Covid – it’s a nightmare
In Times 2 – the lifestyle and features section of the newspaper – last Monday a retired Harvard Professor Robert Sindgold wrote on nightmares caused by Covid anxiety.
His conclusion was that though frequent these were nothing to fear. It was the brain working through the night processing stuff.
I contest this conclusion.
In fact in my view the brain may be working but differently when the body is not so the normal cognitive functions of censorship and thought selection are on hold.
Years ago the great French philosopher and essayist Montaigne wrote of the jumble of random thoughts that comprise a dream.
Even today there are those who meticulously log their dreams for divination and construction.
Piffle!
The Professor was dismissive of Freud a specialist in dream analysis as he belonged to a different era.
Now I defer to my Great Uncle Gus, possibly the cleverest person I met in my lifetime. Every notable work of literature, philosophy, music , art was not just known by him but brilliantly appraised.
His special subject was Freud and he observed that given his analysis of the sexual impulse he would have been an acute observer of modem day sexual mores which incidentally the Murdoch Tabloid Press have long exploited to sell newspapers.
The Professor is right to say that the spring for a nightmare is anxiety.
Often these do go back in time to early loss of teeth, exams etc. but not always. A couple of nights ago I had a nightmare in which I had an argument with a gay couple who own pubs locally.
I always had – and still do – a warm relationship with this couple but I do not see them or have much contact with them given the lockdown.
Many of my colleagues on the Rust do not sleep well.
I know of one who habitually retires at 8 pm wakes in the early hours and works though the night. He is doing what my late father – a wise doctor – would have advised, namely not to worry about abnormal sleep patterns and work round them.
My father’s brother once complained of poor sleep to my father and he advised him to rest in bed calmly to refresh himself.
He was cynical that insomniacs actually do not sleep at all. He said when observed they do.
Sleep is a profitable industry for the medical profession.
There is a condition called sleep apnea which is associated with snoring and caused by cessation of breathing.
Sounds scary but it’s not.
I knew of one sufferer and it went away by losing weight. Obesity is a much greater threat and causer of medical problems.
My random poll of my Rust colleagues on nightmares produced some interesting comments.
Alice Mansfield referred to the connection between dreams and Surrealist art especially in Salvador Dali’s work; Neil Rosen cited Dr Caligari’s Cabinet and Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound as two excellent dream-induced films; Michael Stuart praised the dream like melodies of Claude Debussy.
In conclusion in my view dreams are important but not worth the worry.
