CURES FOR INSOMNIA.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2293, 5 January 1900, Page 6

CURES FOR INSOMNIA.

One of the gastronomic magazines has an article giving some comprehensive directions regarding the cure of sleeplessuess. It is sensible in admitting the complexity of a case of insomnia and of the doubts often connected with its origin. A man may apply all his own knowledge and that of his medical adviser, and yet be unable for a time to overcome the tendency of the mind to drift along in helpless consciousness through the long hours of the night. But there must be a cause for this perverseness and a remedy for it, though the cure may not be found without a persevering quest. The modern man needs a full share of sleep. He works hard with brain and nerves, and is apt to play as hard as he works. To lie in bed with the wheels of thought running on waste material is a sort of torture as well as a danger to health. Napoleon's faculty of going to sleep on the instant was one of the greatest advantages he had over the commanders on the other side.

According to the magazine authority, the worst enemies of sleep are worrying, overwork, over-eating, indigestible suppers and the habitual use of stimulants and drugs. The cure includes strict attention to diet, a well-ventilated sleeping room, some light exercise, like a walk, an hour after the evening meal, and freedom, of course, from worry. Napoleon had as many cares and perplexities as the nert man, but arbitrarily shut them off. It is not well to go to bed hungry. A cup of hot milk or a light sandwich is ad vißed when that sensation is felt. Yet it is necessary to remember that insomnia and an overloaded stomach are closely acquainted. Stimulants and narcotics in the end are sleepdestroyers. The condition they induce is not refreshing sleep. Sleepliness is an indication of the need of sleep, and must not be combated too far. People who sleep but little should not be permitted to disturb those who are differently constituted. When the whole, subject is weighed the main remedy is seen to be good habits and a tranquil mind. Don't keep yourself awake in trying to get to sleep " is the injunction. It would be far better to revert to some mild abstraction such, for instance, as the many fine things that have been said of sleep. Think of Leigh Hunt's definition of it as the time when the n.ysterious spirit goes to take its airy round; of Wordsworth calling it a captive never wishing to be free; of Scott s advice to sleep in peace and wake in joy, which necessarily involves good health and a good conscience; of Bulwei's tribute to ''the happiest of earthly boons;" of Milton nodding under the timely dew of sleep, and of Emerson's thought that " Sleep lingers all our life-time about our eyes, as night hovers all day in the boughs of the fir-tree." The right frame of inind and body is the cure for insomnia.