The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-06-06
BY JULIAN A. SELBY.
THE BEST TINE AND EASIEST WAY TO


The BEST TINE AND EASIEST WAY TO
Woo MoRPHEus.-Mr. Frank Buckland,
in his Essay in Land and Water" says:
We read of Bismarck that ''his old foe,
insomnia, still tenaciously clings to
him. He passes whole nights wnking.
At morning dawn, slumber, if not sleep,
comes at last, but day finds him weary
and unfit for work. yet with mountains
of work to get through" Having paid
considerable attention to this important
question of being able to procure sleep,
venture to record what I know about It.
The human frame cannot do without
sleep. / believe the reason is that the
mysterious property-for want of bet
ter name we call it s'vital energy
gradually 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 continues to act,
more or less. Ny father, when writing
the bridgeport Treatise" had his own
way of working. He was an excessively
busy man during the day. and had only
the night hours in which he could write.
He generally dined at o'clock, and i'm
mediately after dinner went to sleep for
two or three hours. he then got up and
worked on until or 8 O'Clock in the
morning Just before retiring he took
some Light pudding or a 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 90 to sleep
Immediately Cor at least very soon) after
the meal of the day. All animals always
60 to sleep, if they are not disturbed,
after eating. This is especially noticea-
BILE 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
allowed TO go to sleep. the other was
or four hours he Killed both these dogs.
The food in the stomach Of the dog
which had been asleep was quite di-
gested; in that Of the one which had
been hunting the food was not digested
at all.
This fact, think, shows. the a1visa-
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 Ego to bed" They will not 90
to bed, but still nature will not allow her
law to be broken, 80 she sends them to
sleep sitting in the chairs. People,
therefore, 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
altogether into the drawing-room, and
then, to make matters worse, they drink
tea and coffee. Now, I regard tea and
coffee, when taken at might, to be poison
to certain constitutions. It Is very well
in the morning, but 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 into the sys-
tenn stimulate the brain, and do not al
low it to 60 TO rest. speak of this from
experience. If I take thoughtlessly q
cup Of tea or coffee after o'clock in the
evening, going to bed at II, I cannot 60
to Sleep. and if the brain does fall
asleep, the alkaloid will wake it mp in
about an hour or two. Sleeplessness,
therefore, is usually caused by tea or
coffee, though, strange to soy, ten 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 rs
Dean of Westminster, of his patient way
of going to sleep. It is better than the
old-fashioned prescription of watching
sheep jumping through hedge one after
another, ships sailing out to sea. &c.
The bishops prescription was to repeat
very slowly the vowels A, E, I, o. In
doing this, they were to be family pro-
nounced with each inspiration and expi-
ration. It will be found easy to do this
without moving the lips, for to do this
the muscular action Of the lips necesea-
rily takes place, ana sleep comes not,
advise my readers to try this plan. I
onceheard Of d midshipman who COM
planned that he could not sleep OF night
because there were no waves dashinc
against the sides Of the ship. ITO this
noise he had So many months Been &C,
customed that he could not sleep without
the familiar sound. he asked his mo-
ther to dash pails Of water against his
bedroom door till he went to sleep.
was once told, when on q salmon inspec-
ton, thata certain miller could sleep so
long as the continued whirf' Of the mill
wheel was going on but directly AFTER
the naise estppped he awoke.,ralr q .po q