Footnotes on a life ill-lived #2.

¹ See Broughton, et al. “Homicidal Somnambulism: A Case Report.” Sleep (1994); 17(3): 253-264. The prevalence of violence among sleepwalkers is very low, and many object to its being classified as somnambluance at all. To some this is a semantic debate, but to others, it is absolutely fundamental: Just as a waking person who commits murder is not considered an exemplar and condemnatory of all waking persons — ie, that person’s misbehavior does not cause to be effected laws that punish all persons who are awake and active — it is also true that some people, sleeping, commit heinous acts, but most do not.