Before making the film, Birbiglia had already told the autobiographical story of his struggles to become a stand-up comedian while dealing with REM behavior disorder and a failing relationship in a one-man show and a book.

Matt is surprised to find the TiVo full of wedding-themed shows, so he talks with Janet, and she tells him that maybe he and Abby should take a "breather".

At the comedy club where Matt tends bar, he is about to talk to Abby about taking a breather when some friends show up with their baby and his boss, Ron, offers him some time on the stage.

After his set, much of which consists of material he has been doing since college, Matt talks to a comedian who complains about the entertainment industry and his agent, Colleen.

Skipping work, Matt is told at the college that they forgot they booked a comedian and offer to let him emcee a lip sync contest.

Matt's sleepwalking intensifies, and Abby begins to push him to see a doctor, but he is scared, and instead incorporates jokes about his condition into his act.

Back in his car, Matt says that, when he was preparing to make this film, he went to visit Abby, who is now married with two children, to ask why she stayed with him so long, and she said she did not want to hurt him.

He arrives at a comedy club and performs the story he has just narrated, telling the audience that he finally saw a sleep specialist and was diagnosed with REM behavior disorder.

After writing the one-man show, Birbiglia wrote the book Sleepwalk With Me & Other Painfully True Stories, which debuted at number 29 on The New York Times' hardcover nonfiction bestseller list in October 2010[7][8] and was a finalist for the 2011 Thurber Prize for American Humor.

[19] On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an 84% approval rating based on 117 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "Laugh-out-loud funny and endearingly messy, Sleepwalk with Me overcomes its tonal inconsistencies to deliver a sweetly melancholic, amiably reassuring indie crowd-pleaser.