reporter may look awake, but he's actually asleep at the wheel and doesn't even know it. the surprising danger facing drowsy drivers. and, meet the brave souls chasing ghosts in some of the spookiest places on earth as our reporters spend a heart thumping night, on her own on a paranormal stakeout. good evening, i'm bill weir and once upon a time, all of england waited for the birth of a suitable heir to the thrown because in part in. >> friend: the royal woman in question couldn't produce -- thanksfully times have changed since the tudors but hard to imagine any newlywed under as much pro creation pressure than

kate middleton, after being stared at, we have the latest on the royal baby. ♪ >> reporter: ever since they walked down the aisle the source of endless fascination and speculation, when would william and kate produce a royal heir? today, 20 months after the wedding, an answer. >> that's amazing. wow, congratulations to them both. >> i'm quite overcome, it's raleigh exciecal really exciting -- >> reporter: it's emotional. you're happy for them? >> oh, yes. >> reporter: last week, she was playing field hockey at her former school. this afternoon the news announced only after the duchess of cambridge was admitted to hospital with a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum, or hg. the palace today said as the

pregnancy is in its very early stages her royal highness is expected to stay in hospital for several days and will require a period of rest thereafter. >> this is extreme, excessive, intractable vomiting or throwing up that is going on several times an hour all day long and potentially it is a very serious situation. >> reporter: william spent several hours by kate's side, seen here leaving earlier this evening. and after centuries of rigid tradition, this royal child will be third in line for the throne, regardless of whether it's a boy or girl. thanks to new legislation about to be passed by parliament. >> it is kate to provide an heir but she's not under pro sure to provide a boy anymore. >> this is the beginning of the super-modern monarchy, what the queen has devoted her life for. it is historically very important. >> reporter: tonight, there is even talk of twins, increasing

the confusion over the line of succession. it was kate's diagnosis, hg can indicate a higher possibility of twins that started the speculation. >> we know that it tends to be more common in women carrying multiples so women pregnant with twins or triplets, you can see definitely some hyperemesis in those women. >> the third in line is the child born first, even if it's just by a couple of minutes. >> reporter: in any event, prince harry will be farther from the throne. he's said to have been informed by e-mail while still on military duty in afghanistan. from the moment they were eng e engaged kate and william said they wanted children. >> i think one step at a time and get over the marriage thing first and look at the kids but obviously, we want a family. so, we'll have to start thinking about that. >> reporter: everyone else has been thinking about it as well. she kept the world guessing,

looking for clues, water instead of wine, declining a peanut paste when on offer and then those encounters, kate stroking a baby. the palace had to swing into action and release the information earlier than they probably had intended. kate is less than 12 weeks pregnant. prime minister david cameron got tipped off earlier today. >> i got a note in a meeting, and found it difficult to keep it to myself. >> reporter: three decades since the media and masses were in a frenzy about princess diana's pregnancy with william. >> diana very charmingly told everyone and she said i've got the most dreadful morning sickness. diana suffered from it too and totally, totally miserable at the beginning of her pregnancy. >> reporter: this media will create a media storm, tonight already clamoring outside the

hospital. >> and when it came to royal parenting, diana, they laughed together and tight bond that charles wasn't fortunate to have with his mother when he was a child, she was busy being queen, it was a different world and time. i think we'll see a lot more of the diana-style parenting from kate than the old-fashioned way charles had. >> reporter: they spent much of the last year celebrating the queen's diamond jubilee as her ambassadors abroad in the 60th year of her reign. >> she was married a year, done what expected of her and wanted to strt a family as soon as possible. >> reporter: there is so much speculating ahead. boy or girl? what about a name? >> i want it to be named daisy after me. >> and finn. >> minnie. >> reporter: we have months to

go. let the wagering begin. for "nightline" i'm lama hasan in london. >> we checked otds 33-to-1 longshot twins, 8-to-1 hair color ginger like uncle harry. thanks. welcome to our new abc news medical contributor jen ashton, good to have you with us. his eyes may be open but he's actually asleep behind the wheel and doesn't know it. an experiment in road fatigue, next. i'm a conservative investor.

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with bill weir. >> between the hamster wheel grind at work, the commute to and from, fatigue, on the open road can seem like an accepted fact of modern life. in fact an estimated 250,000 americans drive drowsy every day, and that can turn into a very real nightmare, so the next time you find yourself with miles to go before you sleep, something to think about. from abc's ron claiborne. >> reporter: the video is shocking. a woman driving a car in denver asleep at the wheel. watch as she drifts in and out of her line, somehow she never

crashes. she drove 30 miles before a police car was finally able to pull her over. about 6800 drivers each year aren't so lucky. they fall asleep while driving, crash and die. drowsy driving is the second-leading cause of fatal vehicle accidents behind only drunk driving and ahead of driving while texting. it's not just driving that is affected. a recent study in the journal of american medical association estimated that workplace accidents from sleep deprivation cost $31 billion of damage every year. >> sleep is such a powerful drive that if you really need it, the brain is going to say, sleep. and that can be an incredibly dangerous situation. >> reporter: but it's driving while sleeping that is especially harrowing. some drowsy drivers experience a phenomenon you probably never heard of called micro sleep where you fall asleep for just a few seconds without realizing

it. i volunteered to be the guinea pig, to see how i would be affected without enough sleep. first i stayed up 32 consecutive hours. >> i've hit the proverbial wall. i'm ron claiborne. i traveled to the liberty mutual research institute outside boston when this study the effects of sleep deprivation on driving. >> it can happen in the blink of an eye. >> reporter: chronic lack of sleep fogs the mind, makes people more likely to make mistakes at school or work. it makes us emotionally volatile and more prone to illness. at the research lab i was hooked up to a brain wave monitor and a device that tracks eye movement. i feel okay now. but not great. then i got behind the wheel of a minivan. as tired as i was, i thought i would be okay. we'll see. i feel like i can drive pretty well. then, i started driving on a closed track with a researcher

sitting next to me who could step on an emergency brake if things went awry. i'm feeling pretty worn out. soon i was becoming sleepier and sleepier, it became a struggle to keep my eyes open and hold my head up. before long i was experiencing micro sleep. i looked like a normal wake driver but you can't tell that my brain is actually asleep. half hour in it became more obvious. i had fallen asleep at the wheel and driven completely off the road. that was nod got good. i soon realized i just couldn't go on. i'm done. >> put it in park then. >> good idea. it was too dangerous. that was tough. back in the lab, they showed me what was going on inside my brain while i was driving. >> this is evidence you're falling asleep. >> reporter: my eyes were open but see how the lines are becoming more jagged? that's sleep coming on. and these lines, show my

blinking is getting slower. what about when i drove off the road? >> we could see it coming in your brain waves. >> reporter: looking at the chart here how long was my micro sleep? in this one episode? >> in this one episode we're talk about one, two, three, four, five or six seconds. >> reporter: what was most shocking, the doctor said i fell asleep, i micro slept 21 other times. >> you had dozens of times where your eyes began rolling around in their sockets, this would happen two, three, four seconds, couple of good rolls. >> reporter: if i had been drividrive ing 60 miles an hour i would have gone the length of a football field asleep. >> then you would come to and keep driving. >> reporter: i'd remembered none of them. fortunately i had been in a h h highly controlled situation with safety precautions, driving 20 to 30 miles an hour. thousands of sleep deprived americans at 60 miles an hour

convinced, as i was, that they can outrace their own fatigue. i was in a real twilight zone the entire time. and it was scary. for "nightline," ron claiborne in massachusetts. >> thank you, ron. sleep well tonight. coming up next, we'll meet with a trio of ghost enthusiasts, tracking down spirits around the globe and we go along for a paranormal encounter of our own. our holi. aww, not the mall. well, i'll do the shopping... if you do the shipping. shipping's a hassle. i'll go to the mall. hey. hi. y'know, holiday shipping's easy with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. yeah, i know. oh, you're good. [ laughing ] good luck! [ male announcer ] priority mail flat rate boxes. online pricing starts at $5.15. only from the postal service. i put away money.

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[ female announcer ] let betty crocker do the measuring and get a head start on delicious homemade cookies. ♪ just pour, mix...love. it used to be that america's rundown hotels and creepy basements and abandoned fairgrounds were relatively peaceful placeses for ghosts to moan and shake their chains and wh whatnot but not any more because one team of paranormal trackers is on a mission to track down

the other dworldly and linsey davis got in on the spooky action. >> reporter: it's the middle of the night and i'm in the basement of a house on staten island chasing ghosts. am i scared? i am a little unnerved. i probably look as though i've ever seen one. >> can you please come up to her and speak into the device that she's holding in her hand? >> reporter: at first i laughed to disguise my fear but not long after -- i heard something. >> did you? >> reporter: my skin begins to crawl. the hair on the back of my neck -- >> we got to go quick. >> reporter: -- is standing straight up. >> whoa. >> reporter: in the midst of the scariest, most notorious purportedly haunted places in the world you'll find these three brave souls, zach, nick and aaron. >> gives off a high spike. >> 150% believing behind there is life after death because i've seen an actual figure standing

two feet in front of my face that scared the living daylights out of me and we all have. zach and aaron, we're all believers now. >> reporter: they're investigators of paranormal activity they pride themselves on debunking myths and collecting evidence with dusk to dawn lockdowns. >> you have to come with us like do you tonight. >> reporter: somehow they managed to convince me to tag along to snug harbor in staten island, new york. an investigation that would eventually leave me standing in a darkened attic all alone with nothing but a camera and a high frequency microphone in the hopes i would capture a spirit talking to me. is there anyone in here? to figure out i ended up there we should start pe beginning. zach is a documentarian turned ghost hunter that says he sees dead people and talks to them. >> i see time capsules that hide

skree secrets of the past. these see createcretsecrets, th unrested. we set up cameras and tonight when it gets dark they'll turn into night vision. >> reporter: snug harbor was a refuge for sailors, rumor has it it remains a old haunt, final port of call for tormented souls. >> a lot of people have been experiencing paranormal activity in this building, security officer, staff. >> you think it's a shadow but after a while you think that wasn't a shadow. >> reporter: donald patrolled here as a security officer more than a decade. do you believe this staff? >> yeah, i believe almost anything they tell me. >> reporter: anywhere that you wouldn't go by yourself when it's dark? >> the major's house. >> reporter: which is where i find myself as night falls. going to the matron's house,

where it's been documentsed that a murder actually took place. remember that sound we heard? we head to the attic to explore. >> hello? is there anybody up here? >> what we'll usually do is leave one person up here. do you want to do it? >> reporter: i'll do it. should i say some last words to my camera? if that weren't spooky enough, time has never ticked so slowly in all my life. it took me the first few minutes just to muster this. >> is there anyone in here? >> reporter: i'm mentally prepared for what i should say or do if by chance the matron appears. after five excruciatingly long minutes. >> linsey we're coming up. >> reporter: i managed to survive without anyone or anything saying boo to me. i was watching the clock, counting down. >> linsey, the thing with paranormal investigating, it can happen when you least expect it. >> reporter: relief doesn't begin to describe how thankful i

was it didn't happen on my watch. >> i forgot to tell you, sometimes the experience follows you home. will you let us know -- >> reporter: for "nightline" i'm linsey davis on staten island from snug harbor. >> "ghost adventures" fridays on travel channel and special episode featuring linsey on january 18. thank you to her and thank you for watching "nightline." "gma" in the morning. meet you back here tomorrow. up next on "jimmy kimmel live." >> tonight i returned to save my people from the storm. >> howard stern. >> i took over the chair in the middle of the show. i'm having a good time. i like it here in brooklyn. it's fun. >> tracy morgan. they are doing that because i probably owe them money. >> and