Lack Of Sleep In Macbeth

“How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams,” -- Bram Stoker. Here, the ones who sleep are the unburdened, the secure, perhaps even the innocent. So what about those who can’t sleep? What does that make them? The suffering, the guilty?

Shakespeare’s Macbeth follows the rise and fall of tragic hero, Macbeth, as his desires and efforts to become king ruin not only those around him, but destroy him in the end as well. In Macbeth, both the titular protagonist Macbeth and his wife and co-conspirator Lady Macbeth are unable to sleep as their actions progress within the play. It seems to be a punishment to them for their murder and plotting

Macbeth does murder sleep’ -- the innocent sleep,” (2.2.33-34).

After that, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are no longer able to sleep properly, and express their misery from that lack of sleep shortly after sending the Murderers after Banquo. “Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep in the affliction of these terrible dreams that shake us nightly. Better be with the dead… than on the torture of the mind to lie in restless ecstasy,” (3.2.19-24). Macbeth even envies the eternal “sleep” he put Duncan in: “After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well… nothing can touch him further,” (3.2.25-28)

While we don’t get much about Macbeth’s insomnia after that point, we do see the turmoil he may be feeling through Lady Macbeth’s suffering. She sleepwalks and sleeptalks, wandering as she speaks to herself about the murder of Duncan and trying to rub his blood off of her hands. The doctor, before he sees her, calls sleepwalking “a great perturbation in nature,” (5.1.8), and afterward says: “Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles. Infected minds to their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.” Her immoral, unnatural actions, lead to her unnatural punishment, her “infection” - the inability to sleep peacefully. Had she been innocent, she would not be suffering like this. Later, she