Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-03-22
SLEEP AND DREAMS.


Some statistics in the study of Sleep and
Its Interesting Phenomena.
Mr.. f. Heerwagcn, of the Univer-
sity of Dorpat, Russia, has recently
undertaken the statistical study Of
sleep and dreams. He drew up q
searching set of questions, calculated
by their answers to bring out the ex-
perience of various kinds of the peo-
pie in the matter of sleep. OF this cir
cular he distributed 500 copies From
the 400 answers received the author
obtains certain interesting results.
Only Is persons stated that they
rarely or never dream; PIG persons
were accustomed TO have vivid dreams.
About one-half of the persons returned
answers stating that they could re-
member their dreams clearly upon
awakening. The other half failed to
have such memory. 1t appears that
70 per cent. of those who dream fire.
quently are women. OF the answers
Isl were from students and 1873 from
other males. Fifty per cent. of the
students were frequent dreamers; of
the other men only AS.
Another result of this inquiry is that
with the increase of age dreams be-
come less frequent and sleep is lighter.
Dreams are most frequent with people
I between 20 and 25 years of age.
The questions concerning sleep af-
ford some interesting answers. Two
hundred and sixty-one of the persons
state that they sleep through the night
without awakening; 166 report that
they sleep so soundly that it is diff
cult for others to awaken them, while
202 state that they are light sleepers;
103 can go to sleep in the daytime
when they desire to, and 294 have not
this power.
The third division of questions con-
cerned the conditions of mental labor
In the case of persons to whom the
questions were sent (all belonging to
the intellectual class, 1S2 of the per-
sons answering stated that mental
labor was easiest to them in the fore
noon; 1873 preferred the evening and
night. To the question whether the
correspondent suffered with headache
or nervousness, the affirmative answer
was returned in 210 cases; 1876 were
seldom SO afflicted, and only Is stated
that they were exempt from such NAL
adies
IL Is plcaSdllJ 10 record lleSc DeSlu-
nings in the study of sleep phenom-
ena. Cultivated men are Just awak-
ening to a sense of the importance of
the laws of sleep, an Importance which
is due, not only to the connection of
these laws with psychic phenomena,
but to their economic aspect as well.
The ability of men and women to
grow to their full powers, and to
maintain the activities which the
world demands of them depends in an
intimate way on the nature of the con-
ditions in their minds and bodies dur
ing the restorative period of sleep.
Speaking generally, good sleep means
good work, and now that the attention
of inquirels is turned to this night
time of life, we may hope to have a
better understanding of the means and
a better practice in the pursuit of this
refrcshment. 1t would be very
profitable work for some Psychologist
to determine the ratio which, exists in
the case of various men, between ca
pacity. for labor and the power to
sleep. 1t seems as if the experiment
would not be very difficult one to
undertake, and in results would be of
very great importance. Boston Her.
aid.