WALKING AND SONAMBULISM

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The only purpose intended in this post is to manifest the relevant connection that sonambulism has with respect to the activity of walking.

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“Sonambulism” is the way to define sleepwalking in a concrete way. Perhaps this is the most striking of all its manifestations, but it is not the only one. The sleepwalker is a person who is asleep and who performs some of the daily activities that a human being performs while awake, such as talking, getting out of bed -standing or walking-, sitting, eating, dressing, and some other less important ones.

The word somnambulism in its own etymology -of the phenomenon- defines it as “sleep walking”: from the Latin somnus: act of sleeping; ambulare: to walk. In English we have these same 2 roots, calling it sleepwalking.

Now, what are the possible causes of sleepwalking? They are very diverse and some of them are very complex:

– Genetic inheritance

– Neurological alterations

– Brain deficiencies, in terms of immaturity in their physical development.

– Medicinal treatments

– High body temperatures generated by some disease.

– Irregularity and inconstancy in the sleep cycle.

– Variability in sleeping schedules, caused by neuropathies and psychological problems.

– Hypochondriasis

– Hysterias

Independently of their great variety, I consider that they have a common element, which is the participation of the subconscious layers of the mind, in their gestation. These can be differentiated in the healthy part of the mind and in the unhealthy one.

The one we will deal with here is the healthy part, the unconscious. This substratum of the mind is the one that accumulates all the repressed -or forgotten- desires or impulses of the consciousness; that is to say, natural appetites inhibited by the consciousness itself that has retracted them and has not allowed them to be adequately channeled in the inner self.

Why are we interested in this substratum? I believe that the unconscious, as part of its work, is permanently sending messages to the consciousness to rebalance it (psychological homeostasis) and to the body so that it can fully develop (organic or corporal homeostasis), and in our subject, it does so through somnambulism: concretely that it must walk. And therein lies the key to everything: WALKING (Future Posts THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND HOMEOSTASIS, THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE KAABA CENTER, THE MANDALA AND OUR WALK).

Another way to observe these messages from the unconscious is during the day; that is to say: What happens during the day when we remain awake? The unconscious sends messages in various ways. For example: the injury of a foot or a leg. The message is partly symbolic and it should be translated that the person should not continue on “that path” that has been traced. He must stop or modify the path (change) of the road (direction or sense), and for this reason the unconscious causes him to stumble or fall.

Let us continue with the description, observations and exploration on sleepwalking.

Sleep has various levels of intensity; it can be deep, medium or light.

The phenomenon of sleepwalking occurs during the phase of deep or Delta Sleep. This phase is when the human being truly rests since it is when the generation of delta waves predominates, hence its name. When we are sleeping in this phase it is very difficult to wake up and if we do we feel confused and disoriented, we do not know where we are. Also, some vital signs drop in level, such as heart rate and respiratory rate.

Likewise, in this deep or delta sleep phase, certain anomalies and irregularities that have been called “sleep disorders” are also generated and sleepwalking is one of them. Within this group it is located in the subgroup of Parasomnias, being these disorders in which the dreamer wakes up during brief periods, without being able to wake up completely, that is to say, the dream is interrupted but the person does not wake up. These disorders are sleep walking or talking, nightmares, involuntary urination or enuresis, abnormal breathing, agitation or tremors, snoring.

As for sleepwalking – as we have already mentioned – its manifestations are diverse and all of them take place while the person who suffers from it is asleep; and it could be said that some activities are similar to those that take place when we are awake: moving from the lying down position to sitting on the bed, getting up and placing oneself in an upright position next to the bed, walking in areas next to the bed, walking in places further away from the room including going out of the house, opening the eyes keeping a lost look, that is to say, without fixing the look on something precise, dressing, eating, talking, driving a car.

Now let us move on to analyze the aspect that concerns us: walking.

The qualification of this phenomenon may have been made because walking is the activity that stands out as the most striking and the opposite of lying down while sleeping.

In other words: Why does the unconscious cause the dreamer to get out of bed and start walking?

The human being uses an internal symbology to communicate with himself, between his unconscious and his conscious.

Permanently, the individual unconscious tries to communicate unfailingly with the consciousness by means of diverse symbolic mechanisms. (Post WALKING AND ITS SYMBOLISM).

The consciousness by its enormous strength hinders these mechanisms and the fluidity of the symbols emanating from the unconscious. The same structure of the consciousness hinders the comprehension of that symbology. Here is where we must emphasize that this work of translating the language of the unconscious in the phenomenon of somnambulism is difficult in general terms for the human being.

The unconscious invites the being to walk, and its practice not only requests a physical satisfaction, but implies the claim and the search for other types of benefits (psychological, emotional, etc.) that only our individual unconscious knows.

We have already mentioned in the same post (Post WALKING AND ITS SYMBOLISM) that every time we are about to walk, unconsciously – in a subliminal way – we are signaling that we are going to advance in any of the ways we wish to do it, in the emotional, physical, intellectual, etc. and in any other of the attitudes in which we wish to strengthen ourselves, and of course, to evolve. Walking contains two forms of symbolism through which the human being communicates. The part of physically moving from one place to another, represents the metamorphosis of the being as he moves bodily from one circumstance to another, as if he were transforming himself, by moving on his own feet, from one physical-sensitive stage to another, with different sensitivities, perceptions and bodily manifestations. And the other symbolic form is the language of the body itself; being in movement allows it through its body language, to communicate what our physical being (bodily catharsis or mechanistic method) intends to achieve through this movement of walking; on the one hand to help the mental part to free it from its emotional state, sending messages to all parts of the body and functional organs, to improve the state of mind and health; and on the other hand, through this mechanical practice (behavior) that allows the physical catharsis of the subjection and immobility, which chains, suffocates and makes it impossible to unleash their exercise needs (Post LISTENING TO OUR BODY WHILE WALKING). Walking is the symbolic mechanism that has the meaning of reconforming and integrating the character and personality of the individual.

An extension to this is achieved -at the time of the invention of the automobile- when the somnambulist takes the keys of the vehicle and starts it, and on certain occasions goes for a drive. This is an analogical extrapolation of traveling, which in the case of somnambulism could also be considered as the search for a renewing experience, the beginning of a change that seeks to get somewhere; initiating a metamorphosis to transcendence. Thus, the sleepwalking individual who manages to drive a car seeks to free himself (new experiences and discoveries, renunciation, atonement), seeking an experience of change, by means of a trip using the car. Perhaps the unconscious is leading him to change some elements of his social or family environment. In general terms, sleepwalking is generated by an unconscious state of discontent with oneself and with the environment around us.

We have already mentioned that the symbolism of walking is the search for abstraction from the weight of external conditioning, it is to let thoughts flow towards the inner self, it is to find oneself.

Let us start walking and help our unconscious; let us not allow it to transform us into sleepwalkers to make us walk in our sleep.

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