In many cases the characters and incidents figuring in nightmare seem absurd. However, they are not as absurd as they seem to be. Analysis will show that the dream figures and incidents are identifiable with waking experiences, in which we include thoughts. As before stated, all our experiences, our thoughts are conserved in the mind. However secret, new or old, re pulsive or agreeable, even thought of for but a moment, all our thoughts are preserved. In the unconscious mind they are card-catalogued, placed in their proper niches. Thoughts that have a similarity, which appear related to one another are available in a moment. If we once thought of a certain person as a monkey, our dream might make use of this thought and a monkey might pursue us, talking or acting like a human being; or it might have its own head on a human body; it shows traits of its own along with traits of the human it was identified with. The point is that the characters figuring in nightmare are usually composites of our thoughts. Usually we will be unable to recall having noted any similarity between the various creatures of which the dream-character is a composite, but the unconscious mind never forgets.

The treatment of nightmare has run the gamut of medical science. It has been recommended that the head be scarified, the ankles bled, male peony and many other things taken. The advice given long ago by Robert Burton in his famous Anatomy of Melancholy is still made use of by many: "Against fearful and troublesome dreams, Incubus, and such inconveniences, wherewith melancholy men are molested, the best remedy is to eat a light supper, and of such meats as are easy of digestion, no hare, venison, etc., not to lie on his back, not to meditate or think in the day-time of any terrible objects, or especially talk of them before he goes to bed."

Since disturbed states of the body may predispose to unquiet dreams, one who is aware of a physical disturbance should seek its correction. Also, if personal experience shows that certain foods or combinations of foods, especially when eaten near bed-time, cause sleep disturbances such should, of course, be avoided. As before stated, an occasional nightmare is of no moment; it is frequent attacks that require attention. When attacks are frequent and attention to diet and the usual medicinal agents fail, we are quite safe in attributing the disorder to mental rather than physical sources.

At this point it may be well to call the reader's attention to the fact that because one's troubles are said to be mental this does not by any means imply that the individual is insane or apt to be. There are countless troubles, due to disturbing thoughts, which will never cause insanity. Between the so-called nervous person, who worries, who has countless fears of which he is ashamed and of which he tells no one, and the insane person there is a very great difference. If we read the lives of the great persons past and present, we will find that many of them suffered from strange fears or idiosyncrasies, and yet they were able to continue their work and make the world better for their having lived. The fear of insanity is the lot of practically every nervous person, but there is no reason for it. There is little danger of the nervous individual becoming insane: in fact, with proper treatment, the chances of being restored to perfect health, mental and physical, are greater than the development of insanity.

When nightmare is frequent prevention of sleeping on the back may be useful as a palliative measure. This may be done by wearing a knotted band of cloth about the abdomen, so fixed that the knot presses lightly on the lower spine. Or a hard substance, as a baseball, may be sewed in the. cloth, and applied in the same way.

The best advice, however, is that the individual consult a competent medical psychologist so that the experience which is responsible for the trouble may be discovered. Medical psychologists have several methods by which these forgotten experiences may be brought to light, and in many cases all that is necessary for the cure is the bringing of the experience to consciousness. Once the individual understands the nature of the experience or mental conflict, it is not apt to trouble him further, or understanding it he will know, or will be instructed in, the means by which recurrence may be avoided.

In another place mention has been made of a motor paralysis following sleep. This is sometimes called partial nightmare. The senses are awake but the ability to move or talk is abeyant. Generally there is no knowledge of an unpleasant dream. When the person finds his power of motion gone he usually becomes frightened, which causes palpitation of the heart and other fear reactions. Though seconds seem minutes, the power to move is restored in a short time. The condition is generally due to fatigue or a run-down physical condition. A shake or jar will, as a rule, bring the person out of an attack. If the person affected in this way pays no attention to it when it is upon him, or regards it indifferently, the ability to move will be restored more quickly and fear reactions will be absent.