Sleeping and Dreamers In Old Time Radio Collection

Along with respiration, nutrition, and exercise, sleep is one of the things that the human body needs for proper health. The time the body and brain spend sleeping allows recovery from the stresses of the day. Although most of the body's systems slow and the sleeper's perception of outside stimuli is greatly reduced, it would be a mistake to think of sleep as a time of inactivity.

Modern medical studies show that when the human body sleeps, it uses nearly as much energy as it does while awakened. This energy is expended in digestion, respiration, and by the muscles as they recover from the stresses of the day. One of the biggest energy users is the sleeping brain. In addition to monitoring the sleeping body, keeping it alive, functioning, and recovering from stress, the brain uses the sleep periods to slip into a dream state. The function of dreaming is not completely understood and many have tried to interpret the meaning of dreams. What is known is that dreams can open us to a world that is both false and more real than the one we live in during our waking hours.

• One of mankind's oldest dreams has been to fly like the birds. Adventures in Research explores the dreams and the experiments of French sea captain Jean-Marie le Bris and the Lilienthal Brothers.
• Tommy, a sickly boy from the East finds he is living the dream when he is sent out West to live on a ranch in Arizona. A tall, strong cowboy he met on the train takes Tommy under his wing on Marvin Miller's Armchair Adventures.
• Strange things are going down at the country club on Author's Playhouse. There is a new arrival, a statuesque blonde with a tattoo of a fish on her thigh. Not only is the mysterious Mrs. Maxwell suitably aloof, but George has had a dream that he is chasing her across the tenth green, which is driving his wife crazy in "Mad Dream".
• Dagwood's constant napping begins to pay off when he discovers that his dreams can predict the future in "Blondie's Beautiful Dreamer". Could this be anything but trouble for the gang on Blondie?
• Captain Midnight and his young friend Chuck know that they have to get Bud Connelly to a hospital soon or he will surely die. There is no way to take off, even in a lightened plane with just Chuck at the controls unless the wind shifts. While they are waiting, the Captain shares his dreams or starting an airline after Chuck finishes flight school.
• When we are deep in the world of sleep, we are much closer to the land of magic. This is no secret to Chandu the Magician, which makes it even more important for him to enter the forbidden cave to wake the sleeper within when Dorothy finds that Betty and Bob are under a sleeping spell.
• Bring on Cloud Nine is another term for dreaming, and our hero finds a man who can take him there. In this episode, Cloud Nine happens to take him to Paris where he meets Mimi.
• Not all dreams are happy ones. Some are too frightening to contemplate. On Crime Classics, the President has a terrible dream in April 1865, as we examine "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln".
• On Crime Club, a reporter's girlfriend is awakened from her sleep by two gunshots. After the reporter drives back to the house through a blizzard, they discover only one bullet hole in the wall. Where could the other shot have gone?
• Millie wins sixty thousand dollars and a movie contract with a two week trip to Hollywood in a radio contest. The only problem is that she is supposed to get married next weekend. Looking at the statistics, her boyfriend knows this cannot turn out well on Curtain Time's presentation of "The Snoring Sleep Walker".
• Emperor Napoleon has "Dreams of Empire" on Diamond Dramas, but fulfilling them means he must cast aside his beloved Josephine. How can he bear to make the choice?
• A week after the big floods in River's End, Doctor Christian and his nurse Judy must combat an epidemic of sleeping sickness. It might have to do with the Mayor chlorinating the local drinking water himself. Before you know it, the town is under quarantine.
• Sgt. Friday goes up against not the most dangerous robber in "The Big Dream". An old man holds up a liquor store and then uses the whole take to throw a big party for his friends in San Francisco, even hiring a plane to take them! When Friday puts the cuffs on, the old man is almost relieved on Dragnet.
• The good people at Escape introduce us to the common krait, a small snake in India which happens to be one of the deadliest venomous snakes in the world. In a story called "Poison", Jack Webb's bigoted partner is lying in bed when a krait crawls under the sheets seeking warmth. The man knows that if he moves at all the snake will strike and kill him almost instantly.

For more Gentle Old Time Radio to Help You Fall Asleep, see also: Moon River, Sammy Kaye Sunday Serenade, Enchanted Hour, Singin' Sam, NEHI Program, Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Strollin' Tom, Andre Kostelanetz, and At Ease.