Woman Sleep-Walked A Half-Mile To The Sea: How Was She Saved?

Marie Lord, 39, had a very strange alarm wake her up: the sea. She had sleep-walked over a half a mile from her home in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, to the ocean and had a freezing wake-up call from salty sea waves in her mouth. Lord has no recollection of how she got to the ocean. Usually, she requires the assistance of her husband or another to scale the steep concrete steps leading to the ocean, as she is a petite four-foot-ten-inches tall, according to METRO.

Lord was understandably disoriented and confused when she awakened. She had gone to bed as usual and apparently left her home around 1:30 a.m. She called out for help after she had awakened as she attempted to scale the steep rocks nearby. The walk from her house to the beach would normally take about seven minutes and was treacherous in places leading to the sea.

She has Lee Searle, 21, a porter in a nearby seaside Anchor Head Hotel, to thank for her rescue. Hearing her cries, he helped her up and called emergency 999, according to The Telegraph.

Strangely, Lord had not sleep-walked since she was 13. She had settled down for the night in bed next to her husband as usual. She has no idea why she sleep-walked that night two weeks ago. Lord stated the following, concerned about what might have happened had she not been rescued. “It’s absolutely mind blowing to think about what could have happened. All I remember is seeing is a flashing star and it all seemed like a dream. Sometimes, depending on the wind, we can hear the sea from our house….I remember thinking ‘gosh, it’s ever so clear tonight, it’s like I’m there’–but obviously I was.” She stated the following according to The Telegraph.

“Lee heard me when I was shouting ‘help me, help me help me.’ But I just don’t know what was real and what was a dream–it’s just so bizarre….I was heading into a really bad way. I was told that if Lee hadn’t responded to me as he did I wouldn’t have made it home.”

Both Lord and her husband are more than thankful to Lee for saving her life. She has expressed how proud his parents must be of him and noted that she is extremely proud of him too and will invite him over for dinner.

Lee said that he heard a “faint noise” and it turned out to be Lord, soaking wet, with the onset of hypothermia. He noted, tongue-in-cheek, that “[i]t’s not everyday you find a sleepwalker on the beach while you’re working.”

Lee Searle took Lord up the steps to the hotel and quickly wrapped her in blankets, keeping her conscious by having her talk with him. Paramedics took Lord to Weston General Hospital where she was treated for the onset of hypothermia before she returned home.

Searle’s boss, hotel manager Janet Day, stated that “Lee’s a very loyal and caring member of staff and I’m proud that he stayed so calm and didn’t panic when faced with such a challenging situation.”

Luckily, Marie Lord does not regularly sleep-walk. If someone did and had routinely disrupted sleep, it could potentially lead to various serious health problems. Persistent insomnia has been shown by studies to potentially lead to many health-related problems. And it’s worse than initially thought. Sleep deprivation has been linked to weight gain, memory problems, inability to perform, depression, and increased cancer risk, and even Alzheimer’s disease, according to an article in the Inquisitr.

[Photo By Matt Cardy/Getty Images]