A monograph on sleep and dream: their physiology and psychology

by Edward W. Cox

Nor is “sleep walking” the only exhibition of Somnambulism; it is but one stage of it. Somnambulism often occurs without action of any limb, for it is a mental and not a muscular condition. But, inasmuch as the uninformed spectator notes only the instances of “sleep walking,” the much more numerous cases of somnambulism occurring with the patient at rest are unnoticed.

To this cause, then, may many of the reported phenomena of dream be assigned. It would be beyond the scope of this monograph to treat at any length of the manifold phenomena of Somnambulism, but some of them will certainly explain cases of dream apparently not to be accounted for, as all facts and phenomena may be, if rightly investigated, by reference to natural causes, without invoking the assistance of the supernatural. Somnambulism proves the presence of two abnormal mental conditions, namely, supersensuous perception and mental sympathy. The former is the name given to a faculty the mind has, under certain conditions, of perception beyond the range of the senses (whatever the modus operandi may be). The other refers to a special form of sympathy of thoughts and emotions of one sensitive mind with other minds having a certain relationship with it.

Many of the authentic cases of cognizance of the distant in dream may be thus accounted for. The sleeper has lapsed into somnambulism, is then, in fact, a somnambulist and not a dreamer. Possessing the abnormal development of the perceptive sense which is so familiar a fact in natural somnambulism, the mind has perceptions beyond the range of the senses and is susceptible of sympathies with other minds which the bodily senses cannot convey.

That such mental conditions exist is proved conclusively by the numberless cases of natural somnambulism recorded in the medical journals of all countries and which are indeed familiar to every reader because of their frequent occurrence in common life.

Dream is not merely a reproduction in new combinations of impressions made upon the mind unconsciously as well as consciously, forgotten as well as remembered. The fact must also be taken into account that in dream mental action is vastly increased and the flow of ideas so accelerated that if life be measured, as it should be, by the number of ideas that are presented by the mind, the life of dream is vastly longer than waking life. If the ideas that would occupy many waking hours are compressed into a sleep of one hour, the whole dream-life must have presented to the mind infinitely more ideas than the whole waking life. The wonder would be if, of this vast multitude, many were not found to be coincident with events of actual occurrence afterwards. A further explanation of dreams that appear to convey information from some external intelligence, or to be prophetic, will be found in this—that many things impress themselves upon the mind when we are not giving attention to them and, therefore, unconsciously to ourselves. We thus lose some of the links of association which, if they had been perceived, would have shown us the connection between the dream and the incidents to which the dream related and which, if we had known, would have stripped the coincidence of its marvellousness. Yet a further explanation will be found in the exaltation of the mental faculties in dream, which enables us often to perceive, more clearly than in our waking state, ideas and chains of ideas and to think about them more correctly than is practicable in waking life, when the influx of external impressions represses to some extent the independent action of the mental faculties.

There is a popular belief that in sleep the Soul sometimes quits the body and personally visits the scenes and persons of the dream which, in truth, is not all a dream. This is nothing more than a poetical fancy. There is no evidence of such journeying. The proof of it would be if the dreamer could tell us of actual occurrences passing elsewhere at the moment of his dream. There is, indeed, abundant evidence of mental communion in sleep, suggesting a dream that has relation to that distant person; but there is no satisfactory evidence of a positive perception of an event then passing far off. It is remarkable, indeed, that dreams to which this solution has been applied usually refer to something that is to be, or that has been, and not to events actually happening at the moment and which alone could be positively conclusively proved by reference to the persons whose sayings and doings are seen, heard and reported. The same remark applies to this as to prophecies generally. Why do they not tell us of something that is doing far away, or something that has been done in the distant past and therefore capable of verification? Surely the power that could prophesy the future, the dreaming that foreshadows what is to be, could, with vastly more ease, tell us what has been done or what is being done elsewhere at the moment of its exercise! Why is so simple a test invariably avoided?

Sympathetic dreams admit of another explanation. Two persons dream the same dream at the same time. They may be in the same room, in the same house, or far apart. The two dreams are not always identical in their details, but the main incident is substantially the same in both. The instances of this are too many to be accidental coincidences. The explanation is to be found in that mental sympathy the existence of which cannot be doubted by any person who investigates psychological phenomena. The limit to which that sympathy extends is not yet measured. We know only that it is not bounded by the narrow range of the senses. Perhaps it is a purely psychic faculty. If it be, we know as yet so little of the nature and powers of the Soul that it would be vain to speculate in what manner the operation is performed. But of this we may be assured, that, whatever the capacity of the Soul when we are waking and the external world is, as it were, pressing in upon us at all sides and occupying the whole mind, those powers are vastly extended when the material mechanism is at rest and the sleepless Soul alone is busy. If there be, under any conditions, communication between minds without the intervention of the senses, we may reasonably conclude that these would be greatly facilitated in the time of sleep, when the Soul is less subjected to the restraints of that mechanism by means of which it communicates with the material—that is to say, the molecular—world in which the present stage of its evolution is to be passed.

The proofs are many that dreams may be suggested by the influence of other minds in unconscious communication with the sleeper. If the finger be placed upon the head where, according to the phrenologists, is the seat of the mental faculty of mirth, a smile will be seen soon to steal upon the sleeping face. Touch in like manner the asserted seats of combativeness or destructiveness, the features assume an aspect of excitement which will be removed by touching the asserted seat of benevolence. The explanation of this phenomenon is that the brain thus excited to action suggests or moulds a dream in accordance with the emotion thus denoted. This fact has been advanced by the phrenologists as proof that they have rightly mapped out the brain. But such is not the necessary conclusion from the fact. It may well be that it is the mind, and not the finger, of the waking operator that directs the mental action of the unconscious sleeper. The waking Will possibly controls the sleeping Will. We know that it does so in Somnambulism and it is probable that it does the like in ordinary sleep.

But, explain it as we may, the fact remains.

Direct suggestion of dream by external causes is less disputable. So sensitive is the mind in sleep, when relieved from the thronging impressions of the senses, that impressions so slight as to be wholly unnoticed in our waking state are doubtless perceptible and operate as suggestions when we are asleep. A slight touch or sound often serves to change the entire character and direction of a dream, the mere sound giving rise to the train of new ideas thus suggested, because it is uncontrolled by the Will. The surest method of banishing an unpleasant dream is to turn in the bed. Continuance in the same posture and with the same pressure of blood within and of the pillow without upon the same part of the brain seems to preserve the action of the dream, which is disturbed at once by directing the flow of blood and the pressure to another part of the brain. If a sleeper is seen to be agitated in his sleep by painful dream, exhibited in moaning, restlessness and expression of distress upon the countenance, remedy may be found in gently moving the head into another position, if the body cannot be moved and it is not desired to waken.