A FAMILY DOCTOR ON NIGHTMARE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1095, 24 February 1893, Page 16

A FAMILY DOCTOR ON NIGHTMARE.

Family nervousness predisposes to nightmare, which thus becomes related to the thousand and one ills which we inherit from our ancestors. The most potent cause of bad dreams is yet to be mentioned. This is worry, which is one of the most fatal disorders which attack mankind. For one who is injured or killed by hard work, a hundred are struck down by worry. Girls who are preparing for examinations often worry themselves into a fever which prevents sleep, or else causes it to be broken by horrid visions of unsolvable problems or impending failure. Remember also that we go to bed to sleep, not to review the events of the day. Don’t think-in bed. This may seem to be impossible advice in many cases, but it is certain that we can dismiss thought if we make a sufficient effort to do so. Reading in bed is a very bad habit, which ought never to be contracted, or if it has been contracted it ought to be given up resolutely. It is a habit sanctioned to some extent by the action of many eminent people, but it is radically wrong for all that. Fnally, no words are strong enough to point out the danger of slow poisoning by drugs which are often taken to procure sleep, whether it bean alcoholic night-cap, morphine, opium, chloral, or any other. The medical man has recourse with reluctance to these as a last and temporary resort, and only he can tell how many lives are wrecked by the ill-timed use of them and their subsequent abuse. And of all horrible dreams, none are so awful as those which assail people who habitually use these false comforters. Better than all the drugs in the world for procuring sleep are simple food, a regular life, and a calm laiad.-'E’jcflm tywlVs Family M&gwte