TO THE SLEEPLESS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue V, 29 January 1898, Page 137

TO THE SLEEPLESS.

Does the demon of sleeplessness torment you? Do you tight the pillow through the long, weary hours of the night and get up in the morning a worn, hollow-eyed insomniac? If so. all you have to do is to follow the simple little routine invented by a doctor who has himself suffered, and you may be cured. It costs nothing to try it, and anybody can learn the process. ‘lt was during this blank interval,’ he says, ‘that I raised the inquiry of whether any new means heretofore untried could be devised that would turn off the belts from this little fragment of brain that insists on its automatic excursions day and night—this perpetual motion of a few cells of grey matter that obstructs rest and prevents repair of the great whole.’ After a great number of experiments the doctor at last succeeded in evolving a simple plan which brought him relief and cured him. In recommending his process to others, however, he presupposes that the sufferer will not have committed any of the sins which of themselves entail insomnia as an almost inevitable penalty. He assumes that the sufferer will not have his bed in a warm room, that he will not load himself down with bed clothing, that he will not indulge in overeating and untimely eating. Assuming that there is a clean record in this respect, the doctor recommends the following pla n:— The patient should lie upon his back either with or without a pillow. Then he should reach at the same time for. both the headrail and the footrail, thus bringing into use many muscles that have not been in active use during the day. In this position he should then raise his head half an inch and hold it- there, breathing at the same time about eight deep and full inspirations per minute instead of the ordinary sixteen per minute. After the expiration of from one to two minutes the head will become too heavy to hold up longer without rest, Then it should be dropped and the right foot raised about half an inch from its resting place, keeping up the regular, long, deep inspirations as before. The reach for the headrail and the footrail of the bed meantime continues. At last the fatigue of holding up the right foot becomes too great and it is dropped, while the left foot is raised in the same manner, keeping up always the reach downward of the foot and head towards the extremities of the bed so far as the power will permit without exhaustion.

When the left foot, can be held up no longer, drop it and raise the trunk of the body by resting upon the heels and shoulders. This elevation of the centre of the body and rest upon the two extremities will call for a change as all the former positions have done. When this new pose in its turn begins to involve, too much fatigue, turn to the right side, reaching for the headrail and the footrail as before, and elevate the head half an inch by use of the lateral muscles of the neck and ehest. At the expiration of the due time the head goes down and the foot goes up as before- Then turn to the left- side and repeat the same process.

By this time a person will have assumed eight positions, and a large majority of the whole number of muscles will have been called into requisition, while through the entire cycle of gymnastics the long, deep respirations, which in themselves are often sufficient to overcome ordinary sleeplessness, will have been kept up. In most cases sleep will come long before the entire programme has been carried out, but in case it does not the whole series of movements may be begun all over again.