Sleep Earplug Removal

I don't talk in my sleep, and I don't sleepwalk.  Basically what I'm saying is when I'm sleeping, I just sleep.  I think I roll around a bit, but I generally do not do anything that might indicate I'm actually awake.

However, I have discovered a weird thing that I will occasionally do in my sleep:  take out earplugs.

I rarely sleep with earplugs in, and it doesn't happen all the time, but sometimes I need earplugs to sleep if my surroundings are too noisy, or if I'm sharing a room with someone who snores, etc.  It's super weird, and it's definitely not a case of my earplugs falling out in the night from moving around. 

The first time I remember it happening (and there may be a few more times that I've forgotten about) was when I went to Prague for a field class a couple years ago.  I was sharing a room with a couple other people so I was sleeping in earplugs, and one morning I woke up and they were not in my ears.  I figured they fell out in the night until I discovered them neatly paired up under my pillow.

The second time happened last weekend in Montreal.  Brahm's apartment is on a busy corner with garbage trucks picking up stuff and taxis honking all night long, not to mention rowdy university students banging around the hallways in the middle of the night, so I put in earplugs.  I woke up in the night with one earplug missing, but figured it fell out and was too tired to look for it in the dark.  In the morning, I discovered it had been placed neatly beside me (standing up) on the edge of the bed.  What?  How did I do that in the dark in my sleep?

It's so bizarre.  Sleepwalking and sleeptalking kind of freak me out so I'm glad that this is all I do, and I hope I just stick to sleep earplug removal (from my own ears) in the future too.

OH I guess I am lying a bit because I have sleepwalked ONCE:  after my high school grad.  I got home with my friend Meghan at about 7 am, drove her to the bus station at 8 am, then went home again and fell asleep.  At 10 am I started walking out the front door with my car keys - LUCKILY my sisters were in the living room watching TV and asked where I was going.  "I have to take Meghan to the bus station!" I slurred.  "You already took her.  Go back to sleep."  "Oh, okay."

A very good reason for not staying up all night and getting a healthy amount of sleep.