In chapter five, the book briefly touches on the concept of sleepwalking. I have always found this concept interesting, though I have never personally been caught sleepwalking, my little sister used to all the time. I can’t wrap my head around the idea of walking and doing things while sleeping. It says that people have been known to drive cars, have sex, and even commit murder all while sleeping!
One time my sister was at a sleepover and she got out of bed, went downstairs, put on her friend’s dad’s slippers, and started walking outside. Who knows how far she would have gotten had the dog not started barking when the door opened. She remembers waking up and seeing the slippers on her feet but not knowing how they got there. I never thought that sleepwalking could be something concerning until I read this section and saw how far it can go!
Sleepwalking
Sleepwalking is a pretty wild phenomenon. Fortunately, I am not a sleepwalker, but my sister, when she was younger, was. Often times, she would wake up in different parts of our home and would wonder how she got there when she woke up in the morning. I would be curious to know if there exists a relationship between sleepwalking and sleep talking, which apparently is something I do quite often. When I was living at home, my brother would always tell me that he could hear me talking in my sleep from his room. When he told me this, I had not recollection of talking at all! It's a weird feeling, talking--or in the case of sleepwalkers, walking--and not remembering what you said--or did--the next day. It would be especially weird (and extremely unfortunate) to find out that you murdered someone while you were sleeping. I can't believe that actually has happened!
It is frightening to think that you really don't have that much control over your own body while you're asleep. I have always been very interested in this type of thing. One of my good friends would not only sleepwalk, but would also eat in her sleep! She didn't figure it out for a long time either, and then she began to wonder how long this had been going on before she discovered it. The subconscious of the brain is at work a lot I think in the process of sleep talking, because my friends have told me what I have said, and I knew that those things were on my mind at the time. Actions though--that is crazy to think that our subconscious might want to have more sex, eat more food, or even kill someone! This is just an estimate of course, but I would definitely be interested in finding out more of the scientific aspects of this.
I'm more interested in why this phenomenon occurs. Is it because of the physical disorder in the body or brain? or maybe some subconscious desire (though I don't know why someone would want to kill someone..)? I remember when I was little I thought I had dreams of sleepwalking. When I think about, maybe I really was sleepwalking. Sometimes, I would even remember what I did and would go back the next day to see if it was real or not. Most of the time I concluded that it was just a dream since nothing seemed different. Interesting entry!
I have been sleepwalking many times throughout my life and am still surprised to wake up and have someone tell me what I did or where I went. I've gotten up and walked to my parents bedroom and woken them up to have a conversation, I've walked downstairs and gotten a midnight snack, and I've gotten up to speak to my brother as well, all while asleep and having no recollection of it in the morning. My mother actually told me about when she was younger and her brother woke up in the middle of the night from sleepwalking and took his BIKE for a ride. It baffles me to believe that he could actually perform the necessary functions to ride a bike while asleep. I'm also amazed at some of the things you mentioned in your article about having sex or killing someone and not remembering it because you were asleep. It seems impossible for such a thing to happen! But I'm also curious about how sleepwalking happens in our bodies and why we are so unaware of what is going on. I realize we are sleeping, but I would think we would at least have a dream that is related to what is happening in real life. Sometimes when I take a nap and my roommates come in and talk to me, I am half asleep and talk back and when I wake up they refer to something we talked about and I never remember what it was I said. I only remember speaking to them briefly. That is similar to what I would think would happen in sleepwalking, however; so far in my sleepwalking career haven't experienced.
I find it crazy when I hear about people walking in their sleep; but it utterly battles me to hear of cases where people participated in intercourse, drove a car or committed murder while asleep. You wonder what is truly going on threw their brain when they do this, did it talk about this in the book at all? It would be interesting to hear the scientific background behind this.
I am also wondering if these sleepwalking cases have anything to do with what the person is dreaming about.
It is certainly interesting to hear about your personal accounts with sleepwalkers, however as a reader it doesn't tell me a lot about this topic and why people do it!