Sleep and Its Derangements

by William A. Hammond

Another dreamed one night that a man dressed in black and wearing a black mask came to him and struck him violently on the leg. He experienced no pain, however, and the man continued to beat him. In the morning he felt nothing, with the exception of a slight headache. Nothing unusual was observed about the leg, and all went on well, until on the fifth day he had an apoplectic attack, accompanied with hemiplegia, including the leg which he had in his dream imagined to have been struck.

A lady, aged forty, who had been a great sufferer from rheumatism for many years, dreamt one afternoon, while sitting in her chair in front of the fire, that a boy threw a stone at her, which, striking her on the face, inflicted a very severe injury. The next day violent inflammation of the tissues around the facial nerve as it emerges from the stylo mastoid foramen set in, and paralysis of the nerve followed, due to effusion of serum, thickening, and consequent pressure.

A young lady dreamt that she was seized by robbers and compelled to swallow melted lead. In the morning she felt as well as usual, but toward the middle of the day was attacked with severe tonsillitis.

A young man informed me that a day or two before being attacked with acute meningitis, he had dreamed that he was seized by banditti while traveling in Spain, and that they had taken his hair out by the roots, causing him great pain.

A lady of decided good sense had an epileptic seizure, which was preceded by a singular dream. She had gone to bed feeling somewhat fatigued with the labors of the day, which had consisted in attending three or four morning receptions, winding up with a dinner party. She had scarcely fallen asleep, when she dreamed that an old man clothed in black approached her, holding an iron crown of great weight in his hands. As he came nearer, she perceived that it was her father, who had been dead several years, but whose features she distinctly recollected. Holding the crown at arm’s length, he said: “My daughter, during my lifetime I was forced to wear this crown; death relieved me of the burden, but it now descends to you.” Saying which, he placed the crown on her head and disappeared gradually from her sight. Immediately she felt a great weight and an intense feeling of constriction in her head. To add to her distress, she imagined that the rim of the crown was studded on the inside with sharp points which wounded her forehead, so that the blood streamed down her face. She awoke with agitation, excited, but felt nothing uncomfortable. Looking at the clock on the mantle-piece, she found that she had been in bed exactly thirty-five minutes. She returned to bed and soon fell asleep, but was again awakened by a similar dream. This time the apparition reproached her for not being willing to wear the crown. She had been in bed this last time over three hours before awaking. Again she fell asleep, and again at broad daylight she was awakened by a like dream.

She now got up, took a bath, and proceeded to dress herself with her maid’s assistance. Recalling the particulars of her dream, she recollected that she had heard her father say one day, that in his youth, while being in England, his native country, he had been subject to epileptic convulsions consequent on a fall from a tree, and that he had been cured by having the operation of trephining performed by a distinguished London surgeon.

Though by no means superstitious, the dreams made a deep impression upon her, and her sister, entering the room at the time, she proceeded to detail them to her. While thus engaged, she suddenly gave a loud scream, became unconscious, and fell upon the floor in a true epileptic convulsion. This paroxysm was not a very severe one. It was followed in about a week by another; and, strange to say, this was preceded as the other by a dream of her father placing an iron crown on her head and of pain being thereby produced. Since then several months have elapsed, and she has had no other attack, owing to the influence of the bromide of potassium which she continues to take.

In the case of a gentleman now under my treatment for epilepsy, the fits are invariably preceded by dreams of difficulties of the head, such as decapitation, hanging, perforation with an auger, etc.

A lady, previous to an attack of sciatica, dreamed that she had caught her foot in a spring-trap, and that before she could be freed it was necessary to amputate the member. The operation was performed; but as she was released, a large dog sprang at her and fastened his teeth in her thigh. She screamed aloud and awoke in her terror. Nothing unusual was perceived about the leg; but, on getting up in the morning, there was slight pain along the course of the sciatic nerve, and this before evening was developed into well-marked sciatica.

Insanity is frequently preceded by frightful dreams, and I have advanced several examples to this effect from the experience of others. We should naturally expect that very often the first manifestations of a diseased brain should appear during sleep. But dreams are of such a varied character, and so thoroughly irreconcilable with the normal mental phenomena of the wakeful state, that it is difficult to say that such or such a dream is evidence of a diseased mind. As, in some of the cases I have brought forward, a dream may take so firm a hold of the reason as to be the exciting cause of insanity, and not simply a sign of its approach, I am disposed, from my own experience, to regard the frequent repetition of the same dream as often indicative of a disordered mind, when very close observation would fail to reveal other evidences. There are, however, exceptions to this statement, as has been shown in the previous chapter.