Macbeth Essay On Sleeping And Dreams

For thousands of years, sleeping and dreaming have been two major topics that hold great interest in many scientific fields of study. However, only recently has modern technology advanced to a point where it has made an in-depth study of sleep and dreams possible. In 1937 Alfred Lee Loomis, a renowned American scientist and physicist, used an electroencephalogram to monitor a sleeping test subject’s electrical brain activity during non-rapid eye movement sleep (“Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem”, par. 7). Following this, in 1953 Nathaniel Kleitman, a physiologist and sleep researcher, discovered REM sleep or rapid eye movement sleep. These discoveries led to a great progression in understanding sleep physiology
and sleep disorders (“Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem”, par. 8).
A sleep disorder is anything that disturbs or disrupts one’s normal sleeping pattern (Diseases and Conditions, par. 1). Through the use of Loomis’s electroencephalogram and Kleitman’s findings on REM sleep, modern scientists have been able to characterize 80 different sleep disorders. These disorders can range from completely harmless to extremely hazardous, the most common being insomnia, sleep apnea and narcolepsy (Adult Sleep Disorders, par. 1). Some of these disorders are exemplified in William Shakespeare’s notable tragedy, Macbeth. Written in 1606, the Shakespearean play follows the life and troubles of a man seeking the throne of the Scotland. Through countless murders and withholding dangerous secrets, guilt starts to eat away at Macbeth’s conscience, which in turn drives him to insanity. Not only did his actions take a toll on his conscience, but it also started to affect his subconscious and his sleeping patterns, resulting in an extreme case of insomnia. However Macbeth is not the only character who falls ill to sleep ailments, his wife, Lady Macbeth, also suffers from sleep maladies such as Sleepwalking and Sleep
Talking.
Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism, is a parasomnia, or a disorder that involves atypical behavior of the nervous system while one is asleep.
It mainly entails unconscious arousal from sleep (Sleepwalking & Sleep Talking, par. 1). Sleepwalking commonly originates during the deep sleep cycle or the non-rapid eye movement stage. Although the sleepwalker looks to be awake and lucid, he or she remains in a deep sleep and typically will not remember the episode or anything that occurred during that time (Sleepwalking, par.1). There are many different factors that contribute to sleepwalking such as sleep deprivation, fatigue, and fever (Sleepwalking, par. 6). However, Lady Macbeth started experiencing sleepwalking episodes due to stress and anxiety. Lady Macbeth was a strong force that drove Macbeth to murder King Duncan in Act II, scene 2, and although Macbeth was the actual murderer, Lady Macbeth still ends up with the King’s blood on her hands. With both of their hands sullied with blood, Lady Macbeth comforts Macbeth saying, “A little water clears us of this deed” . Her sleepwalking incidences begin with her wandering about the castle under some sort of trance holding only a dimly lit candle. While her nurse describes these episodes to a doctor, Lady Macbeth suddenly enters a trance, murmuring about the slaughtering of Lady Macduff and Banquo (Macbeth, par. 1). While she sleepwalks, she is also seen to make hand motions that mirror the motions one makes when washing
hands. This parallels her remarks about only needing to wash her hands to cleanse herself of her crimes. From her sleep induced murmuring and her hand gestures, one can conclude that these episodes are a result of her guilt about the murder of her friends, and her anxiety and fear that someone will find out about her and her husband’s plots to have these people killed. Through Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare established something that many physicians of his time could not. He noted that sleepwalking is prevalent in adults as well as children. He also notes that motor activity that occurs when someone is sleepwalking mirrors that of recently performed activities in a conscious state (Sleep Disorders in the Macbeths, par. 3). A common symptom that accompanies sleepwalking is sleep talking. Formally referred to as somniloquy, sleep talking is a disorder that is described as speaking while one is asleep without being aware of it. It can involve verbose monologues, dialogues, or incomprehensible murmuring and because the sleep-talker is not aware of what they are saying, their voices and language make not be consistent with their speech when they are awake and lucid (Sleep talking, par. 1-2). Although sleep talking may be solely genetic in most cases, external factors like stress, depression, and fever or sleep deprivation can and stimulate the behavior (Sleep talking: Causes, par. 1). Despite this condition not being fatally harmful to the sleep talker, what is said during the episode can relate to a past experience that holds some sort of emotional impact for the sleep talker. As well as Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking episodes, she is also plagued with sleep talking. She is described to be murmuring about the many murders that she has taken part in on her husband’s quest for the throne. Although she puts up a façade about the killings not affecting her, she is actually quite shaken. This is seen in her sleep-induced monologues in act five of the play. On a few occasions, she is seen to be complaining about her hands being covered in blood even when they are clean. In a famous line from Macbeth, she cries out in anguish saying, “Out, damned spot, who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” . This exclamation starkly contradicts one of her previous lines saying that just a little bit of water will wash her and her husband clean of their treasonous crimes. Obviously her actions are beginning to take a toll on her conscience. From here on, she becomes completely overwhelmed with guilt and paranoia which eventually leads to her untimely death where she is believed to take her own life in hopes of escaping her remorse. Insomnia is a sleep disorder where one is unable to sleep well at night or to sleep at all. There are many environmental and internal factors that can cause Insomnia such as breathing problems when sleeping, sleep apnea, certain medical illnesses like heart failure, or medicinal side effects. However, it is a common symptom of a severe anxiety or depression illness as is with Macbeth. Studies show that the nine to twelve percent of Americans who suffer from Insomnia report that they experience severe fatigue, sleepiness, and have difficulty with concentrating and thinking. They also say that they feel as if they have been robbed of the many joys in life (Adult Sleep Disorders, par. 3-4). Based off this and in-depth observations of Macbeth, one can conclude that he is an insomniac. After Macbeth kills the king, he claims to have heard a voice saying, “Sleep no more. Macbeth does murder sleep” . This line explicitly foreshadows Macbeth’s impending inability to sleep. In the beginning stages of his Insomnia, he only loses a little bit of sleep. However, the guilt that is rooted in his heart starts to grow rapidly and fear begins to set in his mind causing him to make irrational decisions such as his conclusion to kill more people. After Macbeth has Banquo murdered, Macbeth hosts a dinner party for all the other thanes of Scotland. Once he settles down, he starts yelling at nothing in particular. In this scene, he is experiencing severe hallucinations due to acute anxiety and lack of sleep. Banquo’s murder marks the beginning of an extreme climax in Macbeth’s Insomnia. From the start, Macbeth shows explicit signs of not being comfortable with his crimes. In the beginning, he shows his clear understanding of what is right and wrong, yet he still decides to kill the king so that he may pursue the crown. However, one can see that he is unable to handle the psychic penalties of his actions (The Tragedy of Macbeth, par. 22).
A dominant motif in Macbeth is sleep because it symbolizes both death and peace of mind. This is relevant to both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in that they both lack sleep. This in turn physically manifests their lack of peace of mind which is a result of the guilt and fear they are experiencing because of their crimes. Shakespeare perfectly exemplifies several sleep disorders including sleepwalking, sleep talking and Insomnia. These disorders are the physical manifestation of their internal conflicts and both characters die an untimely yet expected death.