WHAT SOLDIERS DREAM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1374, 16 March 1915, Page 4

WHAT SOLDIERS DREAM.

Short of somnambulism, the dread of losing contact with their fellows seems to be lelt with extreme frequency, and horror of isolation constitutes the commonest nightmare of men in the first fighting line. They dream that they are wandering through endless trenches as complicated as an artificial maze, or are picking their way through lonesome forests, whence all but they have fled.

The slightest noise during sleep calls up visions of exploding shells or the tramp of armed men, throwing them into a frenzy of shouting terror, to the indignation of their resting fellows. Oddly enough, these men are as brave as the rest in face of real danger. Several men have had dreams centring in the inability to witbdiaw the bayonet Irom the enemy’s body when urgently required for self defence. Numerous instances of “traumatic hysteria” are met with, in which men suddenly develop the characteristic paralysis aud disturbances of sensation. In one case there was marked limitation of the field of vision and inability to connect letters into words. The man could read the letters, but could not pronounce the word when spelled nor write the word when pronounced. Insomnia and more or less troublesome restlessness are also common consequences of the strain on the nervous system of actual warfare.