Sleeplessness.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 869, 26 October 1888, Page 11

Sleeplessness.

[To the Editor or the ‘Spectator.’]

Sir, —‘ F. P. G.’seems to me to suggest a remedy that does not touch the'real disease. I am quite familiar with the relapse into the dream ; but it can only be done when you can begin to control your mind before you are- really awake. The evil with the most of us - is that we wake, and wake to stay. • I do not remember suffering from sleeplessness till I was a curate in London, seventeen years ago ; but it has stuck to me ever sinoo in direct proportion to mental worry and absence of air and exercise. In those days, till I was stopped by the police, I used to gallop twice round the Parte before the early morning-service. There were generally'from three to live people in the Row the first time I went round. It is not, there- 1 fore, either early rising- or fresh air takenby itself that will atop it. .But loss of air and exercise is a great contributing cause. To walk even one mile in the day is a grand thing.; F. P. C.’ correctly indicates ‘ many different sources,’ but incorrectly speaks of ‘ artifices.’ . The remedy is not an artifice, but a method. At the moment, the best thing one oan do is to get up, drink half-a-glass of water, and walk round the room. The slight alternation of cold and warmth has a soporific, effect. The method is,—live healthily. - Avoid too little . and too much exercise, food, particularly f_ wine.- . Dine lightly, eating very little meat; drink one glass only of .wine. Bath an hour before dinner, not before going to bed. Remember that after any great exertion, it is not one night’s rest, nor two nights’ rest, but chiefly the ; rest- of the day. between them, that will restore vitality. I understand that the Duke used to march, four days and rest his men the fifth, when he war not racing the epoilt child of victory to Salamanca. Do something in the evening that does not exoite you, something like whist that does; itself mechanically. Decide how much sleep -you ought to have—say, eight hours—and get up sternly when you have been in bed eight hours, however long you may have been awake. Increase your air and exercise gradually. Pottering about with a hammer 12nd, 4 saw and a few hundred feet of timber is a-'good beginning. Of course, avoid tea and coffee after dinner ; probably 5 o’clock should ring in cocoa rather than an antisoporific. 1 believe it is a common error to increase fatigue. There are cases where it should bo diminished. The thing is due to diminished vitality. .’ Increased fatigue further reduces the vitality; L have eften found, to my-stir, prise, a good night follows a day’s absolute rest. , *■ ~ : - - -’

' ""Any'one who has ever done wliut, to a man of his inches round the chest, is forced marching for fourteen days together, knows the nervous irritation with which ho flings himself on the grass for the next three days, unable either to move or to lie still. The same nervous irritation punishes overwork - within the four seas, though the work may not be so obviously excessive as it is to leave camp before sunrise,-and pitch your tent before dark. This nervous irritation can only be dealt with by absolute repose—flat—by day as well as by night, with the minimum of food.'

When the day is begun without a bright voluntary craving for work, day rest is indicated ; and if it is nof forthcoming, insomnia will result.. Perhaps it is part of the same principle that neuralgia ‘ attacks you when you; are low. Personally, I Should advise, —give up tobacco. But I knotv my ignorance of other men, so T limit myself to this. Never use tobacco as a spur.—l am, Sir, &c. : ' ' SOMNIFES, OLIM SOMNIFUR.

[To the Editor of the Spectator.] ..Sir, —A more effectual method of curing this evil than that suggested by your correspondent, ‘F.T.C.,’ I discovered some years ago, though I have never heard it ad.' vooated. This method involves no thought —indeed, it quickly prevents thought—and I expect has often been tried by those who do not rest at regular intervale. I quite ' cured my sleeplessness, after suffering irom ~it for yc»-s. ....... ' , Tho lungs should'be filled and the breath retained till distinct discomfort is felt, then ’ a long breath taken'and held again. Almost ' invariably three times, is sufficient. The ", blood not becoming aerated, .the brain loses its stimulahfc, and sleep comes, without any sensation of drowsiness supervening.—l am, : Sir, &c., ’1 - W.K.F. ,