ALL WALK IN SLEEP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 45, 22 February 1936, Page 10

ALL WALK IN SLEEP

FAMILY SETS DOCTORS A PUZZLE SYDNEY, Jan 26. A family that walks in its sleep is the subject of attention and discussion bv prominent Sydney doctors. Sleepwalking, they say, is not hereditary. The “Night walk” family puzzles them. The oldest member of the Nightwalk family has taken a number of sleeping strolls in the streets near his home, clad only in pyjamas. Several times he has been discovered somnarabulating around the neighbourhood. and has been taken home. Walks for Miles At other times he has returned undisturbed from walks of up to two miles, and got into bed again. In the I morning he remembers nothing of these walks. On the advice of a doctor, this man ’ has been placed in a private hospital ■ for observation and treatment. The loctor’s inquiries revealed thp sleepwalking of other members of the famJt was not uncommon for others of the Nightwalk family to rise in the mwldle of the night and go about their ordinarv domestic duties. The sleep-walking habbit, doctors say, can be cured if victims can find and remove the conscious motive which directs the unconscious mind to action. Went Through City In some cases of sleep-walking reported in New South ales th© somnambulists have walked over the edges of balconies. Others have walked, fast asieep. along narrow railings, balancing with a strange, unerring skill. Others have walked nude in the streets. One country rase concerned a hoy I who g-t out of bed at 2 a.m.. diessed ih.imsplf. and went to school. Sydney’s most spectacular sleepwalker was a woman. Clad onlv in her nightdress, she walked down King Street, hoarded a tram at the Elizabeth Street corner, rode to Circular Quav, and alighted. Then, no one waking her. she walked back to her home in Phillip Street. Questioned next day, she could not remember her nocturnal and rather em-I-arrassing adventure.