Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-06-03
Sleep. and How to Procure II.

foe insomnia still tenaciously clings to
him. He passes whole nights wax
ing. At morning dawn, slumber, If not
sleep, coues at last, but the day hnds
him weary and unfit for work, yet with
mountains of work to get through"
Having paid considerable attention 10
this important question OF being aDle 10
procure sleep, venture to record what
| know aboutit.
The human frame cannot do without
sleep. / believe the reason is that the
mysterious property-for want OF pet
ter name we call 1t vital energy"-gr
ually leaks out during the day. during
sleep, the machinery of the body,
especially the brain, becomes recharged
with it, The cause of not being able to
sleep-I write now of people in GOOD
health and hard workers with their
brains--is that the brain cannot, so TO
speak, "go down." but 1t continues to
act. more or less. Nv father, when writ
ing the Bridgewater Treatise, had his
own way of working. He was an ex-
cessively busy man during the day, ana
had only the night hours in which he
could write. He generally dined at
seven o'clock, and Immediately after din
ner went TO sleep for two or three hours.
He then got up, and worked on till two
or three in the morning Just before re-
firing TO rest he took some light pud-
ding, or sandwich, with cocoa or milk.
Thus he always slept well, as the blood
was diverted from the brain to the
stomach.
have no hesitation in saying that the
proper thing to do is to go to sleep I'M
mediately Tor at least very SOON after
the meal of the day. All animals always
90 to sleep. if they are not disturbed,
after eating. This is especially noticeable
in, dogs; and the great John Hunter
showed by an experiment that digestion
went on during sleep more than when
the animal was awake and going about.
This is his experiment: he took two
dogs and gave them both the same guam
tity of food. One of them was then al.
lowed TO go to sleep, the other was taken
out hunting. At the end OF three or
four hours he killed both these dogs.
The food in the stomach Of the dog
which had been asleep was quite digest
ed; In that of the one which had been
hunting the food was not digested at all.
This fact, think, shows the advisa-
bility Of going to sleep Immediately after
eating. This ignored fact always occurs
to my memory when see old gentlemen
nodding over their wine. Nature says to
them Go to bed" They will not go to
bed; but still Nature will not allow her
law to be broken, so she sends them to
sleep sitting in the chairs People, there
fore, who feel sleepy after dinner ought
to dine late and go straight to bed when
sleepy feeling comes over them.
Most good folks, however, do the worst
possible thing imaginable; they retire al
together into the drawingToom, and then,
to make matters worse, they drink tea
and coffee. Now | regard tea and
coffee, when taken at night, to be poison
to certain constitutions. 1t is very well
in the morning, but it is very bad at
night The reason why tea and coffee
should not be taken at night is that the
one contains an alkaloid called theme,
and the other contains an alkaloid called
caffeine. These two alkaloids taken in
to the system stimulate the brain and
do not allow it to go to rest. | speak of
this matter from experience. III take,
thoughtlessly, a cup OF tea or coffee after
five O'Clock in the evening, going to bed
about eleven, cannot go to sleep; and
if the brain does fall asleep the alkaloid
will wake it up in about an hour or two.
Sleeplessness, therefore, is usually
caused by tea or coffee, though strange
to say that tea and coffee actually send
some people into sound slumber.
well recollect the late DR.. Wilber-
force, then Bishop of Oxford, telling my
father, then most actively engaged as
Dean of Westminster, of his patent way
of going to sleep. 1t is better than the
old-fashioned prescription of watching
sheep jumping through a hedge, one after
another. ships sailing out to sea, etc.
The Bishops prescription was to repeat
very slowly the vowels A Il O. In do
ing this they were to be family pro.
nounced with each inspiration and ex-
pitation. IL will be found easy to do
this without moving the lips; but the
vowel U must not be pronounced, for to
do this the muscular action of the lips
necessarily takes place, and sleep comes
not ] advise my readers to try this
plan,
i once heard of midshipman who
complained that he could not sleep at
night because there were no waves dash
ing against the sides 'of the ship To
this noise he had SO many months been
accus omed that he could not sleep with
out the familiar sound. He asked his
mother to dash pals of water against
his bedroom door till he went to sleep
was once told when on salmon in
spection that certain miller could sleep
so long as the continued whirr of the
mill.wheel was going on, but directly
the noise stopped he awoke.
The deepest sleeps always just before
dawn. 1t is, ! believe, PROBABLE that
some change takes place at this time in
the atmospheric condition, as the hour
just before dawn is selected by savages
to make their attack, and it is at this
time also, believe, that great proper
ton Of children are born. When staying
at a country house, unfortunately, the
visitor not accustomed to country sounds
gets often woke up, The abominable
cocks begin their horrible Growing,
called in Herefordshire "cock shoot" |
recollect on one occasion, after the
wretched cks had gone from the fowl
house to feed, / fell asleep, and then
there came a most awful cry OF agony;
in fact, the farmer killed a pig under
nv window enough to wake anybody.
This pig was most vociferous, but, as he
was inundated in honor OF my arrival, l
could not say much.
My monkeys always get sleepy when