DREAM MYSTERIES.

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17746, 25 June 1929, Page 10

DREAM MYSTERIES.

SLEEPERS WHO WALK.

80ME STRANGE INSTANCES. What is the cause of sleep-walking —that strange state in which the dreamer proceeds to put his dream into practice? A mental specialist, in an article in an English journal, writes on the subject as follows: — The thoughts uppermost in the person's mind the previous day often ■have a bearing on sleep-walking. Thus, a girl at school, worrying over her lessons, got up in the night and looked for her books. A lad of eight fond of a new rocking horse, rose in his sleep, went into the nursery and mounted it. The motion awoke him, and he was much astonished to find himself thus engaged. What is in the mind just prior to sleep may provoke the act.

A lady, on going to bed, took with j her a magazine she knew her brother j was wishing to read. She read it in j her bedroom for some time before she j went to sleep. In the course of the | night, she got up, went to her bro- j ther’s room, and laid it on his bed. i In the morning she had no recollec- | tion of having done so. ! In sensitive minds a great desiremay cause intellectual work to be ! done in sleep. A good instance of! this occurred in a girl whose father had lately died in debt. The mother, having given up her country house, sent her daughter to a day school, telling her she must profit to the uttermost by the teaching she could so ill afford to give her. These words j made such an impression that the girl i took her school books up to bed with 1 her, intending to learn her task early j next day. On waking up and apply- j ing her mind to her lessons, she was I astonished to And ever}- morning that she had learned them already! Learning While Sleeping. This was a great source of puzzlement until the girl’s mother happened to go into her daughter’s room late one night and saw her seated at the window in her nightdress laboriously studying her books while in a sound sleep. She was trying, to the best of her ability, to obey her mother’s wish “to profit to the uttermost by the instruction given her.” The acts performed in these dream states may be much more complicated. A clergyman, who xvas a sleepwalker, one night in the middle of winter dreamed that he was walking on the bank of a river and saw a child fall into the'water. The severity of the cold did not hinder, him from hurrying to the rescue. The sleep-walker threw himself full length on the bed, and imitated all his movements. ■ Feeling some of the bed clothes, which had gathered in a heap on one corner of the bed, he believed this to be the child, and, grasping it with one hand, with the other went went through the motions of swimming back to the bank of the supposed river. There the clergyman laid down his burden and came out shivering and chattering his teeth as if he were really getting out of an icy river. Asking for brandy, he drank it with pleasure and spoke of the great relief it afforded him. Notwithstanding all these -incidents, he did not wake. Shawl Wrapped Round Candlestick. 'lt can be seen, then, that the actions of a sleep walker can often be understood only when the dream is remembered on waking. One girl always dreamt that the room was full of boiling water and she was tiding to escape from it.- Another found herself out of bed, and In the morning discovered she had wrapped a large shawl carefully round the candlestick which was on the chair bv the bedside. The explanation was that she had dreamt that she had saved a shipwrecked sailor for whom the candlestick had done duty. Though it Is true that in the majority of instances no harm comes to the sleep-walker, occasionally serious and even fatal accidents do occur. Much more rarely, a sleeper ma} attack another person. Cases are even on record of persons attempting suicide during sleepwalking. In one remarkable Instance a lady tried to kill herself while in her doctor’s presence. This patient, when awake, was dejected, not without domestic reasons, but never endeavoured to harm herself except n Most sleep-walking occurs In children, and It is then that the tendency, if possible, should be nipped in the bud. There should be no delay In the attempt to disoover the cause of tho mental uneasiness, which commonly will be found to have its source in some unpleasant experience. To prevent anything of this sort, parents from the outset of their children’s lives should guard them from undue emotional shocks, and so train them that they do not become morbidly self-centred. There is no need to worry about isolated instances of sleep-walking unless there are at the same time other signs of nervous disturbances. ’ Drastic Attempts at Cure.

Years ago, when sleep-walking was much less understood than it is now, somewhat drastic attempts at cures were made. One schoolmaster used to pour a bucket of cold water over any boy whom he found wandering about In this way. Then, a young girl Is said to have been cured by being well whipped on the spot. Such measures, however, may ho provocative of much harm, and should never he used. On tho whole, control at homo is quite simple. If possible, a sleepwalker should have someone slocping in tho same room. Some people advocate tho placing of a strip of oilcloth beside the bed, with the idea that tho cold touch may awaken the dreamer stepping upon It, Tho window and door should bo so fixed that they cannot be opened except to a small degree, thus allowing no one to pass out. If seen, the sleep-walker should be gently led hack to bed, In all probability’ he will not wake. And any abrupt speech should be avoided, as it is naturally startling to bo suddenly aroused. No mechanical restraint interfering with tho sleeper’s movements should on any account be used.