Psychoanalysis

le influence on our thinking. They lead us to consider certain

inship between sleep and death. Expressions like "eternal sleep" show by the frequency

point of view: if sleep is a form of death, the psychic phenomena connected with it are boun

sleep thinking something mysterious and mystical. The scientist, o

be expected from any one who associates in a

es place, the two ferments of the body, pepsin and trypsin, break up insoluble food molecules into soluble acid molecules which

nables the two ferments to digest the body of disintegrating ea

tion is observable

of view, sleep i

mal form of life than th

he body and insure the continuance of the race should dominate the organism, being checke

nd gastric juice flow, slow down the heart beats, decr

mouth, stop the gastric activities, increase the heart beats, rais

ull sway. In sleep, our pupils are contracted. Even when they hav

trary notwithstanding. Infants and animals generally go to sleep as soon as they finish feeding. Animals d

as great in sleep as in waking life;

greatly reduced, and certain authors have concluded that sleep was charact

r instance by compressing the carotid arteries of the neck for a minute or so. Sl

he appearance of sleep. In dogs whose skulls have been trephined for purposes of

the normal organism, the blood pressure should be low, rising only in emergencies

n during sleep. Our sympathetic nerves are on the watch and even if the subject does not wake up, they rush the bl

before sleep sets in and only reaches its minimum an hour after sleep has begun. Then it increases gradually an

at the amount of air inspired and consequently of oxygen assimilated is low

ase being about sixteen per cent. But that condition is not due to sl

quantity of carbonic acid eliminated by the sleeper; the quantity varies from sev

waking life, which is also a vagotonic symptom and is also due to

we notice in the activity of the kidneys. (More urine is produced on

re in sleep is simply a resul

ts, however, are of a neurotic origin and constitute a form of escape from reality. When

r when the subjects were allowed to resume their natural life and to sleep. The increase was solely due to the fact that during the experiments, the subjects were relieved of their du

the many motions performed by every sleeper, turning from side to side, drawing or pushing away the

n their chairs. Many animals, birds, bats, horses, sleep in positions which make muscular relaxation impossible; when their balance is disturbed

od to all parts of the body, our glands secrete various chemicals; we hear, smell and to a certain extent, see. The lowering of our eyelids is simply a

he will awaken from a dream. He may not be able to tell that dream but he will know for s

oes sleep differ

form of our me

on sleep, stated: the resting time of consciousness. We do not

oncentrated all night on certain stimuli indicating time, distant chimes, activities taking place at a definite hour, and which we had noticed unconsciously, although they may have escaped our conscious attention. It has even been suggested that as respiration and p

em, but that the slightest motion of their infant will awaken them. Many nurses not only can wake up at regular intervals to administer a

follows the same curve as that followed b

c currents of varying voltage were used to stimulate the subject, etc. All experiments have yielded the same results: Sleep reaches its lowest depth during the first two or three hours, the average time being shorter du

life, the only essential difference we can establish scientifically being a greate

are forms of abnormal waking life in which attention is wit

regressing to the level of the unborn child, and withdraw even more entirely from reality than the sleeper who, wi