The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1884-12-18
Sleeplessness-A Few Suggestions
Thereon.


New York suffers more for lack
Of sleep than for lack of food, and
this privation is on the increase to
fearful degree. One reason for
that excessive drinking which ruins
our business men may be found in
the fact that men thus make up for
the lack of sleep. The use of slim
ulants under such circumstance is
doubly pernicio0s, but this does not
prevent it. All classes of brain
workers suffer to a greater or less
degree, but the most painful in
stances are found among Wall street
brokers and spectators who are un-
der such intense excitement that
healthy sleep often becomes an i'm
possibility. The next in point OF
suffering are preachers and play
actors, who also become excited to
an intense degree. Editors, law
yers, physicians and business men,
also suffer from insomnia, and the
following paragraph, clipped from a
morning paper, is an appeal which
might be repeated by large part of
our population:
Sleeplessness-I am troubled with
this complaint; 30 years old, mar
ried, happy home; active business /;
$40 for recipe or cure. Address,
Sleep"
My reply to the above is entirely
grstuitous, and yet may be of some
value, being the result of expert
enee. Avoid intoxicating drinks
and if possible get your work done
before dark. If very nervous, q
warm bath is advisable, for which q
wash-bowl of water and a sponge
may suffice. Eat moderately before
going to bed. To break off annoy
ing thoughts, which keep one
awake, repeat poetry or count
steadily from l to 100. 1 know a
man who goes over "Gray's Elegy"
night after night until it ends in
sleep, while another counts as above
mentioned until the same result is
reached.
Anything that will divert the
mind from its tendency to prey up
on itself promotes sleep. If it be
too cool for tepid bath, then fric-
ton of the skin is beneficial. Opt
ates are decidedly Objectionable,
but there is a sedative which is
both safe and efficacious, and hence
should be better known. This is
bromide of potassium, which, in a
weak solution, soothes the nerves
in a harmless manner. II should,
however, be properly prepared by |
The druggist. Some people have
spells during the night, and !
t is better to rise and walk round |
The house than to toss in bed. A
nan of my acquaintance who has
such waking spells walks the streets
or a half hour and then returns to
bed and obtains sleep.
Knowing the liability of public
ipeakers to insomnia, 1 asked the
most excitable of this class John
3. Cough how he obtained sleep
.fter one of his thrilling lectures,
generally two hours in length. He
eplied: "On returning to my room
begin reading some interesting
ook, and in this manner ill my
lind with other thoughts, and then
can sleep" Public speakers fad
very difficult to stop thinking af-
sr they have stepped speaking.
I'D Lyman Beecher, father of the
'rooklyn orator, had load of sand !
, his cellar, and after evening SER {
ice he shoveled it from one side to |
le other, and by this exercise ton '
down the fever of the brain, oft {
a finishing by playing the violin, c
hich was one of his accomplish L
tents. Bodily exercise is certainly e
cry eficacious under such circum- f