Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-08-11
THE WooING OF SLEEP.

An endeavor to go to sleep is mistake.
For example, when the will makes an eff.
fort to dull the ear the mental sense be-
hind the sense organ is thrown into con.
dition of listening and tension. The power
OF hearing Is not diminished but, as il
were, restricted In its range and its hight.
ened sensibility-as the vibralile capacity
OF musical reed may be raised by reduc-
ing the length of the fiber along which its
vibrations are propagated. Noises that
would not previously have been noticed
are perceived, and become sources of an.
noyance. This intensifying of the sensa.
tions In the attempt to go to sleep, of which
most persons 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 per-
ceptive faculty, frequently to such an ex-
tent that the ticking of watch or the
tapping of an insect behind the wallpaper
will not only be heard, but be actually pain.
full.
SO 1t Is with eight when the eyelids are
closed the inner mental sense of vision be-
comes increasingly acute, and the field Of
sight is soon crowded with grotesque and
rapidly changing images. The worrying
effect of this phantasmagoria is too famii-
lar experience of the sleep-waiter. All the
mental senses are in like manner stimulated
and their acuteness intensified by the en-
deavor to lower the sensibility of the sense
orgaus. The mental sense of smell nav be
rendered SO keen that the scarcely percent.
ible odor OF bed-linen will prove offensive.
Taste may be so stimulated that the natu.
raj moisture of the mouth becomes loath-
some. General sensation may be SO intep-
sIfied that rough thread in sheet, or a
little stream of cold air finding its way
under the coverlet, will occasion the most
irritating experience. In short, the whole
process Of attempted sense-subduing is un.
natural and opposed to the dictates of rea.
son.
No such effort ought to be made. Exter.
nal 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 ex.
ercised over the senses. The eyelids should
not be closed, but allowed to droop when
weary. There should be no resolution to
disregard sounds, or to suppress sensations
OF any kind. The surroundings being pro.
pitious and consonant with the "feel.
ipgs," or, still better, disregarded, mind
and body should be left to take their chance
of sleep, without the striving which, III
truth, Is the principal cause of wakeful-
ness. 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 endeavor to
rleep is made, as it commences expectancy
begins, and, paradoxically as it may seem,
the consciousness is actually kept awake to
watch for sleep! This watchfulness, arts.
ing out of the eagerness of the desire for
sleep and the intensity of the effort made
to WOO it, throws the mind into sort of
tensive anticipation incompatible with
somnolence. Then comes the period of
restless and irritated disappointment, in
which the mind is so vexed, the brain so
excited, and the organism, as a whole,
thrown into such a 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 purpose of allaying the
excitement and inducing a more peaceful
mood by physical exercise.