somnambulist

[som-nam-byuh-list, suhm-]

noun

1. a person who walks around, eats, or performs other motor acts while asleep; sleepwalker.

   I have slept on the march like a somnambulist, and I have slept standing up like a horse.

2. a person who seems to act without awareness, feeling, aim, or will.

   Most people go through much of their lives as somnambulists, unaware of themselves and unquestioning of their environment.

Other Word Forms

• somnambulistic adjective
• semisomnambulistic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of somnambulist¹

First recorded in 1780–90; somn- ( def. ) + Latin ambul- ( amble ( def. ) ) + -ist ( def. )

Example Sentences

It’s a perfect beginning to this kind of somnambulist theater, where the subconscious is the star, trying to make sense of everyday anxieties and concerns while life has been irrevocably changed by a global pandemic.

From New York Times

The somnambulist provided an early role for Conrad Veidt, the German officer in Casablanca.

From The Guardian

I’m a confabulating somnambulist, a bundle of reflexes, twitches and compulsions with no self-knowledge, let alone self-control.

From Scientific American

But you know there the person is the somnambulist, a sleepwalker.

From The New Yorker

If these scenes of daylight somnambulists seem dreamlike, that is consistent with the idea that there is no time in the unconscious.

From New York Times