A.sleepwalkers are often awakened by dangersB.the under……
TEXT A
The bizarre antics of
sleepwalkers have puzzled police, perplexed scientists, and fascinated writers
for centuries. There is an endless supply of stories about sleepwalkers. Person
have been said to climb on steep roofs, solve mathematical problems, compose
music, walk though plate glass windows, and commit murder in their
sleep.
How many of these stories have a basic 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 gone
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 our of bed, dressed himself, made a polite bow, danced
a minute, 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 American claims that he had
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 had 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 sleepwalkers 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 set 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 vivid dream. The
dream usually comes from guilt, worry, nervousness, or some other emotional
conflict. The classic sleepwalker is Shakespeare’ s Lady Mac Beth. 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: Is the sleepwalker actually awake or asleep
Scientists have decided that he is about half-and-half. Like Lady Mac Beth, he
had weighty problems on his mind. Dr. Zelda Teplitz, who made a ten-year study
of the subject, say, "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 hump their heads on doors
at some time or other.
What are the chances of a sleepwalker
committing a murder or doing something else extraordinary in his sleep Some
cases of this have been reported, but they very rarely happen. Of course the few
cases that are reported receive a great deal of publicity. Dr. Teplitz say,
"Most people have such great inhibitions against murder or violence that they
would awaken -- if someone didn’t waken them." In general, authorities on
sleepwalking agree with her. They think that people will not do anything in
their sleep that is against their own moral code. As for the publicized cases,
Dr. Teplitz points out, "Sleepwalking itself is dramatic...sleepwalkers
can
always find an audience. I think that some of their tall tales get exaggerated
in the telling." In her own file of case histories, there is not one sleepwalker
who ever got beyond his own front door.
Parent often explain
their children’ s -- or their own -- nocturnal oddities as sleepwalking.
Sleepwalking is used as an excuse for all kinds of irrational behavior. There is
a ease on record of a woman who dreamed that her house was on fire and flung her
baby out of the window. Dr. Teplitz believes that this instance of irrational
behavior was not due to somnambulism. She believes the woman was seriously
deranged or insane, not a sleepwalker.
For their own protection,
chronic sleepwalkers have been known to tie themselves in bed, lock their doors,
hide the keys, bolt the windows, and rip up all sorts of gadgets or wake
themselves if they should get out of bed. Curiously enough, they have an uncanny
way of avoiding their own traps when they sleepwalk, so none of their tricks
seem to work very well. Some sleepwalkers talk in their sleep loudly enough to
wake someone else in the family who can then shake them back to their
senses.
Children who walk in their sleep usually outgrow the
habit. In many adults, too, the condition is more or less temporary. If it
happens often, however, the sleepwalker should seek help. Although sleepwalking
itself is nothing to become alarmed about, the problems that cause the
sleepwalking may be very serious.
The writer makes it obvious that ______.
A.sleepwalkers are often awakened by dangers
B.the underlying cause of sleepwalking is more serious than sleepwalking itself
C.most sleepwalkers are deranged or insane
D.all of the above