Trapping Sleep

Ladies' Mirror, Volume V, Issue 6, 1 December 1926, Page 38

Trapping Sleep

'“The malady of the age is insomnia, says a distinguished English doctor, for it is probably that in large cities where the rush and complexity of modern life is felt in the highest degree 70 per cent, or more of the citizens suffer from sleeplessness. A great deal depends not only on the conditions of sleep, but on the state of health during the waking hours. If a man requires seven hours’ sleep, he does not get through more work, year in, year out, if he only takes six hours’ sleep, and his mental acitvity is not of such good quality as if he had sufficient sleep. We hear of some persons exceptionally well endowed by nature, who can do with comparatively little sleep. Ramsay MacDonald, iiiimiiHmiiiiiiiimiiiititiiiitiiiiinhiimiimintiMiiiiiMtmiiiiimninimiimimtiimiiimMitn

when Prime Minister, declared that he was well content if he had on the average four hours a night. This is inadequate, and it is probable that his activities would have gained in breadth and power had he always taken seven hours. A certain degree of fatigue is helpful to sleep, but over-fatigue is a disturbing cause. In some cases sleep is accompanied by a congested brain, but the normal type of sleep is produced when the blood supply to the head is reduced. It is necessary also to cut off the nervous stimuli which excite action in the waking hours. Lie in a clean bed warmly but not too excessively covered. Avoid whatever causes digestive troubles, and then—that last counsel of perfectionthrow off worry.