Abstract
I HAVE read with much interest Dr. Atkin's letter in NATURE of January 27, and also Mr. Barcroft's letter in the issue of October 23, 1919 (vol. 104, p. 154) to which he refers. My own observations, made in various degrees of semi-consciousness, appear to show that there is no such thing as a definite time relation, as it depends entirely on the degree of consciousness, the time scale being enormously shortened in the semi-conscious state most remote from wakefulness, so that the images produced by the mind must succeed one another with extraordinary rapidity when in that state. As wakefulness increases, the time scale seems to expand, and the succession of events proceeds more and more slowly, until it practically stops or becomes normal as wakefulness resumes absolute control. I have been led to believe that the mind is always active—just like the heart always pulsates—whether we are asleep or awake, and that control and memory are the features of our waking condition, so that we do not remember the images it calls forth, except when we are beginning to awaken, and the degree of activity of our memory in our dreams and the extent of the dream memorised merely depend on the rapidity with which we reach wakefulness.
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DE BRAY, M. Time Relations in a Dream. Nature 111, 361 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/111361a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/111361a0
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