OUR DREAMS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXI, Issue 3167, 15 June 1931, Page 2

OUR DREAMS.

People w&o are good dreamers live longer than those who rarely dream. There Is much support for the statement that "the dream is the guardian of sleep." We do not often dream of things which have been worrying us during the day. Thus, we awake refreshed and are properly prepared for further work.

. The reason is that the anxious concentration of thought on this particu iar material has exhausted that part of our mental make-up concerned with it. and at night it sinks into a complete state of repose.

Dreams play an unsuspectedly pow erful role in nearly everyone's life. To the child the dream is a sheer delight. It is the nearest approach 10 an exciting fairy story that be ev«?i experiences.

It frequently happens, however, that dreams that create fear —particularly dreams about wild animals —trouble nervous boys and girls up to the age of eight or nine years. After that age they rarely occur with healthy children, unless the dreamer has had an unpleasant experience with some particular animal such, for example, as that of having been attacked by a badtempered dog. Nightmares—which are very different from ordinary dreams—are generally the effect of some illness which has been accompanied by a high temperature. Or they may result from taking a let of indigestible food just before going to bed. They often occur after Christmas parties. The conditions under which sleeping takes place undoubtedly affect the nature of the dream. Children in lnsti tutions, where the life of one child is* practically the same as that of an; other, have dreams which are very similar.

It is well known that criminal*dream far more when they are io prison than when they are free. Arctic explorers, living together for u Icdg time and seeing no one else, have dreams which are very much alike, it thus appears to be generally true that the surroundings of the sleeper have a marked effect on the dream.

If the morning sun shines on the sleeper it frequently affects the dream and produces the effect of being In surroundings in which brilliant light plays a prominent part; sometimes associated with feelings of great joyousness. Hot-water bottles applied to the feet have produced the effect of the sleeper dreaming that he was. walking on hot lava in volcanic regions. An interesting case is recorded of a man who, in early life, used a particu lar perfume. In later life, when he wished to have dreams of his childhood, he told his servant to put a few drops of the perfume on his pillow before he woke up in the morning. Then ne would almost invariably dream of the period with which that particular perfume was associated. Loud sounds in the street have also been known to produce dreams of thunderstorms and so on. Experiments whlrh have been carried out successfully clearly prove that it is possible to influence dreams to a very considerable extent by external means.

When we are dreaming, we are in a world of our own. But in the waking state we are under the influence of the family and the social group of which we are members.

The dream is an indication of our real character. In it, all social inequalities disappear. It is only when we wake up that we cease to be our real selves.

Sixty per cent, of our dreams are of a visual nature. Dreams increase with the variety and activity of the intellectual life. They begin in babyhood, and careful observers say that dreaming reaches its greatest intensity between the ages of twenty and tw%nty-flve years. Women, dream more than men of the same age.

If it is wished to get behind the scenes and. reach what is known as the sub-conscious, which plays such ao important part in the dream, and is in control of so many of our vital activities, the period between waking and sleep—that ' half-conscious state —Is the time when the best results can be obtained.

The well-known formula, "Day by day in every way I am better and better," repeated many times Just before falling off to sleep had, it was claimed, a remarkable effect on the improvement of the health of the person using it