350 BC
ON SLEEP AND SLEEPLESSNESS
by Aristotle
translated by J. I. Beare
1
WITH regard to sleep and waking, we must consider what they are:
whether they are peculiar to soul or to body, or common to both; and
if common, to what part of soul or body they appertain: further,
from what cause it arises that they are attributes of animals, and
whether all animals share in them both, or some partake of the one
only, others of the other only, or some partake of neither and some of
both.
Further, in addition to these questions, we must also inquire what
the dream is, and from what cause sleepers sometimes dream, and
sometimes do not; or whether the truth is that sleepers always dream
but do not always remember (their dream); and if this occurs, what its
explanation is.
Again, [we must inquire] whether it is possible or not to foresee
the future (in dreams), and if it be possible, in what manner;
further, whether, supposing it possible, it extends only to things
to be accomplished by the agency of Man, or to those also of which the
cause lies in supra-human agency, and which result from the workings
of Nature, or of Spontaneity.
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