MODE OF PROCURING SOUND AND REFRESHING SLEEP.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 205, 16 December 1876, Page 4

MODE OF PROCURING SOUND AND REFRESHING SLEEP.

Lei the sleepless man torn on his right nde, place bis head comfortably on the pillow, so that it exactly occupies the angle a drawn from the head to the shoulder wottld form, and then, slightly closing his lips, take rather a £*jL inap'ration, breathing as much as he poaaibly can * through the noatrils. This, however, is not abaotuttily necessary, as some persons breathe always their mouths during sleep, anJ rest as sound as thoae who do not. - 'Having token a full inspiration, the lungs are then to be left to their own action—that is, the respiration Is neither ' to be accelerated nor retarded. ' " The attention mast now be fixed upon the action in which the patient was engaged. He must depict to himself that he aces the breath passing from his nostrils in a j continuous stream, and the very instant that he brings his mind to conceive this, apart from all other ideas, consciousness sad memory depart, imagination .. fancy becomes dormant, thought subdued, the sentient faculties lose their susceptibility, the vital or gang home system assumes the sovretgnty; and, as before remarknd, he no longer wakes, but sleeps. The train of phenomena is but the effort «f a. moment. The instant the mind is brought to the Contemplation of a single aen.«tt»n, that * Instant the sensorium abdicates the throne and the hyynotic faculty sleeps in oblivion. Sponging the body before retiring to xsst v whether in winter or summer, and ' rtlbking the surface after with a coarse to«el, are preliminary steps which condbxeet inuch to sound repose. |f sleeplessness be the effect of mere pais, an anodyne, under advice of the ; Iwfdiiad attendant, may be taken; but if poaaible, should be avoided. If from culd feet, a blanket at the foot of the bed between the sheets will give the necessary heat; or, what is as etFecsponge the feet with a coarse (owe! pipped in water; dry them well, and put en ft dtaa pair of worsted socks. This precaution should be taken by all persons who are liable to colls, coughs, ancl asthmas, and East and West Indians ''AonM never, till they become acclimatised", sleep without them. Ob no account should the bed be placed go that the rays of light from the window should fall upon the eye, or be allowed to stream In upon them horizontally. In such cases sound sleep is naarly impossible. The bedroom should be large and airy, ■ ' and in winter a fire should be lighted in It at least two hours before the period of The reprehensible custom of going from a parlor or drawing-room of seventy or ' sigbtr degrees, to a room where water is probably frwaing, is the remains of bar- . biuic ignorance, the existence of which ' 'aeons to us almost incredible in the nineteenth century. The saving wtß be very great, not only the doctor's bat the butcher's bill, for Liebeg observes:— ' " The warmer we clothe, the more we lessen the: necessity of eating, becartae the |pse of warmth, the cooling, and therewith the compensation to be eifected by is lessened. If we went naked as I the indians, or were exposed to the cold in the north by hunting or Sshing, we should be able to devour half a calf, and more than a dozan tallow candles, as warm clothed travellers with astonishment have told us. We should be able to consume the same quantity of spirits or of oil without injury, because ''At carbon or hydrogen which they conjf«ttin serves to counterbalance the external 1 •frinperature."