Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-01-01
COMFORT DREAMS
BY H. Addington Bruce

N uncommonIy interesting book might
~ be written having as its theme those
experiences of sleep aptly termed by
psychologists comfort dreams. 1t would be
particularly interesting in that everybody
from time to time has comfort dreams of the
most varied kinds.
For all their variety they may be roughly
grouped in. two main divisions-comfort
dreams intended to console, and comfort
dreams intended merely to protect the sleep
er from an inconvenient awakening Con-
spicuous among the former are the comfort
dreams that come to many after some be-
reavement or other loss causing severe
emotional strain.
A much loved relative dies, and the grief
that results interferes profoundly with the
sleep so sorely needed. When sleep does
come however, it perhaps brings with it
dreams in which the dead relative is once
more alive, beautiful dreams that tend to
give peace Of mind.
And. not infrequently, they actually have
the effect of mitigating the grief though
the awakening reveals that they have been
but dreams, the memory of them fingers to
help create a mood of acceptance of the In
evitable, and thus to help the bereaved one
take up anew the daily tasks and meet the
daily responsibilities.
So, too the poor and handicapped, often
enjoy in comfort dreams the pleasures and
privileges denied them in waking life. The
blind see in comfort dreams, the deaf hear
the paralyzed walk. In comfort dreams the
timid may find themselves adventurously
courageous, the weak perform miracles OF
strength.
All comfort dreams like these rail- into the
first division, comfort dreams intended to
console. In the second dreams intended pr1-
marily to prevent an awakening, are dreams
which specifically would seem not to be
comfort dreams at all.
Thus a woman, falling asleep, dreams that
she is driving a pair of horses up steep hill
They are drawing an exceedingly heavy Wag-
on, and she notes particularly their heavlng
sides as they toll painfully to the summit.
Now this woman, without knowing 1T, is
suffering at the moment from an attack of
indigestion sufficient to interfere somewhat
with her breathing. Her dream is her inter
probation of the sensations she is experience
ing. By attributing them to something out
side herself, she gains a comforting reassur-
ance that saves her from the awakening GER
tain to follow if she had nightmare of her
self struggling breathessIy.
To be sure if the breathing sensations be-
came painful enough awakening would fol-
low despite the comfort dream. So with
comfort dreams arising from sensations, not
of internal but of external origin. On this
point passage from DR.. Ernest Jones mon
umental book, Papers on chO-AnalysIs,
is worth quoting.
Writing of the prevalence of comfort
dreams among residents Of London during
the air raids of the World war, DR.. Jones OBJ
serves:
Some of my patients proved extremely in
genious in converting the noisy stimulus Of
warning signals and barrage gunfre into re-
assuring dreams, avoiding the disagree
able necessity of waking, with its unpleasant
consequences of having to get up on a cold
night and take shelter, of fear, anxiety, and
so
zone typical feature of such dreams was
that in the earlier stages of the raid, when
the firing was more distant, the disturbing
formed into other imagery, while as it got
louder and louder the resemblance between
it and the imagery became more and more
evident-that is, the disguise less and
less perfect, until the noise great
that the person woke"
Some day, it may be, these and other
kinds of comfort dreams will be given ex-
haustive discussion in book devoted wholly
to them. For practical well theoretical
reasons they merit such discussion.
(CODyright 1927