Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-10-25
INTERESTING FACTS
ABOUT DREAMS

Dreams are important TO health, not
merely as a means of diagnosis for
the psychoanalyst who finds in the
visions of the night symptoms of ner-
yous and other disorders; dreams are
causes of maladies, meaning, as they
do, broken sleep, an interference with
natures nocturnal repair of the body
fatigue Dr. Edwin F. Bowers writes
in the New York Medical Journal:
Our objective or reasoning mind
being asleep. the subconscious mind
takes the reins and jumps the sleeper
generally mixed with some ply
steal sensation that touches the thing
off
For. instance, the slipping down OF
the blankets may start an Arctic ex-
ploration expedition. Or even such
trivial accident as our poking a couple
of toes from under the covers on a
cold night may produce dreadfully
embarrassing dream, in which we try
to slip unobserved through the crowd
on the corner of AID street and Fifth
avenue dressed in a costume that
would make decollete look like being
wrapped in feather beds.
Perhaps every one, is familiar with
the distressing dreams produced by
some dietetic indiscretion-the "mince
pie or midnight lobster" dream. 1t
surely is a realistic and thrilling eX-
perience while it lasts, like the drunk
ardss o,,Ioo.y Of dalir;,,,,, tra,,,apc. sNn,,
amt been nowhere and you Amt seen
nuthin' till you've had the snakes
"Yet that little old man with the hid
eous fanged mouth, who hoped up on
your chest and proceeded to grow big
ger and bigger and heavier and heav-
fort you succeeded in unhorsing him,
was only gas. The notwithstanding
stomach was pushing away for dear
life on the diaphragm, COMPRISING
the lungs with all the strength of fer
mentative desperation.
1.-The night terrors of children fire.
quently have a physical cause also,
They may originate in 'mouth-breath-
ing and in the defects of circulation
which this brings about
1.-THE falling from a height dream
also has a physical basis-for scien-
falling nightmare invariably occurs
during the first forty-five seconds after
falling asleep. 1t is suggested by the
general muscular relaxation that takes
place when we settle down to sleep. A
change in position of even the frac-
ton of an inch, or the least little slip
of the muscles, or any sudden noise
that might suggest slipping or falling
is sufficient to convey the idea of fall
to the brain.
"The inherited instincts of fear and
the tendency of the mind to translate
any unusual sound or motion into
terms of danger suggest what is prob
ably one of the most frequent of all
causes of night terrors. This is a
creaky bed-a bed that rattles,
squeaks, means, groans or protests
audibly or by sagging, or by any other
unusual motion-when a sleeper hap
pens to move or turn in his sleep. The
very faintest sound or the slightest
motion is heard or felt by the subcon-
scious mind Like a fash it manu-
features its dream to fit this particn-
lar soul-shock. And it repeats the pro-
cess possibly hundreds of times a
night in response to every unusual
move or sound. This, | am convinced
is one frequent cause for nightmare,
as well as for light, disturbed sleep,
and even for insomnia.
Therefore, rigid, absolutely noise
less bed all to ones self, for double
bed is an unhygienic abomination
that is rapidly becoming extinct, will,
in my opinion, do more to Danish
nightmare than a whole pocketful of
pills"
RIGHT OR RUNG?