sleepwalker

[ sleep-waw-ker ]

noun

1. a person who walks, eats, or performs other motor acts while asleep and is unaware of doing so upon awakening; a person with a disorder characterized by this:

   A sleepwalker may do something that could cause injury, such as climbing out of a window or walking into objects.

2. a person who acts seemingly without awareness, feeling, aim, or will:

   My parents were sleepwalkers, moving about their world as if oblivious to it and to themselves.

Word History and Origins

Origin of sleepwalker¹

sleep + walker

Example Sentences

Later, he describes himself as “a sleepwalker—who turns off the alarm clock.”

From The Daily Beast

Neither was it the face of a dreamer or a sleepwalker, or of the dead, when the lines disappear and life retires.

From Project Gutenberg

When at length the candle was lighted, he took it in his hand and went into the parlour like a sleepwalker.

From Project Gutenberg

He went about extinguishing the gas as aimlessly and mechanically as a sleepwalker, unaware of the things he was touching.

From Project Gutenberg

Emil overtook her and catching her by the shoulders shook her gently, as if he were trying to awaken a sleepwalker.

From Project Gutenberg

“This way,” answered Molly, looking indeed like a sleepwalker as she glided down the hall to the main steps.

From Project Gutenberg