A Treatise on the Incubus, or Night-Mare, Disturbed Sleep, Terrific Dreams and Nocturnal Visions

In this early‑nineteenth‑century medical essay a Royal Navy surgeon turns a careful eye toward the unsettling phenomenon of night‑mares and other nocturnal visions. Drawing on observations of patients whose sleep was disturbed just before feverish outbreaks, he argues that troubled rest can signal deeper imbalances in the digestive and biliary systems. The author also surveys the longer history of the condition, noting how writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries understood its causes and attempted cures.

Beyond scholarly discussion, the work offers a personal account of living with the affliction from childhood and details the practical routines that have kept the author’s own episodes at bay. He compiles advice drawn from both antiquarian sources and his own experience, presenting clear steps that readers of the period might have tried to restore peaceful slumber. The treatise blends scientific observation with everyday remedies, offering a window into early ideas about the link between sleep, health, and disease.