sleepwaker

From sleep +‎ waker.

sleepwaker (plural sleepwakers)

1. (archaic) One in a state of magnetic or mesmeric sleep; someone in a hypnotic trance.
   • 1842 March, Chauncy Hare Townshend, “Facts in Mesmerism, or Animal Magnetism”, in The New Jerusalem Magazine, volume 15, number 175, page 269:

     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.'

   • 1845 March 29, Charles Radclyffe Hall, “On the Rise, Progress, and Mysteries of Mesmerism”, in The Lancet, volume 1, page 234:

     Another sleepwaker informed her magnetiser that if he would breathe upon his hand, and then lay it on her forehead, his power would be increased.

   • 1877, Clairvoyancy, Mind-reading, Psychomancy, and Soul-charming, page 39:

     A lady present when Mademoiselle M——had been mesmerized by me, went up to the sleepwaker and spoke to her for some time.

2. (rare, obsolete) A sleepwalker; one who walks in their sleep.
   • 1840, Chauncy Hare Townshend, Facts in Mesmerism, page 236:

     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 turn over the leaves of the music-book correctly, although his eyes were closely shut.

   • 1860, Karl Freiherr von Reichenbach, Somnambulism and Cramp, page 238:

     He begins to speak, arises from his bed, walks about, and now becomes a sleepwaker.

   • 1965, Science Digest, volume 58, page 37:

     In addition, about 4 million Americans are occasional or habitual sleepwakers.

• sleepwalker