Somnambulist

“ 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. ”

“ So that, taking the claims at their weakest and apparently least offensive construction, it must be asserted that the somnambulist is an inspired person, and that, in this inspired state, he is at once both in and out of the body—that he can make all his bodily organs dead, inoperative ”

“ In the mean time the somnambulist appears to be insensible to ordinary impressions, and to take no cognisance of what is going on around him—a light maybe held so close to his eyes as to singe his eyebrows without his noticing it—he seems neither to hear nor to taste—the eyelids are generally closed, otherwise the eyes are fixed and vacant. Nevertheless he possesses some means of recognising the objects which are implicated in his dream; he perceives their place, and walks among them with perfect precision. ”

“ The stories related of sleep-walkers are, indeed, of so extraordinary a kind, that they would almost seem fictitious, were they not supported by the most incontrovertible evidence. To walk on the house-top, to scale precipices, and descend to the bottom of frightful ravines, are common exploits with the somnambulist; and he performs them with a facility far beyond the power of any man who is completely awake. ”

“ But between the healthy somnambulist and the subject of nightmare we find from another point of view a contrast resembling that between the man{96} of genius and the hysteric. The somnambulist, like the man of genius, brings into play resources which are beyond ordinary reach. On the other hand, just as in many hysterics certain ordinary powers of movement have lapsed below voluntary control, so also the dreamer who dimly wishes to move a constrained limb is often unable to send thither a sufficient current of motor energy to effect the desired change of position. ”

“ The clairvoyant faculty is sometimes exercised in sleep, and hence the importance so often attached to dreams. I have a patient, Miss M. L., thirty-five years of age, who has been under my observation for the past fifteen years, and for whose truthfulness and good sense I can fully vouch. From childhood she has been a constant and most [Pg 106] troublesome somnambulist, walking almost every night, until two years ago when I first hypnotized her and suggested that she should not again leave her bed while asleep, and she has not done so. ”

“ The youthful somnambulist is put to sleep in bed with a companion who is not affected, and the leg of the one boy is linked by a pretty long band of ribbon or tape to the leg of the other. Presently, the one disposed to ramble in his sleep gets out of bed, and, in so doing, does not proceed far before he awakens the non-somnambulist, who in resisting being dragged after him, generally throws the other down, which has the effect of awakening him. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It has been matter of surprise to many, that somnambulists often get into the most dangerous situations without experiencing terror. But the explanation of this ought not to be attended with any real difficulty; for we must reflect, that alarm cannot be felt unless we apprehend danger, and that the latter, however great it may be, cannot excite emotion of any kind, so long as we are ignorant of its existence. This is the situation in which sleep-walkers, in a great majority of cases, stand. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Not only the persons present, but the person advised also, had no adequate idea then of the extent to which health was affected, nor saw fully, till some time after, the justice of what was said by the somnambulist. There is every reason to believe that neither she, nor the persons who had the care of her, knew even the name of the person whom she so affectionately wished to help.
Several years after, in visiting an asylum for the blind, I saw this same girl seated there. She was no longer a somnambulist, though, from a nervous disease, very susceptible to magnetic influences. ”

“ Yet the dreamer, apparently so self-enclosed, may be gently led, or will spontaneously enter, into converse with waking men.
The somnambulist, or rather the somniloquist—for it is the talking rather than the walking which is the gist of the matter—is thus our first natural type of the revenant.
And observing the habits of somnambulists, we note that the degree in which they can communicate with other minds varies greatly in different cases. One sleep-waker will go about his customary avocations without recognising the presence of any other person whatever ”

“ 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. ”

“ These experiments are, so to speak, the prototype of those rarer and incomparably more astonishing cases of intuitive knowledge displayed at times by somnambulists. [10] Zschokke [11] in his “Introspection” has shown us that these phenomena do not belong only to the domain of somnambulism, but occur among non-somnambulic persons. The formation of such knowledge seems to be arrived at in various ways: first and foremost there is the fineness, already noted, of unconscious perceptions; then must be emphasised the importance of the enormous suggestibility of somnambulists. ”

“ Thus, persons who talk in their sleep, may, by conversation, be brought to remember a dream within a dream; and it is very common, in the higher stages of somnambulism, for a person to recollect what happened in the preceding fit, and be unconscious of any interval having elapsed between them. A somnambulist, at Berlin, in one of her paroxysms, wandering in her sleep, was guilty of an indiscretion which she had no recollection of in her waking hours ”

“ The sense of touch is very differently affected, for so far from being diminished in its action, it is invariably unduly exalted. Though the eyes do not see, the ears hear, the tongue taste, or the nose smell, the somnambulist has one sense which is fully awake, and by which he is enabled to guide himself through the most devious passages in dangerous paths. ”

“ The somnambulists who are exhibited in the theatres and at fairs, as, for example, the celebrated Lucille who was shown several years ago, are really put to sleep, but the condition of genuine somnambulism into which they have fallen does not exclude them from the power of simulating clairvoyance. They are aware of what they are doing, and they know very well that it is their business to divine the future. They are anæsthetic, and we may pinch them, prick them, burn them, without exciting a painful sensation. The phenomena of catalepsy may also be very easily produced upon them. ”

“ In cases where somnambulistic propensities place a person in danger, an endeavour should be made to induce him to return to bed without awaking him; as a rude awakening may produce a serious shock to the nervous system. Inquiry should then be made into the exciting cause of the somnambulistic dream, such as a particular train of thought, over-excitement, the reading of special books, the recollection of an accident or of a crisis in the person’s history, with the view of removing the cause if possible. ”

“ Millingen, "that in somnambulists the intellectual functions are not only active, but frequently more developed than when the individual is awake. Persons in this state have been known to write and correct verses, and solve difficult problems, which they could not have done at other times. In their actions and locomotion they are more caution, and frequently more dexterous, than when awake. ”

“ Rarely or never will a somnambulist spontaneously notice what other persons are doing, and adapt his own actions thereto.
Next let us turn from natural to induced sleep-waking, from idiopathic somnambulism to the hypnotic trance. Here, too, throughout the different stages of the trance, we find a varying and partial (or elective) power of communication. Sometimes the entranced subject makes no sign whatever; sometimes he seems able to hear and answer one person, or certain persons, and not others; sometimes he will talk freely to all ”

“ When one considers the remarkably hyperæsthetic condition of the senses in certain other forms of nervous disorder, it is not surprising that sensory impressions which would be wholly neglected in a healthy waking state, may become sufficient to excite perceptions and to guide the movements which they have aroused. It is undoubtedly true that in certain cases the somnambulist does derive some information through the medium of the eyes—does really see; but it is also a fact that he only sees, hears, tastes and feels the objects which are immediately related with the action of his dream. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The state of sleep, apart from somnambulism, is one of natural repose; the organs of the body have their various functions appropriately modified; and we can not help thinking that to interrupt abruptly the course of nature, and throw, as it were, a dazzling light upon the brain, the functions of which are in abeyance, is unwise, and may prove injurious. Many persons suddenly awakened out of a deep sleep, complain afterward of severe headache. We conceive, therefore, that somnambulists who may be considered in a state of preternaturally profound sleep, ought not to be forcibly awakened. ”

“ These post-hypnotic phenomena, as they are called, are the result of suggestion, and can only be produced in somnambulists. The manifestations themselves only differ from those of somnambulism in that they persist, or only take effect, after the subject awakes. Thus, we can suggest post-hypnotic acts, illusions of the various senses, and hallucinations. For example, a good somnambulist is hypnotized and told that on awaking he will commit a certain act, that he must commit it, and can not offer any resistance to his desire to commit it. ”

“ The waking state of our patient just like that of the poet, is filled with fanciful formations, while in somnambulists the extension and the elaboration of the system mostly results in the dissociated "other" state of consciousness. But just as somnambulists prefer to translate into exquisite fantastic and many mystic forms, and often allow their pictures to fade into dreamlike imperfections, so does our patient preferably express herself in monstrous and grotesquely distorted metaphors, which resemble much more the normal dream with its characteristic absurdities. ”

“ It is an astonishing fact that in these states a particular sense may be exalted so as to give results which in a normal condition would be impossible; and which to a superficial observer, and even to an investigator if he be inexperienced, appear to transcend the bounds of the human faculty. Abnormal states, involving changes radically different from dream somnambulism, happen spontaneously when awake, occur in delirium, and at rare intervals the somnambulist may pass into them. They will be treated elsewhere. ”

“ When awake he declared that he had no recollection of what had happened during his sleep. The paroxysms appeared every day except Tuesday. The patient had a brother who was also a somnambulist.
These cases will give an idea of somnambulism as it has been witnessed by other observers, or as its phenomena have impressed them. The following instances of the disease have come under my own notice.
A young lady, of great personal attractions, had the misfortune to lose her mother by death from cholera. ”

“ If he possesses this in a sufficiently high degree, he can affect those who are subject to his superiority even at the greatest distance. Moreover, if his influence is sufficiently effective the somnambulist acquires new and heretofore unknown powers; he sees the interior of his own body, recognizes its defects and diseases, and by a newly-awakened instinct, perceives what is necessary to restore its perfect order. ”