HOW TO GET TO SLEEP

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVI, Issue 23, 9 June 1906, Page 6

HOW TO GET TO SLEEP

NATURE, NOT DRUGS, AS A CURE FOR INSOMNIA

By

DR. JOHN W. SHOEMAKER

THIS might be called the Age of Sleeplessness. Undeniably insomnia. one of the most distressing afflictions that assail humanity.

is far more common to-day than ever before in the history of the world. People think harder and study more

than ever before; they pursue both pleasure and business with more intense

eagerness: their nerves are overstrained. and their brains driven as by

whips; and last, but not least, the race

has developed an appetite for drugs, which grows by what it feeds on. and which, while acquired largely in the seeking of sleep, has. when indulged beyond a certain point, the effett of banishing healthful slumber for ever from the pillow. Most of the ills that make mankind miserable are afflictions of the ignorant and. chiefly, of the poor. Sleeplessness, however, is the curse of the intellectual man, and a haunter of the bedsides of the rich and the otherwise fortunate.

But it has come at last to be realised that the drug-cure for insomnia is worse than a failure, and people are beginning to look to Nature for a remedy—not, 1 may happily add. in vain. Of this new idea it is that 1 would speak: of Nature as a sleep-bringer, and of how her means may be used instead of chloral, opium, alcohol, and other poisons, which all over this broad land have filled asylums and sanitariums with their victims. Why do we hear so much about Lakewood, New Jersey, as a resort for rich people? Because (for one reason at least) it is a place of sleep. It is in a region of pines, the emanations of which are sedative and somniferous. Thus it is that millionaire folks have built among the trees palaces which are designed as homes for the sleepless. \\ oin out by social dissipation, or by the nervous strain inseparable from the business of rapid money-getting, they go to Lakewood to seek among its piney woods t*hat soft repose which elsewhere is denied them.

Certain volatile oils and ethers contained in pine-needles are accountable for the perfume which is so agreeable to our nostrils. Their sedative effect, when one breathes air charged with such emanations, is marked and unmistakable —so that in hospitals nowadays pillows of pine-needlesc are commonly used to put patients to sleep. It is on the same principle that, in the hop-growing regions of this country, pillows are filled with hops, often mixed with salt or with bran. They contain an alkaloid, called ••lupeline,” which is strongly soporific. On one occasion, not very long ago. I was called upon to prescribe for what was supposed to be a hopeless case of insomnia. It was that of a man in public life. He expected me to try some new drug upon him. but I said to him:

“Senator, it is within my knowledge that you own a piece of rural real estate on which there are thick pine woods. I want you to go there, with an axe and a sawhorse, and spend as much of your time as possible cutting down pine trees and sawing them for firewood.” He followed these instructions literally. and within less than a fortnight he was entirely cured. He told me that he slept “like a dead man.”

Brain-workers are particularly liable to sleeplessness. Their occupation brinbs overstrain of the nervous system, and. when they go to bed. they toss upon restless pillows. This drives them to a

physician, who suggests a littl? whisky before retiring—the result being, in many instances, that the victims become slaves to alcohol. The best thing in such a ease is to keep away from whisky anil other drugs and take an ocean voyage. If that be impracticable, the next best expedient to adopt is a visit to the seashore. Sea air is a wonderful nerve-tonic, its sedative and soothing effect being so marked that invalids, wheeled along the beach boardwalks, often fall asleep. It is probably ozone that does the good work. In crowded cities there is little or no ozone, which may be called a concentrated form of oxygen, but at the seashoie there is much of it in the atmosphere, and still more in mid-ocean, far away from the land. Not a very great deal is known about this colourless gas I though it has been reduced in the laboratory to a liquid), but of its healthfulness and quieting influence up-

on the nerves there is no question

Exercise of all kinds is admirable as a cure of sleeplessness. People nowadays do not take enough exercise. Mechanical locomotion has made walking to a great extent unnecessary, and machinery has done away with most physical labour. Penelope, the wife of Ulysses. kept 12 women busy grinding grain day and night to supply with food a household of not more than 30 people.

To-day. with the help of modern contrivances. the same amount of work will produce flour for five thousand persons. Incidentally to active exercise, the

system imbibes oxygen, the circulation of the blood is stimulated, and moderate fatigue supervenes —all of which conduce to sleepiness. But of all forms of exercise the best for this purpose is horse-back-riding. Pursued for two or three hours daily, it promotes all the functions of the body and quiets the nerves. For sleeplessness there is no better remedy, and for weak children and weak women it is particularly to be recommended.

Distractions of the mind are excellent remedies for insomnia. It is often a

good idea to sem 1 a nervous patient to the play, the opera or the minstrels. His attention is called away from himseit and his troubles; he comes home and goes peacefully to sleep. Nor is the ef feet of music to be despised. It has a tendency to soothe irritable brain-cells, and in many instances I have known it to produce most happy results.

One need handly say that this question of sleep is one of the highest possible importance. We give one-third of our lifetime, precious as it is to us. to sleep. Without a fair allowance of sleep we cannot be well, and if deprived of it altogether we should soon die. A case is on record whei e a person got no sleep for nine days, dying at the end of that peril <l. In China, long ago. deprivation of sleep was used as a form of torture. and even of capital punishment. I

have known people who were actually afraid to go to bed for fear of the dread spectre of insomnia which was sure to haunt them through long hours of the

night. How to banish the unwelcome visitor is the question. I have suggested one or two expedients. but thete are others. For example. if you are a victim, try the effect of a bowl of hot—not merely warm, but hot—clam-broth, or oyster-broth. or chicken-broth. It will draw the blood from the brain, quiet the nervous system and bring sleep. What is it that happens when one goes to sleep? A complete answer cannot be given to this question, but it is known that the blood flows out of the brain, that the eyeballs are turned upward, that the pupils of the eyes become contracted, that the pulse slackens, and that the breathing becomes slower, the amount of air taken info the lungs being only about one-seventh of what it is when one is awake. Anarently. the immediate cause of waking is a flow of blood to the brain.

Obviously, then, when a person is troubled with sleeplessness, any expedient by which the blood may be drawn away from the brain is likely to be good. For, ordinarily, whatever may be the cause of the mischief, too much blood in the brain is directly accountable for the wakefulness. A hot foot-bath will often accomplish the purpose in question: or a warm glass of milk, or a cup of hot water, may so act upon the nutrition and circulation as to relieve the brain of congestion. This, indeed, will often put a restless child to sleep, or a grown person, for that matter. The use of water outside and inside of the body is neglected. There is a great deal in the old-fashioned watercure, though charlatans once brought it into disrepute. The next time you suffer from insomnia take a hot bath, and swallow a bowl of water as hot as you can drink it. The two together will make your skin act, stimulate your circulation, lull and quiet your nerves, and draw the blood from your brain. Hardly will you lie down before you will find yourself falling asleep.

The Spanish women rub the backs of their children to put them to sleep. It is a good idea. Often, in cases of insomnia, a vigorous rubbing of the spine, the abdomen, and the head, will cause the patient to fall into slumber. I have myself noticed, while undergoing the attentions of a barber, that the friction of his hands on my head and the back of my neck had a tendency to make me feel drowsy.

When the baby cries and whines in the night, instead of giving it medicine (upsetting its digestion), rub its back, or put it into a warm bath. The bath will take all the congestion from its brain and spinal cord, and the little one will go to sleep the moment it comes out. How much better are such simple expedients than a resort to drugs! And what is good for a child is good for a grown person. A hot water bottle at the feet may prove serviceable in some instances; but remember always to lie with the head high, and to admit plenty of fresh air to the bedroom. Mental work after dinner should be avoided. It causes a How of blood to the brain, interferes with digestion, and has a consequent tendency to bring sleeplessness. Strong emotions—anxiety, joy, sorrow, or what-not—have a like effect. Actors and stockbrokers, whose lives contain too much excitement, are particularly liable to insomnia. To the busy financier, that type of the modern human engine run at high pressure, the getting of a proper allowance of sleep is the most serious of problems. His nerve-centres are exhausted and, when

the time comes tor quiet, he cannot command repose. These unfortunates apply for help to the ‘doctor, and he gives them prescriptions for one sleep-producing drug or another. The poison, whatever it may be, helps them for a while, but it has a tendency to lose its effect, and so the dose must be constantly increased. Once the habit is gained, sleep becomes impossible without the aid of the drug, and the last state of the victim is vastly worse than the first. Drugs, indeed, are the curse of this day and generation. People are fed with them from babyhood up, whereas, if common-sense governed, as little medicine as possible would be taken, the main reliance being placed in Nature.

Both alcohol and tobacco overstimulate the nerve-centres and render them irritable, thus tending to cause sleeplessness. Imprudences in diet have a like effect. There is too much late eating and drinking. Fashionable people, after the play, go to a restaurant and indulge in a hearty—and generally indigestible—supper. At some balls nowadays there are two suppers, one early and one late. Naturally, as a result of such abuse, the digestive functions are upset, the nervous system is forced into an unwholesome activity, and sleep is made difficult.

At the midnight hour the cafes of a big city are full of gay people eating lobsters and salads, and washing them down with champagne and burgundy. Manv of them will not be able to sleep

without a dose of brandy before going to bed. The next morning they wake up with an inactive liver, a feeling of lassitude, and a great desire for a cocktail as a “ bracer.” Nature will not endure such abuse beyond a certain point, and these people, who have such a good time while it lasts, drift after a few years into asylums and sanitariums.

During slumber nothing is asleep except the brain, and certain elements of that organ appear still to remain awake even in such circumstances. Marie de Manaceine, a writer of high reputation on this subject, speaks of the fact that a sleeper will change his position whenever he happens to be uncomfortable, and, without waking, will assume an easier posture. He will brush a fly off his face, or draw up the bedclothes which have left his person partly exposed. These are rational aets. It is an old story that soldiers frequently sleep while on the march, and dangerous feats are sometimes performed by somnambulists.

Not only does the body remain awake during sleep, but it is beyond question that the brain-centres connected with seeing, hearing, smelling and tasting retain their activities, to a considerable extent at all events —else how, in dreams, should we have visual and other sensory impressions? what is it, then, that sleeps in the brain? The spinal cord and nerves are awake, and parts at least of the mind organ are alert. Where are we to suppose that the “ sleeper” is located ? This is one of the most interesting questions in all the domain of psychology. Some day, in all likelihood, we shall know a great deal more about such things than we do to-day. Science is making a special study of the phenomena of sleep, and. for one point, it is said to have been ascertained, as a result of recent experiments, that the deepest slumber is reached about an hour and a-quarter after one falls into unconsciousness, and that it diminishes in soundness gradually from this ..me on.

When one sleeps, the heart slows down and beats more feebly. The skin, on the other hand, acts more energetically. throwing off impurities—which is the reason why the air in bedrooms becomes foul more rapidly than that of living rooms. Young people talk more during sleep than do their elders. A

study of two hundred college students of both sexes, not long ago. showed that forty per eent. of them were more or less addicted to talking in their sleep. But the most important phenomenon connected with sleep is the outflow of blood from the brain, which seems to be not only an incident of slumber, but actually, in a certain sense, the cause of it. if we were able to examine the mind organ of a human being under such conditions—as has been done in the case of a dog, by removing a piece of the skull and replacing it with a watchglass—we should see it grow pale and diminish in volume as slumber fe.» upon the person under observation. Such being the case, it is evident that, in trying to cure insofinia. our efforts should be directed to getting rid. by one means or another, of the tendency co congestion of the brain, which, whatever the cause of it. is usually the real mischief. Drugs may serve for a while as palliatives, but their good effects are only temporary, and in the long run they are harmful and even dangerous. For which reason we should look to Nature for a cure, confident that, if one remedy does not serve, another will prove successful. Of such natural remedies there are a good many, and in these few remarks I have endeavoured to suggest some which afford a choice of methods whereby sufferers may hopefully and safely seek the blessed boon of peaceful and refreshing sleep.