Nature of Dreams.—Many persons attach more importance to dreams than is either wise or proper. These may be suggested by habitual lines of thought or by recent events that have made a strong impression upon the mind. Or they may be caused by re flex action in various parts of the body, as indigestion may cause night mare. Some persons fear the effects of bad dreams on bodily, and others on mental or moral, grounds. Others, again, believe that the mind is most active during sleep and may suggest wiser courses of conduct than during its waking hours. Both of these sup positions are probably equally wide of the mark.
It may be doubted whether there is such a thing as a dreamless sleep. On awaking, a sleeper may remember only a portion of his dream and as sume that his sleep was dreamless, because the remainder of it has been forgotten. On the whole, dreaming may be regarded as a normal condi tion of sleep and dismissed with the least possible conscious attention.
Sleeplessness.—The common opinion that sleep is the result of fatigue is not exactly correct. On the other hand, sleep itself may give rise to drowsiness, or persons may feel drowsy without being either physically or men tally fatigued. Extreme exhaustion is a common cause of sleeplessness. All these facts probably come within the personal experience of everyone.
When not produced by pain or im mediate stress of anxiety, grief, or other acute mental disturbances, sleep lessness usually arises from overwork ing the nerves. The cure of sleepless ness depends, of course, upon its cause. If due to nervousness (neurasthenia), the nature of that complaint must be taken into account. Nervousness is a disease of brain workers, and especial ly, according to physicians, of school teachers. While it is a very depress ing and trying condition, it has one characteristic that may or may not commend itself to those who are acutely suffering from it. It rarely, if ever, kills anyone. On the contrary, it is distinctly a curable disease. The best general idea of this condition is expressed in a figure of speech attrib uted to the celebrated Dr. Graeme Hammond, a specialist in nervous dis eases. Dr. Hammond compared the condition of a nervous patient to that of a common electric battery which is used in connection with a push button to ring doorbells. Sometimes when
one pushes the button the bell fails to ring. On investigation the wires may be found to be in perfect condition and properly connected, but the bat tery has become exhausted so that the electric current no longer flows over the wires. Similarly, it would seem as though the body generates a current of vital energy which flows over the nerves, and that mental work of all sorts exhausts this vital fluid more quickly than does physical work. The result would seem to be that while the nerves themselves may be in perfect condition, they are temporarily as helpless to execute the mandates of the will as the electric wire is inca pable of performing its functions when the battery which supplies it is worn out.
Those who have suffered from this complaint will note that while in its early stages they may begin the day's work in a perfectly normal condition, a time comes before nightfall when the nervous energy appears to be ex hausted. Now is the moment, ac cording to Dr. Hammond, for good judgment to step in. Stop work imme diately and take things easy the rest of the day and evening, retiring as early as possible. If this is not done, if, on the contrary, the wires or nerves are used after the " electricity " or nervous energy has been exhausted, one or both of two results may hap pen: either the " battery, or that function of the body which generates the vital nervous energy, becomes over worked and permanently or tempo rarily exhausted, or the nerves them selves may be affected and subject to various forms of degeneration, either temporarily or permanently, and both of these conditions may be accom panied by insomnia. Hence sleepless ness is not always a simple condition to be treated in various ways when it happens, but most often is a symptom of nervous exhaustion which is incur able by simple remedies, but may be prevented by avoiding overexertion, especially toward the latter part of the day.
Sleep is so necessary that it per son suffering from insomnia is often tempted to use sleeping powders of all sorts, which usually contain opium dis guised under various scientific or fan ciful titles. This is a serious mistake, the evil effects of which cannot be too strongly emphasized.