The Portland daily press., 1882-04-06
The Wooing of Sleep.


An endeavor to go TO sleep is a mistake.
For example, when the will makes an effort to
dull the ear, the mental sense behind the
sense organ is thrown into condition of listen
ing and tension. The power of hearing is not
diminished, but, as it were, restricted in its
range and in its heightened sensibility-as the
vibratile capacity of musical reed may be
raised by reducing ths length of the fibre along
which its vibrations are propagated. Noises
that would not previously have been noticed
are perceived and become sources of annoy
ance. This intensifying of the sensations in
the attempt to go to sleep. of which most per-
sons are conscious, is doubtless partly due to
the quiet that prevails in the house and bed
chamber; but there is also an increase of the
susceptibility OF the perceptive faculty, ire
quently to such an extent that the ticking OF
a watch or the tapping of an insect behind the
vail paper will not only be heard, but be ac-
tually painful. So it is with sight; when the
eyelids aresclosed the inner-mental sense of
vision becomes increasingly acute, and the
| field of sight is soon crowded with grotesque
and rapidly changing images. The worrying
effect of this phantasmagoria Is too familiar
experience of the sleep-waiter. All the men,
| tai senses are in like manner stimulated and
their acuteness intensified by the endeavor to
lower the sensibility of the sense organs. The
mental sense of smell m ~ be rendered so keen
| that the scarcely perceptible odor of bed linen
will prove offensive. Taste may be so stimu-
lated that the natural moisture OF the mouth
becomes loathsome General sensation may
be so intensified that rough thread in a sheet,
or a little stream Of cold air finding its way
under the coveret will occasion the most irri-
tating experience. In short, the whole process
of attempted sense-subduing is unnatural aud
opposed to the dictates Of reason. No such ef-
fort ought to be made External quiet should
be secured, if quiet be personally agreeable,
and whether light or darkness be preferable
must depend on the idiosyncrasy No control
ought to be exercised over the senses. The
eyelids should not be closed, but allowed to
droop when weary. There should be no reso-
luton to disregard sounds, or to suppress sem
sations of any kind The surroundings being
propitious and consonant with the feelings"
or, still better, disregarded, mind and body
should be left to take their chance OF sleep.
without the striving which, in truth, is the
principal cause of wakefulness. This is why
it often happens that persons who cannot
sleep in bed by night will drop off to sleep
readily in chair by day. 1t Is the effort to
sleep that keeps off slumber, and when there
is no effort sleep comes naturally. II the en-
deavor to sleep is made, as soon as it COM
mences expectancy begins, and, paradoxical as
it may seem, the consciousness is actually kept
awake for sleepi This watchfulness, arising
out of the eagerness of the desire for sleep and
the intensity of the effort made to WOO 1t,
throws the mind into state OF tensiye antioi-
patton incompatible with somnolence. Then
comes the period of restless and irritated disap-
pointment in which the mind is so vexed, the
brain so excited, and the organism, as whole,
thrown into such state of irritability that the
best thing TO do Is to rise and take a bath, or
wash from head to feet, with the double pur-
nose of allayiny the excitement and inducing q
| more peaceful mood By physical exercise,