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somnambulism

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somnambulism

a condition that is characterized by walking while asleep or in a hypnotic trance
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

somnambulism

[säm′näm·byə‚liz·əm]
(physiology)
Sleepwalking.
The performance of any fairly complex act while in a sleeplike state or trance.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Somnambulism

 

a pathological state that is manifested in unconscious, outwardly well-ordered, and at times absurd or dangerous actions performed while sleeping and consequently not remembered. Somnambulism may be induced artificially through hypnotism, which indicates the similarity between the pathophysiological mechanisms of somnambulism and hypnosis.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive
The somnambulist is an addict, irresistibly drawn into another form of existence that frightens and exhilarates him at the same time.
With the logic of a somnambulist, Jan/e proceeds to resist the charms of her lovely companion --until later scenes, when they reverse roles, fight, make love, reject, embrace and generally play out the multi-forking road of reality.
In the middle of the Atwater fuss David Broder, resident somnambulist of The Washington Post, noted that Republicans are trying to appeal to blacks in preparation for another Jesse Jackson candidacy-thus, presumably, Atwater's public embrace of black music and his bid for the Howard trusteeship.
Daniel May makes a creepy impression as a blood-lusting semi-invalid with a pronounced resemblance to the infamous somnambulist of "The Cabinet of Dr.
In Shultz's somnambulist State Department therefinement of the special science of apologetics has long been an urgent necessity.
Further along, The Somnambulist, 2006, a wax doll representing an underfed, punky vampire by Goshka Macuga, lay peacefully on a gray carpet.
The "somnambulist", as he is dubbed, is also a ghostly strangler who wreaks his vile misdeeds at the dead of night.
Coventry Mary Stout Gerald Robert Sella Ned Danny Gurwin Nellie Danielle Ferland Chloe Erin Hill Sir John Coventry/ Chaos John Jellison Dean Alma Cuervo Jean Muir Judith Blazer Musical numbers: "Time," "Dreams of Dreams," "A Hunting Morning," "Chaque Chose a son Temps," "The Beautiful Detail," "Self-Help," "The Somnambulist's March," "Knowledge," "More Time," "Odd Women," "Anatomy," "The Seems," "Truth," "New Wallpaper," "Silhouette, Crying #1," "The Bathing Machine," "Crying #2."
Even the roughest, potentially most alienating elements of Blue Velvet-- the abrupt shifts of tone, the awkward dialogue, the primitive, almost childlike elisions in plot and character development --work for Lynch here, as they didn't in the failed science-fiction spectacle of Dune, because they're all his: his dream associations, picked up from the flotsam of 1950s and 1960s pop culture, and carried along on a relentless undertow of obsession, a somnambulist's rhythm.
Fifteen minutes into the program, a superannuated, lobotomized, somnambulist station manager in Cleveland resented the fact that ABC had taken "Peyton Place" off the air to put on this half-hour adventure in comedy.
(A character called Eulalie--after Poe's poem--is encouraged by her family to remain asleep so that they can continue to exhibit her as a somnambulist. Someone called Next of Kin gets into everybody's minds.
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