TEXT B The bizarre antics of
sleepwalkers have puzzled police, perplexed scientists, and fascinated writers
for centuries. There is an endless supply of stories about sleepwalkers. Persons
have been said to climb on steep roofs, solve mathematical problems, compose
music, walk through plate-glass windows, and commit murder in their
sleep. How many of these stories have a basis in fact, and how
many are pure fakery No one knows, but if some of the most sensational stories
should be taken with a barrel of salt, others are a matter of record.
In Revere, Massachusetts, a hundred policemen combed a waterfront
neighborhood for a lost boy who left his home in his sleep and woke up five
hours later on a strange sofa in a strange living room, with no idea how he had
got there. There is an early medical record of a somnambulist
who wrote a novel in his sleep. And the great French writer Voltaire knew
a sleepwalker who once got out of bed, dressed himself, made a polite bow,
danced a minuet, and then undressed and went back to bed. At the
University of Iowa, a student was reported to have the habit of getting up in
the middle of the night and walking three-quarters of a mile to the Iowa River.
He would take a swim and then go back to his room to bed. The
world’s champion sleepwalker was supposed to have been an Indian, Pandit
Ramrakha, who walked sixteen miles along a dangerous road without realizing that
he had left his bed. Second in line for the title is probably either a Vienna
housewife or a British farmer. The woman did all her shopping on busy streets in
her sleep. The farmer, in his sleep, visited a veterinarian miles
away. The leading expert on sleep in America claims that he has
never seen a sleepwalker. He is Dr. Nathaniel Kleitman, a physiologist at the
University of Chicago. He is said to know more about sleep than any other living
man, and during the last thirty-five years has lost a lot of sleep watching
people sleep. Says he, "Of course, I know that there are sleepwalkers because I
have read about them in the newspapers. But none of my sleepers ever walked, and
if I were to advertise for sleepwalkers for an experiment, I doubt that I’d get
many takers." Sleepwalking, nevertheless, is a scientific
reality. Like hypnosis, it is one of those dramatic, eerie, awe-inspiring
phenomena that sometimes border on the fantastic. It lends itself to controversy
and misconceptions. What is certain about sleepwalking is that it is a symptom
of emotional disturbance, and that the only way to cure it is to remove the
worries and anxieties that cause it. Doctors say that somnambulism is much more
common than is generally supposed. Some have estimated that there are four
million somnambulists in the United States. Others set the figure even
higher. Many sleepwalkers do not seek help and so are never put on record, which
means that an accurate count can never be made. The simplest
explanation of sleepwalking is that it is the acting out of a vivid dream. The
dream usually comes from guilt, worry, nervousness, or some other emotional
conflict. The classic sleepwalker is Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth. Her nightly
wanderings were caused by her guilty conscience at having committed murder.
Shakespeare said of her, "The eyes are open but their sense is shut. "
The age-old question is: ls the sleepwalker actually awake or asleep
Scientists have decided that he is about half-and-half. Like Lady Macbeth, he
has weighty problems on his mind. Dr. Zeida Teplitz, who made a ten-year study
of the subject, says, "Some people stay awake all night worrying about their
problems. The sleepwalker thrashes them out in his sleep. He is
awake in the muscular area, partially asleep in the sensory area." In other
words, a person can walk in his sleep, move around, and do other things, but he
does not think about what he is doing. There are many myths
about sleepwalkers. One of the most common is the idea that it’s dangerous or
even fatal to waken a sleepwalker abruptly. Experts say that the shock suffered
by a sleepwalker suddenly awakened is no greater than that suffered in waking up
to the noise of an alarm clock. Another mistaken belief is that sleepwalkers are
immune to injury. Actually most sleepwalkers trip over rugs or bump their heads
on doors at some time or other. What does the phrase "taken with a barrel of salt" mean at the end of the second paragraph