The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1875-05-27
SLEEP, AND Hew TO PROCURE IT.


SLEEP, AND HeW TO PROCURE IT.
We read of Bismarck, that sshis old
foe Insomnia still tenaciously clings to
him. He passes whole nights waking.
At morning dawn, slumber, if not sleep,
comes at last, but the day finds him
weary and unfit for work, yet with noun
tains of work to get through" Having
paid considerable attention to this i'm
portant question of being able to procure
sleep, | venture to record what / know
about it.
The human frame cannot do without
sleep. believe the reason is that the
mysterious property-for want of a
better name we call it "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 lis that the brain cannot, SO to
speak, "go down. but it continues to
act, more or less. My father, when writ
ing the Bridgewater Treatise, had his
own way of working. He was an dxces-
sively busy man during the day, an d had
only the night hours in which he eould
write. He generally dined at Z o'clock,
and Immediately after dinner went to
sleep for two or three hours. He then
got up, and worked on till two or three
in the morning. just before retiring to
rest, he too7A some light pudding or
sandwich, with cocoa or milk. Thus he
always. slept well, as the blood was di-
verified from the brain to the stomach.
I have no hesitation in saying that the
proper thing to do is to go to sleep i'm
mediately Cor at least very soon) after the
meal of the day. All animals always go
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 lis his
experiment He took two dogs and gave
them both the same quantity of food.
One of them was then allowed to go to
sleep, the other was taken out hui ting.
At the end of three or four hou rs he
killed both these dogs. The food in the
stomach of the dog which had been
asleep was quite digested in that pf the
one which had been hunting the food
was not digested at all.
This fact, / think, shows the aAvisa-
bility of going to sleep Immediately after
eating. This ignored fact always occurs
to my memory when Isee old gent emen
nodding over their wine. Mature says
to them, $50 to bed" They will not
go to bed, but still Nature viii not allow
her law to be broken, so she sends them
to sleep sitting in their chairs. People
therefore who feel sleepy sitter dinner
ought to dine late, and go straight to
bed when a sleepy feeling comes over
them.
Most good folks, however, do the
worst thing imaginable; they retire alto
gether into the drawing room, and then,
to make matters worse, they drink tea
and coffee. Now regard tea and coffee
when taken at night to be poison Ito GER
tain constitutions. It is very we'll in the
morning, but it is very bad atlnight.
The reason why tea and coffee should
not be taken at night is that the OF con-
taigs 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 allow
it to go to rest. I speak of this matter
from experience. Ii l take Thought
lessly cup OF tea or coffee after o'clock
in the evening, going to bed about II,
1 cannot go to sleep; and if the brain
does fall asleep, the alkaloid will wake
it up in about an hour or two. Sleep
lessness, therefore, is usually used by
tea or coffee, though strange to shy that
tea and coffee actually send some people
into sound slumber.
well recollect the late DIR. WILDER
force, then Bishop of Oxford, telling my
father, then most actively engaged as
Dean of Westminster, of MS patent way
Of going to sleep. It is better I'll ban the
prescription of watching
sheep jumping through ahedge ohe after
another, ships sailing out to STA, etc.
The Bishops prescription was to repeat
very slowly the vowels A EIO. LIN do
ing this, they were to be family pro-
with each inspiration and expi-
ration. It will be found easy to do this
without moving the lips, but the vowel
. must not be pronounced, for to do
this the muscular action of the LBS nec-
essarily takes place, and sleep comes not.
[ advise my readers to try this plan.
[ 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 accustomed that he could
not sleep without the familiar sound.
He asked his mother to dash pals of
water against his bedroom door1ti he
went to sleep. was once told when
on a salmon inspection, that q certain
miller could sleep so long as the con-
t1nued Whlrr OF the mill wheel was going
on, but directly the noise stopped he
awoke.
The deepest sleep is always just before
dawn. It is, I believe, probable that
Al, AL. L ~