Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1857-11-12
How to Produce Sleep.

How to Produce Sleep.
I presume there are few persons who have
not been occasionally sufferers from inability
to sleep, crying sleep. Q gentle sleep J" with
the King in the play. and envying the happy
facility Of the sailor boy to drop into forgetful
ness on the rude surge Of tempestuouS sea.
Sometimes this inability is the effect of dis
ease but more generally of mental pre- occu-
patton and excitement, produced by the events
of the day, or intense application to particu-
lar study The mind seems TO be chained TO
one thought We would Danish it, but we
cannot We close our eyes, we open them,
we look about, we look steadily at one point,
we turn over we turn back, we resolve we will
not think OF the matter any longer but do
what we nav the one thought retains its place
and hold, and still presses with the weight OF
lead upon, apparently, the same point of the
brain.
How to procure sleep in these circumstan
ces is question which has occupied the atten-
ton of more than one Psychologist, from Galen
down to the author of I" The Anatomy Of
Sleep" Edward Binus, NJ. D., who records
the following recipe:
" Let him turn on his right side, place his
head comfortably on the pillow, so that it ex-
actly occupies the angle line drawn from the
head to the shonlder would form, and then
slightly closing the lips, take rather full in-
spiration, breathing as much as he possibly
can through the nostrils Having taken full
inspiration, the lu0gs are then to be left to
their own acti0n-that is, the respiration is
neither to be accelerated nor retarded too
much, but very full inspiration must be ta-
ken. The attention must now be fixed upon
the action in which the patient is engaged
He must depict to himself that he sees the
breath passing from his nostrlS in a contnu
ous stream and the very instant that he brings
his mind to conceive this apart from all other
ideas consciousness and memory depart, imagi
nation slumhers, fancy becomes dormant, thot
ceases, the senticnt faculties lose their suscep-
tibility, the vital or ganglionic system assumes
the sovereignty, and, as we before remarked,
he no longer wakes but sleeps"
Having never tested this method, am una
bic to say whether it is efectnal or not but
the author himself while he adduced the names
of many who have procured sleep by employ
ing it, candidy admits that others have deriy-
ed no benefit from its use
The common method recommended to pro-
cure sleep, is to engage in long, complicated
and abstruse alithmetical calculations This
| have tried but cannot say with much Sue
cess Work as might with the figures, nei-
ther could divert my mind from the engross-
ing subject of thought, or | merely succeeded
in substituting one engrossing for another, aud
hence felt no more tendency to sleep than be
fore.
Many recommend rising and sponging with
cold water | have often derived great bcne-
fit from this ; as also from throwing the clothes
off in winter and lying exposed until became
very cold. Bnt have always found repe-
tition, and certainly an iteration, Of this pro-
cess less beneficial than the first trial
The only efTectual remedy for wakefulneSs
which have hitherto employed, is happy
inspiration or invention Of my own. With me
it has never failed and make it known for
the benefit Of those who, like myself, have suf
fered grieyously from want Of sleep " o'night'
The great point to be gained in order to
secure Sleep is escape from thoug
ly from that clinging, tenacious, imperious
thought which, in most cases of wakefulnesS,
had possession of the mind | always effect
this by the following simple process: | turn
my eye-ballS as far to the right or left, or up
ward, or downward, as | can without pain
and then commence rolling them si0lcly, with
that divergence from direct line of vision
around in their sockets, and continue doing
this until fall asleep which occurs gene
rally within three minutes, and always within
five minutes, at most.
The immediate effect of this procedure diff
ferS from that of any othersof which | ever
heard, to procure sleep. 1t not merely diyerts
thought into a mere channel, but actually sus-
peuds it, Since became aware of this, |
have endeavored innumerable times, while thus