Could you ask that more clearly? Do you mean: 1. What is it like to shoot a bow and arrow. 2. What is it like to sleepwalk?
Lothgar grips his polished English longbow firmly in his left hand, as he holds it out in front of his torso. Reaching down by his right side, the thumb, index and middle fingertips lightly grasp the feathered end of the wooden arrow that is sticking upright in the soil beside of him. With an ever so gentle pluck, the arrow frees itself from the grip of the earth, as Lothgar raises the shaft up to the bow. With a skilled hand, he notches the arrow and draws the bowstring back, his muscles flex and strain against the natural strength of the longbow, forcing the arrow back to his cheek. The English oak bow creaks in protest as the leathery sinew of the bowstring pops and crackles under the enormous stress and pressure required to draw such a marvelous weapon back to his full potential. The bowstring painfully bites into the fleshy parts of Lothgar's index and middle fingertips. Lothgar's arm muscles bulge, with his thick veins extending up as his arms begin to tremble from the tremendous force required to hold the bow ready. Silently, he mentally evaluates his target...range...distance...crosswinds...and elevates his aim to allow for the estimated arch and drop of the arrow. Finally, he releases the arrow with a loud pronounced cracking SNAP of the bowstring. The shaft streaks from the longbow with lightning speed, launching high into the afternoon sky. The arrow gently floats over the high arch and begins to fall back earthward, plunging from the sky with deadly force. Lothgar's brown eyes narrow, as he gazes upon the apple poised atop the fence post, waiting patiently to receive his arrow. The arrow streaks in with blinding speed, soaring over the apple and disappearing behind a hedge. "CRAP!" snorts the disgruntled Lothgar, reaching for another arrow. From behind the shrubt, the foppish emissary from the merchant's guild pokes his head up above the edge of the hedge, Lothgar's arrow neatly piercing his oversized turban. "LOTHGAR! YOU IMBECILE!!!"
Hey! Good job. I was thinking that no one ever describes the muscles in use and how your arm shakes and that competes with aiming, so very nice.
Lothgar's explanation is certainly an eloquent way to explain shooting a bow and arrow, but it does somewhat depend on what type of bow. While his explanation is certainly true for a longbow it isn't completely true for a compound bow. When shooting a compound bow you are drawing back less weight and holding much less than that. Remember that to draw a bow you are using the muscles in your shoulders and back to actually do the drawing, so those are the ones you will feel moving under your skin and straining under the weight of the draw. Can't help you with sleepwalking, but I suspect you don't notice you are doing it.
As someone who used to sleepwalk growing up, it's only vaguely associated with the dream. Most of the time, I would just wake up standing somewhere, like at the door to my room or in the hallway. At one point, my parents said I was trying to get out the back door in my sleep. (I remembered none of that.) I only remember sleepwalking as part of two dreams. The first I was wandering around the house, wondering why I was bumping into invisible walls. I decided to smash my head into one, forcing it through. (This is my dream after all.) Needless to say, I woke up in the hallway with a headache! The other example I have is rather embarrassing, but if you sleepwalk and you're going to the bathroom at night...make sure you're awake before you start to go. Hope this helps! Sorry I didn't put it into character like the archers out there, my lousy explanations will have to do.
Not sure if this is too late, but I have used bow and arrows exactly twice. The first time, nobody explained to me (or my compatriots) how exactly they worked, so we just grabbed an arrow, inserted the string into the notch at the end, pulled back on the arrow with thumb and forefinger, aimed in the general direction of the target and let fly. I think one of us hit. The second time around, I got a reasonably good explanation, and managed to hit bullseye once, close to it three times, and twice I missed completely. The target was only about 10 m away, so this is not that much of a feat. Not sure if you have any experience aiming things, but there are some similarities with guns. I lined up the arrow with the target - with my eye looking exactly along the top of the arrow - and then aimed above it to compensate for the fall (a bit tricky this, I guess it takes a little experience in either shooting things or physics - lucky me, I have both ). Drawing a modern light bow requires only a little strength, but some bows would require a lot of strength to draw properly. The most frequent cause of missing with a bow and arrow is also the same as missing with a gun - a slight but rapid and uncontrolled movement of the hand at the instant of "shooting" which causes the shot to go off course.
Keyword in sleepwalk is sleep. Since you are asleep and not consciously aware of walking, you won't remember it. Some people look half awake while walking around. Other people look like they are completely awake when they really aren't.
As someone who used to sleepwalk, the experience is: the next morning, someone tells you you were sleepwalking. That's it. I could never even remember having had any sort of dream on nights when I sleepwalked. (This held true even when, I am told, I got into heated arguments about whether I was sleepwalking or not. Apparently, when I sleepwalk, I get incredibly indignant and angry at anyone who tries to tell me that I'm asleep. I have to take their word for it, I've never remembered anything.) One exception: Once, while living alone, a sound woke me up while I was sleepwalking. It was the spookiest thing ever, because after I realized I was awake but had been dreaming, it took me about 10 minutes to figure out where the "dream" had ended, and the "real life" had begun. The two had blended seamlessly together. Having a very clear memory of the past hour, with no idea how much of it was real vs how much of it was imagination went beyond disconcerting to downright disturbing.
Did not even think modern bow. I have an older comp bow, you pull back and at some point it breaks and isn't hard to hold in place for a short term. Older bows- you rest the arrow on your finger, more recently there is a shelf for the arrow. Horse bow; unique shooting experience in itself. I use to sleepwalk have no memory of any of it, and had no dreams to speak of. My daughter sleep walks when really tired, she usually tries to talk but can't get a full sentence out or at least not one that makes since. Other then not speaking right she appears awake at least in the light of a night light. One time she did get turned around and walked into a wall. One of the nice things about a general question, in answering it you might peak an interest for someone else.
Well for sleepwalking, you don't recognize it, but when you are sleepwalking, if someone tells you to do something, like picking something off the ground when its not there, you will reach down and act like you are picking it up when nothing is there. I have sleep walked once, I got out of my room, walked into the living room, my mom was awake and she asked, "What are you doing" and apparently I answered "I dont know..." Then I just sort of sat there, then got up and went back into my bed. I didn't know I did this, until my mom told me the next day.
Bows and arrows: As with firing a gun it helps to hold your breath when aiming. Some styles or archery, types of bow, you just as much push the bow away from the body as you pull the string back. Sleepwalking: The medical name for sleepwalking is a beautiful word: somnambulism. Your state of consciousness can vary from not remembering it at all to fully recollecting what you did. I used to do it a lot as a small child and have had a couple of episodes as an adult. The most recent: I had gone and got myself a hot drink and gone straight back to bed and pieced it together by seeing the untouched hot chocolate there in the morning. I still don't remember making the drink but other people were there that told me what I had done. I remember saying hi to one person in the kitchen and I had trouble remembering when exactly that had happened. I had a sense in the morning that I had not slept well and asked if I had been sleep walking. The people that spoke with me said I appeared quite conscious but a little confused and sleepy.
