KEEPING INSOMNIA AT BAY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XX, 15 May 1897, Page 617

KEEPING INSOMNIA AT BAY.

Everything which increases the amount of blood ordinarily circulating through the brain has a tendency to cause wakefulness. If the brain is often kept for long periods on the stretch, during which the vessels are filled to repletion, they cannot contract even when the exciting causes cease. Wakefulness as a consequence results, and every day the condition of the individual becomes worse, because time brings the force of habit into operation. Everything

that tends to throw the blood to the brain, and to accumulate it there, should be avoided. This is a vital matter, and prevention is better than cure. Tight or illfitting articles of dress, especially about the neck or waist, and tight boots and shoes, should be discarded ; the feet should be kept warm, so that the circulation may be promoted. Wearing eork soles in the boots or shoes and changing the socks every day are excellent means to this end, and strongly recommended. Apart, however, from physical causes, there are various moral causes acting on the brain equally inimical to sleep—whatever keeps the blood vessels of the brain distended—and the consequences of that we know. On the other hand, when the mind is quieted the tendency of the vessels is to contract and for sleep to follow.