Abstract
IN a letter in NATURE of March 17, 1923, Mr. Gheury de Bray described some observations on time relations in a dream. He mentioned that hypnopompic (or hypnostrophic) images “are generally landscapes passing slowly before one's closed eyes, when in an almost awake condition … and having one's full reasoning powers while the illusion proceeds”. It seemed “that the speed of succession of the images is an inverse function of the degree of wakefulness”. A recent experience would tend to confirm these observations. A succession of faintly coloured landscape images was followed by a less ephemeral and apparently more vivid landscape, while there intruded, at first faintly, then more distinctly, sounds which became identified as knocking on the door. In the dream, the image (a well-known landscape) appeared as if the observer were in a vertical position. But after (? during) the disturbing sounds, an awareness of the actual (i.e. horizontal) position of the observer resulted in a conformable orientation of the image. As the observer was lying on his right side, the image seemed to have rotated 90° to the right, and thus the same relative position of observer and image, and also the continuity of the dream, were apparently preserved until completion of the wakening process.
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KENNETH, J. Spatial Relations in a Dream. Nature 118, 194 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118194b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118194b0
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