Sleepwalking May Have Caused Death of TV's Chris Hyndman — But How?
TV personality Chris Hyndman was found dead late at night on Monday, July 3. (Photo: Corbis)
Earlier this week, Canadian TV personality Chris Hyndman was found dead in an alleyway below the penthouse apartment he shared with his spouse. Even though officials say the cause of the Steven and Chris co-host’s death is still being investigated, Hyndman’s mother believes he died after falling from the terrace of his apartment when he was sleepwalking.
“Christopher was a sleepwalker, and he did that a lot. He even ate in his sleep,” his mother, Glenda Hyndman, told The Toronto Star. “It’s not good, but that’s his reality.”
Sleepwalking is considered a parasomnia, which is the term used to describe abnormal behaviors that occur during sleep. Other parasomnias include sleep-eating, nightmares, REM sleep behavior disorder, and even sexsomnia, according to the National Sleep Foundation.
A recent study showed that nearly a third of people in the U.S. have sleepwalked before in their lives, with 3.6 percent of people reporting regular sleepwalking. Indeed, the behavior is generally underreported, since “people don’t know they do it unless they have a bed partner,” says Philip Gehrman, PhD, CBSM, an assistant professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. It’s much more common in kids, but there is “growing evidence that more adults sleepwalk and have parasomnias than have previously been thought.”
Related: Do You Sleepwalk? You Might Be Able To Blame Your Parents
In general, though, injuries (or potentially death, if Chris Hyndman’s mother’s suspicion is correct) from sleepwalking are rare. That’s because when people sleepwalk, “usually they’re following some pathway that they very routinely follow when they are awake,” Gehrman explains to Yahoo Health. “A very common one is to walk to the bathroom and even use the bathroom, and not wake up, because that’s a route they normally take.”
However, if a person is spending the night in an unfamiliar environment, that’s when things can get risky. “Say they’re somewhere else, maybe visiting friends or family, or on vacation. Their typical path to the bathroom — or if they sleep-eat, the kitchen — might instead lead them to the top of the stairs, where they can injure themselves,” he says.
If Hyndman did in fact sleepwalk off the terrace of his apartment and fall to his death, though, that would mean he was not in an unfamiliar environment. So would it still be plausible for him to sleepwalk, leading to harm to himself? Gehrman says that anything is possible when a person is sleepwalking — “there are very few things where I would say ‘that wouldn’t happen.’”
Related: 7 of the Craziest Sleepwalking Stories You’ll Ever Hear
Sleepwalking is often triggered by stress and sleep deprivation, so people will often report doing it (or doing it more, if they already regularly do it) when they’re going through a period of stress, Gehrman says. However, just because a person sleepwalks doesn’t mean there’s something “wrong” with them — it’s just something that happens during sleep.
If you sleepwalk or have a family member who sleepwalks and are concerned about potential injury due to the parasomnia, Gehrman suggests putting a combination lock on the door (since “some people will even undo a simple lock in their sleep”). He also suggests putting a bell on the bedroom door, so that if a person opens it at night, it will ring — either waking that person up, or waking up the bed partner or family member sleeping nearby, who can then check things out.
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