in 2006. Soon, the sleepwalking developed into sleep shopping, a habit that has seen her spend ￡3,000 ($3,826) unknowingly while sleeping. In 2010, long before being diagnosed, Kelly woke up one day to the delivery of an in-ground basketball court, including a net, pole and backboard, which she unknowingly ordered on eBay for ￡100 ($127.53). Thankfully, the mother-of-three has managed to pay off her shopping debt, but has also become the target of scammers. The 42-year-old received a spam text message from someone impersonating the government, offering financial assistance for her bills. While sleeping, she gave the scammers her financial information and wound up scammed out of ￡250 ($318.84). She managed to get the money back from her bank, but she now fears that her personal information has been sold on the dark web. As a result, she has been forced to cancel her credit cards and put an alert on her bank account. Kelly suffers from what’s called “parasomnia,” which is caused by faulty transitions between the stages of sleep and wakefulness. She believes the disorder was sparked by sleep apnea, and in 2018 doctors confirmed that sleep apnea was culprit, causing her brain to partially wake. Once she was fitted with a CPAP mask, her sleep drastically improved, but she still has issues with sleep deprivation. At this point, she has done all she can to protect herself from sleep shopping.
