462 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



moment or in the act of awaking. There are dreams which take place 

 in the process of returning to consciousness for example, those instan- 

 taneous scenes and spectacles which are suggested by the sound or 

 feeling that rouses the dreamer ; but, in result of a long and close study 

 of the subject with a view to discover the nature of dreams, and the 

 laws of dreaming, for medical purposes, in connection with the treat- 

 ment of sleeplessness, I am persuaded that dreams occur in the course 

 of sleep and are wholly forgotten. 



That they do not and can not take place in deep sleep is probable, 

 because deep sleep is general sleep, and when this state prevails the 

 subordinate faculties are sleeping, and the pictures and records which 

 compose dreams are not disturbed. To understand dreams we must 

 understand sleep, and it is because the two phenomena have not hith- 

 erto been studied together that so little is generally known about 

 either. 



Sleep is a function or state in which the particular part of the 

 organism sleeping rests : whether it is wholly inactive depends on the 

 degree of rest it enjoys. Every part of the organism sleeps, and the 

 totality of the sleep-state depends on the fact of all the important parts 

 sleeping at the same time. If some remain awake perhaps busy with 

 an unfinished task, or setting about one which the will has foolishly im- 

 posed on one of the lower faculties before itself going to sleep, or, it 

 may be, too worried to take natural rest then the unrest of the busy 

 or distressed faculty or faculties will render the sleep as a whole incom- 

 plete, and the repose of the actually sleeping faculties disturbed. Nat- 

 ural sleep is simultaneous sleep of all the faculties of body and mind ; 

 and the secret of sleeping soundly and restfully consists in so ordering 

 the life that the higher intellectual powers, the powers of automatic 

 activity, the senses, the muscular system, and the viscera principally 

 the stomach may all be ready and able to sleep at the same time. 

 This can only be accomplished by making the act of sleep a thing done 

 periodically, with that rhythmical regularity which Nature loves and 

 on which the smooth working of the machinery of life depends. When 

 sleep is natural, in the sense of being complete, dreaming is, as we 

 have said, improbable, if not impossible ; and the measure of dreaming 

 is therefore inversely the measure of the integrity of the sleep en- 

 joyed. A great dreamer can not be in good health, or, to use a familiar 

 expression, he " can not have all his wits about him " when he is awake. 

 Every faculty by which I mean, every part of the organism which 

 performs a distinct function must sleep ; and, if it be healthy, it will 

 sleep at regularly recurring periods. It follows that a dreamer who is 

 not unhealthy a vara avis must have formed the habit of allowing 

 his faculties to sleep separately ; some being on duty, or watching, 

 while others rest. As a matter of fact, most persons form, this habit 

 to some extent, and therefore the majority dream. For example, the 

 man who works with his brain often takes little muscular exercise, and 



