Somnambulism

“ A fourth degree of somnambulism is marked by the disappearance of consciousness, intellect, sensibility, and the power of motion. Only the lower functions of organic life remain. The patient merely lives, he neither thinks nor acts. This constitutes the state of somnambulic lethargy, a condition which differs from deep sleep only in the fact that under the influence of external impulses or of partial awaking it may easily pass into the second form of the affection, the somnambulic dream. ”

“ The phenomena we have above referred to—particularly those connected with the insensibility of the body and the organs of the senses—lead us to believe, that in somnambulism there is an increased intensity of sleep, producing an extreme degree of unconsciousness in regard to the physical organization, very similar to that which we find in hysterical, cataleptic, and many other nervous affections. ”

“ Somnambulism, or, as it has been called, noctambulation, is a curious phase of nocturnal cerebration analogous to the hypnotic state, or double consciousness occasionally observed in epileptics. Both Hippocrates and Aristotle discuss somnambulism, and it is said that the physician Galen was a victim of this habit. Horstius, ab Heers, and many others of the older writers recorded interesting examples of this phenomenon. Schenck remarks on the particular way in which somnambulists seem to escape injury. ”

“ While not every case of nightmare is attended with motion or sound, nightmare passes into somnambulism when the victim shrieks or leaps from his bed, or makes any motion.
Somnambulism, in its simplest form, is seen when persons talk in their sleep. They are plainly asleep and dreaming; yet the connection, ordinarily broken, between the physical organs and images passing through the mind is retained or resumed, in whole or in part. It is very common for children to talk in their sleep; also many are liable to mutter if they have overeaten, or are feverish or otherwise ill. ”

“ Take first the degree of control over the voluntary muscles. In ordinary sleep this is neither possessed nor desired; in nightmare its loss is exaggerated, in quasi-hysterical fashion, into an appalling fear; while in somnambulism,—a kind of new personality developed ad hoc,—the sleeper (as we shall see later on) walks on perilous ridges with steady feet. I have already said that morbid somnambulism bears to sound sleep a relation something like that which hysteria bears to normal life. ”

“ Notwithstanding a whole class of positive facts exist, proved and easy to verify, there are still some medical men who do not admit the reality of them, and are ready to smile at the mention of somnambulism as if a colossal deception were spoken of. In their view, all the cases of this condition of sleep are nothing but comedies skillfully played before too simple spectators by nervous women who have been made fanatical by delirium. ”

“ Sometimes, however, the new personality developed in the sleep of the somnambulist fails to come into proper relations with his surroundings, when he may also fail to accomplish the dangerous journey, and may walk from an open window or an unguarded balcony with disastrous results.
The second condition which presents analogies to the duplex or multiplex personalities, which [Pg 131] are under consideration, is that of the somnambulism which occurs in the hypnotic sleep. ”

“ It is indeed probable that somnambulism is dreaming in a manner so modified that the will recovers its usual power over muscular motion, and likewise becomes endued with a peculiar control over the organs of sense and perception. ”

“ In the higher kinds of somnambulism, so many of the organs of the brain are in activity, and there is such perfect wakefulness of the external senses and locomotive powers, that the person may almost be said to be awake."
"The remote causes of sleep-walking," he again remarks, "are so obscure, that it is seldom we are able to ascertain them. General irritability of frame, a nervous temperament, and bad digestion, will dispose to the affection. Being a modification of dreaming, those who are much troubled with the latter will, consequently, be most prone to its attacks. ”

“ Somnambulism is of especial interest as an example of dissociation on account of its very close resemblance to a fugue. One who is walking in his sleep is carrying out a series of activities, often of the most varied and complicated kind, which are wholly independent of the activities of his normal life. In some cases the sleepwalker is aware of these activities in the form of a dream when he awakes, but more often any consciousness which may have accompanied the somnambulistic acts becomes inaccessible as soon as the sleeper awakes. ”

“ The somnambulist, in the wide sense of the word, is not necessarily a person who walks in his sleep, but any person in whom a group of co-ordinated muscles is sufficiently awake to respond more or less adequately to the motor impulse from the sleeping brain. To talk in sleep is a form of somnambulism. When the motor channels are thus unimpeded, there is usually no memory of a dream on awaking. The impulses that reach consciousness can be, as it were, quickly and easily drained off to the surface of the nervous system, and they tend to leave no deep impress on consciousness. ”

“ This power, which gives rise to the most curious phenomena of somnambulism, is of such a kind, that, while the senses are in general obscured, as in sleep, and all other objects are unperceived, the somnambulator manifests a faculty of seeing, feeling, or otherwise discovering those particular objects of which he is in pursuit, towards which his attention is by inward movement directed, or with which the internal operations of his mind bring him into relation. ”

“ Haller, Hoffmann, Gassendi, Caelius Rhodiginus, Pinel, Hechler, Bohn, Richter,—in fact nearly all the ancient physiologists and anatomists have written on this subject. The marvelous manifestations of somnambulism are still among the more surprising phenomena with which science has to deal. That a person deeply immersed in thought should walk and talk while apparently unconscious, excites no surprise, but that anyone should when fast asleep perform a series of complicated actions which undoubtedly demand the assistance of the senses is marvelous indeed. ”

“ Semi-Somnambulism.—In S. W.’s case the following condition was indicated by the term semi-somnambulism. For some time after and before the actual somnambulic attack the patient finds herself in a state whose most salient feature can best be described as “preoccupation.” She only lends half an ear to the conversation around her, answers at random, often gets absorbed in all manner of hallucinations; her face is solemn, her look ecstatic, visionary, ardent. Closer observation discloses a far-reaching alteration of the entire character. She is now serious, dignified ”

“ Through their confused work the fact has been brought up into clear evidence, from among the absurd errors and hardly imaginable follies in which it was buried, that a nervous affection of a peculiar nature may be induced among subjects who are more or less predisposed to it. At present, all enlightened physicians recognize that somnambulism exists with symptoms which are always identical, and that it has a right to be recognized as a special form of disease. ”

“ The causes of somnambulism are generally to be found inherent in the organism of the individual, though they may be excited to activity by many [Pg 220] circumstances which are capable of exhausting the nervous system or producing emotional disturbance. Young persons are more subject than those of maturer age, and there are few children who do not exhibit at some time or other manifestations of the condition in question, such as muttering and talking in their sleep, laughing, crying, or getting out of bed. Persons of the nervous temperament are those most liable to be affected. ”

“ He did not hear the loudest sound, when it lay out of the circle of his dreaming ideas. If a light was held close to his eyes, near enough to singe his eyebrows, he did not appear to be aware of it. He seemed to feel nothing when they inserted a feather into his nostrils. The ordinary sensibility of his organs seemed withdrawn.
Altogether, the most interesting case of somnambulism on record, is that of a young ecclesiastic, the narrative of which, from the immediate communication of an Archbishop of Bordeaux, is given under the head of somnambulism in the French Encyclopædia. ”

“ One of the most interesting phenomena of somnambulism was described thirty years ago by the Englishman Braid. If we put the limbs of a magnetized person into a particular position or the body into a particular attitude, the feelings which correspond with the position or attitude will be called up by it. Thus, if we thrust out the fists of a subject, his features will immediately take on the expression of rage or menace. If we join his hands in the attitude of prayer, he will fall upon his knees, and his features will give the appearance of one who is engaged in supplication. ”

“ Third, noctambulism, or sleep-walking, in which the action, though complicated in its character, and different from the ordinary waking occupations of the patient, appears to be the result of automatic processes, constituting a dream that is acted out in time and space. Fourth, somnambulism with exaltation of the faculties, producing delirium with conscious movements during the crisis. ”

“ Sleep-walking in its smaller degrees of getting out of bed at night, is by no means unusual in childhood; but the greater degrees of somnambulism are certainly rare; and I have always found them dependent on undue mental work; not always, indeed, on the tasks being excessive, but sometimes on the over-anxiety of the child to make progress. I have not yet known a poor person's child a somnambulist. ”

“ He states that the sufferers rise in their sleep, walk about and converse, that they distinguish objects as if they were awake, ascend trees, pursue enemies, perform tasks, and then quietly return to bed. The state of somnambulism seems to be intermediate between ordinary dreaming and magnetic clairvoyance, and is probably the effect of a serious disturbance in our physical life, which causes the brain to act in an unusual and abnormal manner. ”

“ Modern science has at last dispelled this idea, and though it has not yet been able to furnish a rational theory of somnambulism which will account for all the manifestations of the affection, it has done much toward elucidating [Pg 193] the functions of different parts of the nervous system, and thus to prepare our minds for a full understanding of the subject.
Somnambulism has been defined [109] as “a condition in which certain senses and faculties are suppressed or rendered thoroughly impassive, while others prevail in most unwonted exaltation ”

“ We might at first believe that this induced sleep is identical with ordinary sleep, but it is nothing like it, and is characterized by very different symptoms.
The fact that insensibility exists in both permits us to liken induced somnambulism in a certain degree with the demoniac attack. We may prick the skin of magnetized persons with a needle, tickle their nostrils and lips with a feather, without provoking any sign from them. ”

“ Somnambulism is the most perfect paradox among the phenomena of sleep, as it exhibits actions without a consciousness of them; indeed, so complete a suspension of sensibility, that contact, nay, intense inflictions, do not produce that mental consciousness which is calculated to excite alarm, or even attention. ”

“ If I may for another moment still prose over the intricate, but deeply interesting question of the pathology of somnambulism, I will observe, that we often find it one symptom of madness or idiocy, and we know that somnambulism not seldom terminates in epilepsy.
In the brains of epileptic idiots, who are very determined somnambulists, we discover changes the most various; effusion, congestion, ossification of membranes, ramollissement, indurcissement, bony spiculæ, or points pressing the brain, tubercles, cysts. In some, the skull assumes the density of ivory. ”

“ Somnambulism has been in all ages known. Aristotle says, "There are individuals who rise in their sleep and walk about, seeing as clearly as those that are awake." Diogenes Laertius states that Theon, the philosopher, was a somnambulist. ”

“ The relation to nightmare of sleeping on the back is so simple as hardly to need an explanation. Many persons never have an attack unless they get into this position.
Somnambulism differs from dreams in the fact that one or more of the senses may be in an active condition, and that one or more of the organs may respond to the idea which absorbs the mind. A merchant in New York, traveling on the Mississippi River, occupied the same state-room with a stranger of highly respectable appearance. ”

“ That in many cases the mind may act abnormally most are aware, and spontaneous counterparts are found in disease to the real phenomena of hypnotism. Artificial somnambulism, indeed, is practically undistinguishable from the somnambulism which is called disease; and it is mainly true to regard the psychological fields of these phenomena as identical. In this state the brain acts, as it were, fitfully; some of its functions sleep while others wake, and in various combinations the actions of the senses are heightened or lowered, or apparently for a time abolished. ”

“ In one, we see the wondrous phenomena of somnambulism; in the other, a state of apathy, like the almost senseless reverie of the idiot.
Ev. You are shrewd, Astrophel, and have hit on these objective analogies with the acuteness of a pathologist. Contrasts they truly are; and yet there is a natural transition from one to the other.
Somnambulism is the most eccentric condition of sleep; and Reverie is that state which constitutes the nearest approximation to slumber. But the French verb, rêver, is a comprehensive word, signifying all the eccentricities of mind, from idiocy to divine philosophy ”