f the too-active
brain. From the nature of his dream--as shown by chance words
overheard--we may sometimes gather hints to help us to find where the
elements of unrest in his daily life lie. Sleep-walking is only a
further stage in this same disorder of sleep, in which the dream has
become so vivid that it is translated into motor action.

If a child begins to suffer from active sleeplessness we must not make
the mistake of urging him to sleep. He is no more capable than we are
ourselves of achieving sleep by an effort of will power. To urge him
to sleep is likely to cause him to keep awake because we direct his
attention to the difficulty and make him fear that sleep will not
come. If he understands that all that he needs is rest, he will
probably fall asleep without further trouble.

Day-dreams also may become abnormal, and tell of an unduly nervous
temperament. Any one who watches a little child at play will realise
the strength of his power of imagination. The story of Red Riding Hood
told by the nursery fire excites in the mind of the child an
unquestioning belief which is never granted in later life to the most
elaborate efforts of the theatre. All this imaginative force is
natural for the child. It becomes abnormal only when things seen and
acts performed in imagination are so vivid as to produce the
impression of actual occurrences, and when the child is so under the
sway of his day-dreams that he fails to realise the difference between
pretence and reality. Imagination which keeps in touch with reality by
means of books and dolls and toys is natural enough. Not so
imagination which leads to communion with unseen familiars or to acts
of violence due to the organisation of "conspiracies" or "robber
bands" amongst schoolboys.

If evidence of abnormal imagination appears, the child must be kept in
close touch with reality. We must give him interesting and rational
occupation, such as drawing, painting, the making of collections of
all sorts, gardening, manual work, and so forth. In older children we
must especially supervise the reading.

In many nervous children we find a faulty contact with environment, so
that instead of becoming interested in the thousand-and-one happenings
of everyday life and experiences, they become introspective and
self-conscious. As a result, sensations of all sorts, which are
commonly insufficient to arouse the conscious mind, attract attention
and, rising into consciousness, occupy