sleepwakers

Noun

sleepwaker (plural sleepwakers)

1. (archaic) One in a state of magnetic or mesmeric sleep; someone in a hypnotic trance.
   • I once asked a sleepwaker whether she could perceive any analogy between animal and mineral magnetism, when she replied, ' There is an analogy — but the latter is of a coarser nature.'1842 March, Chauncy Hare Townshend, “Facts in Mesmerism, or Animal Magnetism”, in The New Jerusalem Magazine, volume 15, number 175, page 269
2. (obsolete, rare) A sleepwalker; one who walks in their sleep.
   • As I have before said, he had been, in shildhood, a natural sleepwaker; and I now add , on the testimony of his father, that he would sometimes rise in the night, take out his flute, ( an instru- ment which he was studying professionally,) place music before him, and play from notes, continuing to...1840, Chauncy Hare Townshend, Facts in Mesmerism, page 236