From burlesque to horror: a century of sleepwalking on the silver screen

Abstract

Background: Long before being described as a disorder, sleepwalking was considered as a mysterious phenomenon inspiring artwork. From the early beginning of cinema, sleepwalkers were shown to populations, playing a crucial role in storytelling and collective knowledge.Objective: We characterized how sleepwalking has been portrayed in a large number of movies from the origins of cinema to recent years.Methods: Movies containing the words "sleepwalking" or "somnambulism" were searched for in International Movie Databases. Types of movies, sleepwalking characters, postures and behaviors during episodes, triggers, and suggested treatments were collected.Results: Production of 87 movies and 22 cartoons portraying sleepwalkers was clustered around two peaks, in the 1910s and 2010s. Comedies predominated before 1960, and thriller/horror movies as a dominant genre after 1960. In contrast with real-life sleepwalking epidemiology, sleepwalkers are more often portrayed as women than men (and often wearing a transparent white nightgown), as adults more than children on-screen, and 23% suffered psychiatric comorbidities. The unrealistic posture of outstretched arms and eyes closed was found in 20% of movies and 79% of cartoons. Night terrors, sexsomnias (kissing, having sex, initiated pregnancy), sleep-related eating and sleep driving were also featured. Homicides and falls while sleepwalking were recurrent fear-inducing topics. The first sleep EEG was featured in a sleepwalking movie in 1985, and a sleep specialist gave his first advice in 1997.Discussion: The representation of sleepwalking on the screen seems to have evolved from popular, unrealistic stereotypes of somnambulism towards a medical condition, paralleling the development of sleep medicine.

Viralization of Mystic Stories and Lore in Horror Films Produced by Indonesia

“…Cinema is a medium that can reach and play a vital role in delivering a story by creating an interesting visual representation as well as giving imagination by depicting the character in a dramatic condition (Dalloz et al, 2021). Therefore, a film is able to have an impact on the audience's behavioral change, either positively or negatively (Ahmed & Elledge, 2023).…”

Exploring critical reception and thematic trends: A corpus-based analysis of critic reviews for 'While You Were Sleeping'

“…The film "While You Were Sleeping" has been a subject of interest in various studies related to sleep, memory consolidation, and emotional processing. For instance, a study by Dalloz et al (2021) explored the portrayal of sleepwalking in movies, shedding light on the historical and cultural significance of sleep-related themes in cinema. Additionally, research by Walker (2009) highlighted the impact of sleep deprivation on cognitive functions and emotional processing, emphasizing the role of sleep in neuronal plasticity and memory consolidation.…”

Sleepwalking, sleep terrors, sexsomnia and other disorders of arousal: the old and the new

“…In this case, patients have an anterograde and retrograde amnesia, and are often clumsy and ataxic, which is not the case in normal sleepwalkers (Pressman, 2011). Psychogenic parasomnias include complex, odd behaviours (impressive, looking like devils possession in movies [Dalloz et al, 2021]), often lasting >1 h, occurring while awake close to bedtime, with self-inflicted injuries, typically in patients with daytime dissociative disorders and other major psychopathology (Lopez et al, 2021;Schenck et al, 2021).…”

“…In this case, patients have an anterograde and retrograde amnesia, and are often clumsy and ataxic, which is not the case in normal sleepwalkers (Pressman, 2011). Psychogenic parasomnias include complex, odd behaviours (impressive, looking like devils possession in movies [Dalloz et al, 2021]), often lasting >1 h, occurring while awake close to bedtime, with self‐inflicted injuries, typically in patients with daytime dissociative disorders and other major psychopathology (Lopez et al, 2021; Schenck et al, 2021). Trauma‐associated sleep disorder is a recently suggested new parasomnia, which includes the inciting traumatic experience as well as clinical features of trauma‐related nightmares and disruptive nocturnal behaviours, occurring upon arousals from all sleep stages (Mysliwiec et al, 2018).…”