“The Wonderful Spectacles[1]” by Anna Kingsford
I was walking alone on the sea-shore. The day was singularly clear and sunny. Inland lay the most beautiful landscape ever seen; and far off were ranges of tall hills, the highest peaks of which were white with glittering snows. Along the sands by the sea came towards me a man dressed as a postman. He gave me a letter. It was from you.
It ran thus:
"I have got hold of the earliest and most precious book in existence. It was written before the world began. The text is easy enough to read; but the notes, which are abundant and numerous, are in such minute and obscure characters that I cannot make them out. I want you to get for me the spectacles which Swedenborg used to wear; not the smaller pair - those he gave to Hans Christian Andersen - but the large pair, and these seem to have got mislaid. I think they are Spinoza's make. You know he was an optical-glass maker by profession, and the best we have ever had. See if you can get them for me.
"When I looked up after reading this letter, I saw the postman hastening away across the sands, and I cried out to him," Stop! how am I to send the answer? Will you not wait for it?"
He looked around, stopped, and came back to me.
"I have the answer here," he said, tapping his letter bag, "and I shall deliver it immediately."
"How can you have the answer before I have written it?" I asked. "You are making a mistake".
"No", he said. "In the city from which I come, the replies are all written at the office, and sent out with the letters themselves. Your reply is in my bag".
"Let me see it", I said. He took another letter from his wallet and gave it to me. I opened it, and read, in my own handwriting, this answer, addressed to you:
"The spectacles you want can be bought in London. But you will not be able to use them at once, for they have not been worn for many years, and they sadly want cleaning. This you will not be able to do yourself in London, because it is too dark there to see well, and because your fingers are not small enough to clean them properly. Bring them here to me, and I will do it for you.”
I gave this letter back to the postman. He smiled and nodded at me; I then perceived to my astonishment that he wore a camel-hair tunic around his waist. I had been on the point of addressing him - I know not why - as Hermes. But I now saw that he must be John the Baptist; and in my fright at having spoken with so great a saint, I awoke.
[1] Spectacles - glasses
“Why do we dream” by Jason Ellis
Although science knows what dreams are, it is still not known exactly why we dream, although plenty of theories exist.
Dreams are patterns of sensory information that occur when the brain is in a resting state - as in asleep. It is generally assumed that dreams only occur during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep - this is when the brain appears to be in an active state but the individual is asleep and in a state of paralysis. But studies have shown that they can also happen outside of REM.
Research from sleep studies, for example, shows that REM-related dreams tend to be more fantastical, more colourful and vivid whereas non-REM dreams are more concrete and usually characterised in black and white. Recent studies on dreaming show that during a dream (and in particular a REM-related dream) the emotional centre of the brain is highly active whereas the logical rational centre of the brain is slowed. This can help explain why these dreams are more emotive and surreal.
Evolutionary theory suggests the purpose of dreams is to learn, in a safe way, how to deal with challenging or threatening situations. Whereas the "memory consolidation" theory suggests that dreams are a byproduct of reorganising memory in response to what has been learned throughout the day.
Both theories have at least one thing in common - during times of stress and anxiety we either dream more or remember our dreams more often, as a way of coping with challenging circumstances and new information. This is also in line with another theory of dreaming, the mood regulatory function of dreams theory, where the function of dreams is to problem-solve emotional issues.
While there is no evidence that we dream more when we are stressed, research shows we are more likely to remember our dreams because our sleep is poorer and we tend to wake in the night more frequently.
Studies show the dreams of people with insomnia (a disorder largely characterised by stress) contain more negative emotions and are more focused on the self, in a negative light. Also, the dreams of people with insomnia tend to focus on current life stressors, anxieties and can leave an individual with a low mood the following day.
Outside of insomnia, research has found that people who are depressed, while going through a divorce, appear to dream differently compared to those who are not depressed. They rate their dreams as more unpleasant. Interestingly though, the study found that those depressed volunteers who dreamt of their ex-spouse were more likely to have recovered from their depression a year later compared to those that did not dream of their ex-spouse. Participants whose dreams changed over time, to become less angry and more pragmatic, also showed the greatest improvements.