The Assurance of a Sleepwalker

Zainab Aderounmu

June 30, 2026

“To move with the assurance of a sleepwalker.” I first heard those words from the Neurophysicist, David Dosu, who described himself as an assured sleepwalker. In his March 1936 speech, Adolf Hitler declared to his audience, “I go the way that Providence dictates with the assurance of a sleepwalker.” Hitler believed in his own greatness and his choice of action that nothing deterred him from forging ahead, even when he wasn’t always right. 

What does it mean to move with the assurance of a sleepwalker? Imagine a somnambulist who gets up to perform complex activities, walking and even eating, while in a deep state of sleep. They might bump their heads a few times, brush it off and keep moving. I’ll never forget one time I had a friend sleep over, and my unopened Milo tin was halved by the next morning. When I questioned her, she denied eating it but casually mentioned she might have ‘sleep-eaten’ half a tin of Milo. The award-winning Physicist and AI scientist described it as hitting a few rough patches on his journey to greatness, and quickly picking himself up. Dosu doesn’t understand the concept of embarrassment, which I find intriguing.

The maxim, ‘Embarrassment is the price for mastery, ’ has been repeated by so many people that the original author is hard to pin down. But, I’ll attribute it to Stephen Bartlett because that’s from whom I heard it first. I have experienced the idea that embarrassment is an under-exploited emotion. Repeating a positive embarrassment-inducing action quickly produces mastery and unshakable self-confidence. Take language learning, for instance. Learning a new language and speaking it as a beginner can be very embarrassing, but repetition and consistency quickly make you proficient. 

Many times, we have allowed the illusion of ‘what would people say” stop us from pursuing the things that make us happy. I call it an illusion because people are quite preoccupied with their lives, and even when they do have something to say, which they often do, it’s fleeting. Imagine if David Dosu had allowed his career crush’s snide comment “you need to learn to speak better English” stop him from applying to CERN or from starting Idalia Africa; we wouldn’t have a Nigerian who worked at a world-class scientific research organisation, or someone trying to multiply that impact. Imagine if I allowed my colleague’s “debate isn’t for everyone’ stop me from learning how, I wouldn’t be where or who I am today. 

Our parents’ generation was, and still are, very obsessed with what people would say, and they hated the feeling of embarrassment. They wanted to be prim and proper at all times, but a ‘prim and proper’ person rarely pursues their craziest ideas. A prim and proper person may prefer to drift through life, doing only the things acceptable to the world and the people around him. Having the assurance of a sleepwalker isn’t an easy task. It requires an almost-insane level of personal conviction. You may not always be completely free of conscious doubt, but knowing that whether or not you win, you’ll surely learn, helps. 

After all, Thomas Edison didn’t fail 1000 times; he simply found 1000 ways not to create a light bulb, before discovering the one way that actually worked.

About Author

Zainab Aderounmu A. W.

Zainab ADEROUNMU A. W. is a First Class graduate of English Language and the Overall Best Graduating Student from the Lagos State University, Lagos Nigeria. She’s a professional Master of Ceremonies, known as The Hijabi Compere , a public speaking coach and Communications Professional. She is currently a Youth advisor to the European Union where she doubles as the Spokesperson and Head of Communications & PR for the Youth Sounding Board.