I have poked around the web, but cannot find the answer. I was watching cartoons with my daughter yesterday, and there was a scene with someone walking in their sleep. They had their arms raised in front of them in the universal “I am walking in my sleep” pose, sortof like the stereotypical Frankenstein monster way.
Since this doesn’t happen in real life (sleepwalkers walk like they do normally) I was wondering if anyone knew how this little urban legend started. Was it in a TV show, or movie? Hmmm… maybe the Frankenstein monster shuffle is how it started.
I am going to take a guess here that it started with actors who didn’t want to kill themselves. Stage and film actors portraying closed-eyed sleepwalkers would HAVE to hold their hands out like that so as not to bang into the walls or props, and it was just carried over into cartoons.
I know for sure this started before the Frankenstein movie. A woman sleepwalking in Nosferatu, 1922, walks this way.
As Eve pointed out, it probably started with actors who had to avoid bumping into things. Also, holding the arms out clues the audience in that the person is sleepwalking.
The funny thing is, when people really “sleepwalk” they have their eyes open. You may not be able to tell the person is asleep. I used to sleepwalk all the time. Once my parents didn’t realize I was asleep until I threw my pillow at them then wandered away.