Diseases > Philosophy of sleep

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Sleep is the intermediate state between wakeful¬
ness and death: w akefulness being regarded as the
active state of all the animal and intellectual func¬
tions, and death as that of their total suspension.
Sleep exists in two states; in the complete and
incomplete. The former is characterized by a tor¬
por of the various organs which compose the brain,
and by that of the external senses and voluntary
motion. Incomplete sleep, or dreaming, is the
active state of one or more of the cerebral organs,
while the remainder are in repose: the senses and
the volition being either suspended or in action
according to the circumstances of the case. Com¬
plete sleep is a temporary metaphysical death,