| "We may now ask: What is the meaning of the sensation
of inhibited movement which so often
occurs in dreams, and is so closely allied to anxiety? One wants to move,
and is unable to stir from the spot; or wants to accomplish something, and
encounters obstacle after obstacle. The train is about to start. and one cannot
reach it; one's hand is raised to avenge an insult, and its strength fails,
etc.
We have already met with this sensation in exhibition-dreams, but have as yet made no serious attempt to interpret it. It is convenient, but inadequate, to answer that there is motor paralysis in sleep, which manifests itself by means of the sensation alluded to. We may ask: Why is it, then, that we do not dream continually of such inhibited movements? And we may permissibly suspect that this sensation, which may at any time occur during sleep, serves some sort of purpose for representation, and is evoked only when the need of this representation is present in the dream-material." -- Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation
of Dreams
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