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SOMNAMBULISM (from Lat. somnus, sleep...
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See also:SOMNAMBULISM (from See also:Lat. See also:somnus, See also:sleep, and ambulare, to walk) , or sleep-walking, the See also:condition under which See also:people are known to walk along while asleep, apparently unconscious of See also:external impressions, return to See also:bed, and when they awake have no recollection of any of these occurrences. Sometimes the actions performed are of a complicated See also:character and See also:bear some relation to the daily See also:life of the See also:sleeper. Thus a See also:cook has been known to rise out of bed, carry a See also:pitcher to a well in the See also:garden, fill it, go back to the See also:house, fill various vessels carefully and without spilling a drop of See also:water, then return to bed, and have no recollection of what had transpired. Again, somnambulists have been observed to write letters or reports, execute drawings, and See also:play upon musical See also:instruments. Frequently they have gone along dangerous paths, executing delicate movements with precision. Four types of somnambulists may be noticed: (I) those who speak without acting, a See also:common variety often observed in See also:children and not usually considered somnambulistic; (2) those who See also:act without speaking, also well known and the most common type; (3) those who both act and speak, more exceptional; and (4) those who both act and speak and who have not merely the sense of See also:touch active but also the senses of sight and See also:hearing. The See also:fourth class is the most extreme type and merges into the physiological condition of mesmerism or See also:hypnotism (q.v.), and it is necessary here only to See also:notice it in connexion with the subject of sleep. Many observations indicate that, at all events in some cases, the somnambulist engaged, for example,' in See also:writing, has a See also:mental picture of the See also:page before him and of the words he has written. He does not see what he really writes. This has been proved by causing persons to write on a See also:sheet of See also:paper lying on the See also:top of other sheets. After he had been allowed to write a few sentences, the sheet was carefully withdrawn and he continued his writing on the next sheet, beginning on the new sheet at the corresponding point where he See also:left off on the first one. Moreover, the somnambulist, by force of See also:habit, stroked is and dotted i's at the exact places See also:SOMNATH 393 where the is and i's would have been had he written continuously on one sheet, showing that what he was conscious of was not what was before him, but the mental picture of what he had done. The following table, modified from two such tables given by See also:Benjamin See also:Ball (b. 1833) and Chambard in their classical See also:article *omnambulisme " in the Dictionnaire encyclopedique See also:des sciences medicales, shows the relation of the various intermediate conditions of sleeping and awaking and of the dreaming and somnambulistic states. The See also:horizontal stroke indicates the presence of the condition the name of which heads the See also:column: Organic Conscious- 1 magialiven- See also:Power of See also:movement life. ness. faculties. nating and faculties. sensibility. Normal waking See also:state . — — — Sleep, 1st degree. — — — — „ 2nd degree — — „ 3rd degree . Deep sleep — Waking, 1st degree — — „ 2nd degree (speci- — — — ally dreaming state) . . . „ 3rd degree. . . — — — — See also:Complete waking . . — — — — — Dreaming state- . . — — See also:Ordinary somnambulism — — — — —(2) above. . Profound somnambulism — — (perfect unconscious- ness) Somnambulistic See also:dream — — — (movements in a dream) The somnambulist acts his dream. His condition is that of a vivid dream in which the cerebrum is so active as to See also:influence centres usually concerned in voluntary movements. Under the dominant See also:idea he executes the movements that this idea would naturally excite in the waking state. Many of his movements are in a sense purposive; his eyes may be shut so that the movements are executed in the dark, or the eyes may be open so that there is a picture on the retina that may awaken no consciousness, and yet may, by reflex mechanisms, be the starting-point of definite and deliberate movements. In many cases he does not hear, the auditory centres not responding; but in others suggestive words may alter the current of his dream and See also:lead him to perform other actions than what he intended to do. On awaking there is either no memory of what has taken See also:place or the dim recollection of a fading dream. It is important to notice that there is scarcely any See also:action of which a somnambulist may not be capable, and immoral acts from which the individual would shrink in waking See also:hours may be per-formed with indifference. Considering the See also:abrogation of self-See also:control See also:peculiar to the physiological condition, it is evident that no moral responsibility can be attached to such actions. In cases where somnambulistic propensities place a See also:person in danger, an endeavour should be made to induce him to return to bed without awaking him; as a See also:rude awakening may produce a serious See also:shock to the See also:nervous See also:system. Inquiry should then be made into the exciting cause of the somnambulistic dream, such as a particular See also:train of thought, over-excitement, the See also:reading of See also:special books, the recollection of an See also:accident or of a crisis in the person's See also:history, with the view of removing the cause if possible. It should never be forgotten that somnambulism, like chorea, See also:hysteria and See also:epilepsy, is the expression of a See also:general morbid predisposition, an indication of a nervous diathesis, requiring careful treatment so as to avoid more dangerous maladies. See also SLEEP and MUSCLE AND See also:NERVE (See also:physiology). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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