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IN A LETTER written on June 9, 1899 (1, Letter 108), Freud stated: "There is one wish that every dream is intended to fulfill, though it assumes various forms. That is the wish to sleep. You dream to avoid having to wake up, because you want to sleep." In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud repeatedly reasserted that the wish to sleep is "one of the motives for the formation of dreams" (2, p. 234). The emphatic quality of his viewpoint was evident when he referred to the wish to sleep as "this universal, invariably present and unchanging wish to sleep …" (2, p. 234). And, " Dreams are the GUARDIANS of sleep and not its disturbers " (2, p. 233).
This viewpoint has been so generally accepted that it might be assumed that it has been validated by time and experience. I would like to suggest, however, that while it may be true that dreams often (or even, most often) do preserve sleep, this is not invariably the motive for dreaming. In other words, we may be confusing a consequence with a motive.
In re-examining this subject, I shall discuss the basis for refuting Freud's thesis that the wish to sleep is a universal motive for dreaming and the reason why this generalization was strongly defended by him.
In children (and less strikingly in adults) there may be a conflict between two biological needs. One of these may be the wish