The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-05-28
SLEEP, AND HOW TO PROCURE III.

SLEEP, AND HOW TO PROCURE III.
We read of Bismarck, that "his old
foe insomnia still tenaciously clings to
him. He passes whole nights waking.
At morning dawn, slumber, if not sleep,
comes mt 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. L 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-is that the brain cannot, SO to
speak, ego 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 exces-
sively busy man during the day, and had
only the night hours in which he could
write. He generally dined ut 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 took some light pudding, or a
sandwich, with cocoa or milk. Thus he
always slept well, as the blood was di-
vnrtn1 FROM, tho lArait, 10 tha Ctn,,,aob
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 is 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 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 digested in that of the
CAiC iltu Dtth lllO 1OOb
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, $50 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 their 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 thing Imaginable; they retire alto
gether into the drawing-room, and then,
to make matters worse, they drink tea
and coffee. Now l regard tea and coffee
when taken at night TO be poison to GER
tain constitutions. 1t is very well in the
morning, but it is very bad Mt night.
The reason why tea and coffee should
not be taken at night is that the one con-
tains 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. l speak of this matter
from experience. If L take thought
lessly cup of tea or coffee after o'clock
IN the evening, going to bed about II,
l cannot go 10 sleep; and if the brain
does fall asleep, the alkaloid will wake
1t up III about an hour or two. Sleep
lessness, therefore, is usually caused by
ten or coffee, though strange to say that
tea and coffee actually send some people
into sound slumber.
L well recollect the late DIR. WILDER
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 hedge one after
another, ships sailing out to sea, etc.
The Bishops prescription was to repeat
very slowly the vowels A E Il O. In do
ing this, they were to be family pro-
nounced with each inspiration and expi-
ration. 1t 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 lips nee
essarily takes place, and sleep comes not.
L advise my readers to try this plan.
L 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 door till he
went to sleep. 1 was once told, when
on salmon inspection, that certain
miller could sleep so long as the con-
tinued whirr of the mill wheel was going
on, but directly the noise stopped he
awoke.
The deepest sleep is always just before
dawn. 1t is, l 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 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. recol-