Woman records videos of herself sleepwalking for TikTok fame: ‘It’s real and it makes people laugh’
Celina Myers has various claims to fame, including authoring three paranormal books and creating a cosmetics line called Beauty X Boo. But the Ontario, Canada woman is now being recognized for something else: her sleepwalking adventures, after chronicling what she gets up to at night on TikTok.
Myers tells Yahoo Life that she has been sleepwalking since she first learned to walk, explaining that her brother and mom do the same. Still, she didn’t realize the entertainment value in it until posting a video from a sleepwalking incident at a hotel in December to her TikTok, where she goes by CelinaSpookyBoo. That video has been viewed 20.5 million times.
The video captured Myers just after waking up to find herself roaming the hotel hallway while naked and discovering that her room was locked. “I tend to try and find the humor in all situations and being as awkward as I am I thought my followers would want to hear about it, too,” she says.
What she didn’t expect were the millions of people both old and new to her account wanting to see more. Nevertheless, she delivered.
Myers went on to post footage from cameras positioned outside of her home that caught her walking out of the house in the middle of her sleep. While the first few videos were spontaneous instances of sleepwalking caused by stress, she eventually leaned into the idea of creating a series of sleepwalking videos by setting up cameras indoors and inducing her odd behavior.
“Eating cheese and chocolate before bed have always been triggers for my sleepwalking,” she explains. “I have avoided eating those things before bed so it's not a huge issue in my regular life unless I'm really stressed out. Because it made people so happy, and honestly I love watching the clips, we set up cameras to try and catch some more of it inside.”
After posting countless videos, including one with her brother sleepwalking alongside her, some claimed that the videos were fake.
“I feel like this is staged,” one person commented on one of Myers’ videos. “There is no way this is real,” another wrote about the same clip.
Dr. Mayank Shukla, a pulmonologist and sleep doctor based in New York, tells Yahoo Life that although it is impossible to determine if Myers is faking her videos or not, the behavior does make sense for someone with a parasomnia disorder that disturbs the sleep.
“Patients can wake up, they’re not conscious of it, and do different activities like sleepwalking and sleep talking. These kinds of activities can be very complex and some of them can be very dangerous,” Shukla explains. “Any food that stimulates you [like those containing caffeine or alcohol] can lead you to this type of behavior if you’re prone to it. People that aren’t prone to it might just have acid reflux. You have to have a background for that.”
He goes on to say that these conditions oftentimes start during childhood and “self resolve” by the time patients grow older. If somebody is still sleepwalking as an adult, however, it is important to seek medical help.
“People should understand that sleepwalking is not benign. Once they reach adulthood, make sure that patients are staying safe, safety is the most important,” he says. “Many of these patients have associated underlying problems. If it goes on and you don’t get treated for sleep disorder or sleep apnea, that leads to issues with the heart and other cardiovascular disorders as well.”
Myers maintains that her sleepwalking is very much real and that she has seen a physician for it in the past. “I get it, it looks insane. But if you do some research into sleepwalking you will notice mine is boring compared to some of the other videos and stories out there,” she says.
She also explains that her partner is typically by her side to ensure that she is safe while sleepwalking. “Adam is a light sleeper and I let him know if I'm stressed or have eaten any foods that cause it, so he looks after me.”
With 9.1 million followers on TikTok alone, Myers says that she still second guesses posting some of the sleepwalking content because of backlash. But since garnering seven million of those followers before the sleepwalking series began, she is confident in continuing to make an assortment of videos that make people laugh.
“It’s real and it makes people laugh and that’s what I love to do,” she says. “We will continue to keep doing what we do because the community we have built is so amazing. This is just a taste of what CelinaSpookyBoo is.”
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