Night Terrors

[yrrab]

The night terrors experienced by Michael Llewellyn Davis seem to have occasioned very little remark from others on this site yet I consider them to be pertinent both to his personality and to his fears, particularly water,and I wonder whether they were ever fully investigated.Many people who suffer in this way also sleep walk did Michael I wonder ? And did he pull out of these tendencies as he grew up, or did they continue into adult life, unresolved, which would be unusual.? My own belief is that they were an aspect of his own spirit, possibly a negative aspect, to some extent activated by his mothers death and centred upon his subconscious fear of being overwhelmed. This fear was to some extent alleviated by Barrie possibly using auto suggestion, but how much control this subsequently gave him over Michael has to be speculation. Has anyone any ideas ?

[andrew]

Very interesting analysis, and I'm sure you're right. Take a look at Michael's last poem, written on Eilean Shona, ending "...but the mists were round him."  Also make sure you check out Barrie's letters to Rupert Buxton's mother, which are somewhere on this site (check the database) ... oh, and yes - Michael indeed walked in his sleep - see the beginning of episode 3 of "The Lost Boys" !!!

[Hannah High]

This part of the story has always fascinated me too. And I agree with what you said, "My own belief is that they were an aspect of his own spirit, possibly a negative aspect, to some extent activated by his mothers death and centred upon his subconscious fear of being overwhelmed." … I don't have a copy of The Lost Boys script at the moment, but I was always so moved in that last car ride in episode 2 with Sylvia's voice over about her sons, and coming to Michael she didn't want him to be pushed to work so hard. I admired that in her, it's so easy to belittle a person either way (overwhelming or with low expectations), but she seemed sensitive and respecting to how he was made up (in nature and life experience).

[Rosalind Ridley]

The Peter Pan stories contain many descriptions of parasomnias – unusual experiences associated with sleep. These include lucid dreams (including, of course, dreaming of flying) sleep paralysis (being unable to move on waking), hypnagogic hallucinations (weird experiences when falling asleep) and cataplexy (falling down as if asleep during the daytime). These are neurological (rather than psychiatric) peculiarities although poor sleep associated with psychological stress may make these occurrences more frequent. Most of these conditions were not identified clinically until after Barrie’s death so it is more than likely that Barrie knew about them because he experienced them himself. He always complained of poor sleep. Barrie clearly regarded these experiences as important and says of Peter’s dreams ‘They had to do, I think, with the riddle of his existence’ (Peter and Wendy). Michael Llewelyn Davies suffered from night terrors and sleep walking (both parasomnias) and this may have contributed to Barrie’s empathy with Michael. (Michael was ‘the one’). The parasomnias described by Barrie are explained in detail in ‘Peter Pan and the Mind of J.M Barrie. An Exploration of Cognition and Consciousness’  ISBN 978-1-4438-9107-3