The philosophy of sleep / [Robert Macnish].

  • Macnish, Robert, 1802-1837.
Date:
1834
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The philosophy of sleep / [Robert Macnish]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    dream that we are conversing with some one, the organ of Language is in such a high state of ac- tivity as to rouse the muscles of speech, we are sure to talk. It often happens, however, that the cerebral parts, though sufficiently active to make us dream that we are speaking, are not excited so muchas to make us actually speak. We only sup- pose we are carrying on a conversation, while, in reality, we are completely silent. ‘To produce sleep-talking, therefore, the brain, in some of its functions, must be so much awake as to put into action the voluntary muscles by which speech is produced. The conversation in this state, is of such sub- jects as our thoughts are most immediately occu- pied with ; and its consistency or incongruity de- pends upon that of the prevailing ideas — being sometimes perfectly rational and coherent ; at other times, full of absurdity. The voice is seldom the same as in the waking state. This I would im- pute to the organs of hearing being mostly dor- mant, and consequently unable to guide the mo- frequent and earnest parenthetical declarations “that she does not mean what she says; that though she vows vengeance and showers imprecations on her medical attendant, she loves him, and feels grateful for his kindness and forbearance ; and that, though anxious to evince her gratitude and obedience by silence, she is constrained by an invisible agency to speak.” In the other case, the individual speaks constantly: “sleep itself does not yield an intermission ; and there is strong reason to believe that a part, at least, of his waking orations is delivered either without the cogni- zance of the other powers, or without consciousness on the part of the speaker.”