The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-29
A Somnambulist's Experience
Queer Dongs sofa Clark Man in Sleep
ibed by, r. - q By Will Detz

solve, but / saw a shadow fit across the
threshold of the door leading from my
room to another room. 1 lighted a match
and stealthily followed. The man was
standing In threatening posture in one
this mean? He made no reply. 1 grasped
what seemed to be a club, and struck at
him. A noise as if wild steer had
tered tinshop caused me to rub my eyes
and pinch myself My consciousness had
returned. 1 had brought the coal-hod down
on the sitting room stove with a great
thwack, and was more bewildered then
than ever at any time before or since. My
wife says she heard me rumbling and NUT
tering. She shouted TO me two or three
times, but the only reply vouchsafed was
a dramatic .Ah! Be still! I'll fix him.
After awakening / remembered everything
but this dialogue, and was not aware that
l had been spoken to by my wife.
Have you always been awakened in
the midst of these operations?
Not always. / am sometimes led to
think that there are occasions when 1 walk
in my sleep and am not made aware of it.
Household articles have been found dis
placed and domestic mysteries, accountable
IN no other way but by my sleep-walking
have been discovered in the morning. A
fire which We were accustomed to keep
over night in our sitting room, and which
burned with great regularity went out one
night, and damper which we positively
remembered adjusting rightly, was turned
In such a way that the fire must neces-
sarily have gone out. Three or four times
xxyi+l,
pened, and we were puzzling over a cause,
when L was heard and discovered in the
act of turning the damper in my sleep one
night
"Will you describe the various sensations
which are experienced by the somnam-
bulist?'
1.-THE primary feeling is one Of pressure
constraint, and is very disagreeable. 1t is a
sensation which nearly every one has ex-
perienced in dreams. You seem impelled by
an irresistible motive to perform certain
| acts while your impulses are simultaneous
| ly wrestled with by mysterious powers
which weigh you down and against which
| you have to struggle. 1t is a very I'M
| pleasant contest of two diverging elements
| of the imagination. 1t has wearing effect
| on the brain, insomuch that after one of
! my somnambulistic performances / have
experienced a very decided mental ex-
| haustion. This sensation, described as well
| as am able, continues prominent till the
| return OF consciousness I'm most cases,
while In others 1t is so light that 1 am
| hardly cognizant of having experienced any
unusual feeling when awake. How 1 am
able to find my way about, open doors. turn
4 cfoir vi
obstacles when in this condition is inexpli-
cable to myself, for I am sure that 1 see
nothing as 1 see 1t when awake; the only
| thing that I seem to see are the distorted
and fictitious shapes formed by my imagi-
nation. That is, things on which my mind
is fixed, the chairs which 1 sawed, for in
stance. l seem to see In a transparent and
unreal form, while other articles. furniture.
| etc., have no place in my vision, and were
as if they had no existence in the house.
| There are no doors, no stairs, etc., to me.
| The feeling on emerging from this state
| an instantaneous change-is invariably one
of mingled relief and surprise, not infre-
| quently mixed with chagrin. The shock
| varies in intensity, but sometimes is very
| short. 1 don't believe these phenomena in
| my case the result of any physical or
mental ailment or irritation. but 1 think
they are the result of too intense mental
application or persistency of thought in one
direction, just previous to retiring, upon a
peculiar temperament never have called
somnambulism a disease, and have never
consulted physician in regard to it. There
| is discomfort, of course, and 1 endeavor to
| avoid the sleep-walking so far as 1 am able
| L think 1 shall succeed in entirely over
| coming the tendency.