A Cure Hot Sleeplessness.

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 1 May 1890, Page 37

A Cure Hot Sleeplessness.

There is a form of wakefulness which is a somewhat frequent experience with person 3 engaged in active work, especially of the brain. A man who has been busily engaged during the day in his usnal vocation retires, let us say, at about 10 or 11 o'clock, feeling quite sleepy. After a period of slumber, perhaps two or three hours, he finds himself wide awake at about 2 o'clock in the morning. There is nothing particularly burdensome on bis mind ; no mental anxieties perplex, no physical pains disturb him. His only annoyance is the consciousness that a hard day's work is before him and that his busy brain ought to be at rest. After tossing about for an hour or more in vain attempts to court sleep, he drops off toward morning into a disturbed and broken slnmber, and rises at the usual hour with a sense ofhaving been defrauded by Nature of one of his rights. So long as this is a rare or occasional experience it need not attract attention. When, however, it becomes habitual, when sleep is regularly broken by periods of wakefulness more or less prolonged, and especially when these periods come to be accompanied by anxieties and worrying, the symptom is more grave. It may betoken serious impairment of the nervous system if allowed to continue. What may be done by the person himself, on awakening during the' night, in order again to induce sleep 7 The expedients at our disposal, it must be admitted, are exceedingly variable in their efficacy, but most of them are worth trying. A sense of drowsiness is sometimes easily induced by getting up and standing by the bedside until one feels almost chilly and the bed is cold. Another expedient is to wash the head, neck, and upper part "of the body in cold water — a lower temperature of the skin inducing probably a more active circulation of the blood to the surface and away from the nervous centres. I have found a bit of dry bread thoroughly masticated and eaten at this time to act almost like a charm in some cases by drawing blood from brain to stomach and thus securing sleep. Anything which serves to detract attention from one's self and surroundings may occasionally avail—such as saying the alphabet, counting one's respirations, repeating the multiplication table, and a multitude of similar expedients. An ancient monkish recipe for wakefulness was to " count your beads." It is good advice yet. There are no better aids to repose than a good conscience and a mind at peace.—" Laws of Life."