4i 6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



may become revived and variously interpreted to the consciousness. 

 Predormitial sensations, thoughts and movements are thus capable of 

 inducing multiplication and diverse auto-interpretation. Dreams grow 

 luxuriantly when the state is one of partial wakefulness. The influ- 

 ences of the day are then woven into fanciful pictures more or less 

 reflecting actual life. 



If sleep be profound the imagination is no longer dominated by 

 actualities and there arises the phenomenon of a special world, that of 

 dreams. Mental activity is really physical activity; hence we may 

 experience consequential fatigue. At the bottom of the emotion may 

 be found a subjective excitation of the peripheral nervous apparatus. 

 This form of reflected life constitutes the basis of dreaming, the 

 imagination, hallucinations, the realm of fancy. Dreams have their 

 origin in those parts of the organism most active in the waking state, 

 in eyes, ears, the tactile, temperature and muscular sense. The same 

 obtains as to hallucinations in the insane. A very deep sleep does not 

 permit of dreams, or the waking memory can not recall them, whereas 

 in very light sleep dreams are frequent and can be remembered. 



Dreams are more numerous and picturesque among intellectual 

 people, and during certain exhaustive states, and less among those of 

 lower mentality. The more primitive, young and intellectual the per- 

 son, the more illogical, disjointed and elementary are the dreams. In 

 old age, and profound depressive states, dreams are most rare; they 

 serve many useful purposes. To the physician certain features of 

 dreams possess a valuable significance. They exercise a salutary influ- 

 ence upon otherwise unused areas of the brain and permit the excur- 

 sions, or, may be, formation, of the faculty of imagination (Manaciene). 

 They act as a defense against the monotonies and trivialties of real 

 life, for without them we should grow old much more rapidly (Novalis). 

 Many writers, poets, scientists, philosophers, musicians, etc., testify 

 to the value of dreams in piecing out their concepts, idealizations, 

 weaving a woof of imagination invaluable to the completed thought. 



It will be seen that the regulation of impaired sleep reaches back 

 to causes most varied. Some are slight and superficial; others are 

 due to deep-seated derangements or lesions, beginning or established. 

 In practise, however, certain plain simple procedures usually suffice 

 to bring about happy results. Beyond what these can accomplish, 

 skilled medical aid should be sought and a careful search made for 

 definite disorders, and systematic measures instituted to remove them 

 consonant with the difficulties encountered. It is well to remember 

 that the causes of wakefulness may be highly complex; slight factors 

 often acting with equal forcefulness with those which theoretically 

 should be greatest. 



We are concerned in our efforts to regulate the resting period of 



