The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1884-10-03
vAGARIES OF SLEEPLESS-
NESS.
Queer Ways I'm Which Victims OF In.
somnia Soothe Themselves
to SIumber.

to Slumber.
'Insomnia," remarked an elderly
physician of the old school to a report
er of the New York sam. lis perpet-
ual puzzle to me.
''How SOP"
swell, sleep being not only natural
condition but necessity, we find ma
ture furnishing all the conditions to in
duce sleep, not only in health, but in
disease, in ninety-nine cases in hun
dred-but the hundredth case is the
mystery. Why, sir, and the doctor
warmed into professional enthusiasm,
''when we sec how quickly and easily
men adapt themselves to the most un-
natural and artificial conditions of life
working by night and sleeping by
day, sleeping with the clink of the
forge, the jar and clash of machinery,
or the shrill whistle of escaping steam
in their ears, and Weakening with q
start at any unfamiliar sound, or at q
cessation of the accustomed racket-it
seems 40 though man could never suf-
fer from sleeplessness."
'But will not excessive fatigue ex-
plain sleep under such trying circum-
stancasp"
'.Not satisfactorily. Il am too tired
to Sleep is a common complaint;
while in one case, that of night
Waterman in n bank, cripple who
has not probably done days work in
dozen years, the man sleeps with his
ear next to the incessant whirr and
buzz Of . burglar alarm, and has twice
hoov, opos1oad rn w t<, ArI <y.a ~, - 4,
drunken man asleep on the steps out
side the bank. Once. after had been
treating him with o medicine that
slightly affected his hearing, this
watchman complained bitterly that he
was getting too deaf to Sleep and de-
clared that he was kept awake by not
hearing the burglar alarm distinctly.
'When you realize that the strongest
man may, in spite of his will be reduc-
ed to the blind helplessness of slumber
by the droning of a friendly bore. an
accumulation of foul air, or the TOM
perature of the weather. it becomes still
more mysterious to me how slight q
thing will murder sleep and work
measureless mischief to both mind and
body"
Perhaps" suggested the expert
enced reporter. ''an unquiet conscience,
domestic anxieties, or an unpaid
debit"
"Fudge!' retorted tho DOCTOR Il
have seen man sleep soundly and
TRANQUILITY up to within an hour of his
own hanging; have seen my brother
fall asleep while waiting for his moth
er-in-law-a peculiarly wide awake
olx =. II IL
be sorry if q careless debtor was some
times kept awake; but you can lay
down no rule in these cases, except
that each man is rule to himself.
"The various eccentricities and whim-
steal fancies of men and women who
suffer from wakefulness defy all rule,
and would be amusing if they were not
so dangerous to tho patient and dis
couragiHg to the doctor. There are
many persons who cannot sleep on the
left side, others who must have their
heads point 10 some pet quarter of the
compass, patients who demand noise
like the ticking of clock, and others
who require perfect silence 10 enable
them to fall asleep. What, forinstance,
do You think OF woman who cannot
or VIII not sleep in u room carpeted
with anything except straw mating,
and who cannot sleep in the same
room more than ten consecutive nights?
/ am assured and believe that she has
faithfully tried. again and again, to ex-
coed this ten night limit; that the eley-
enth night is invariably sleepless, the
twelfth excited, hysterical, perhaps,
the next worse, and so on, until, on
two occasions when. / have been called,
/ can assure you that her condition was
too critical to admit of suspicion of
malingering."
Are women more subject TO it than
men?" f. r
mot in my experience, nor is itcon-
fined to the physically or mentally
weak among men. A well known ath-
lcte has assured me that, after training
for some important event, he used of
ten to be thrown out of condition by
sleeplessness for several nights preced-
ing the trial of strength, until he found
that he could always sleep If the closet
door in his chamber was set wide open.
Even now, in travelling, if he occupies
q room without q closet, he is certain
to lose his nights sleep.
"a SAaFO hhu oOAA-OOhooihOu JudHOs
continued the physician, ''every night
ties black thread tightly around the
big toe of his left foot--the right won't
do at all-and with judicial gravity
claims that this is a certain cure for
what he used to call his might fits;'
while classmate of mine at college,
now an eminent and eloquent clergy
man, once confded to me, with much
self-reproach and perturbation of mind,
that whenever he had an attack Of
sleeplessness, he became at once pos
sessed by an irresistible temptation to
say damn, and that cabalistie word
once uttered, his unrest vanished, and
sleep came at once. Think, said he
to me solemnly, but with twinkle in
his eye, of minister of the gospel be-
coming irrcsponsibly profane for want
of something to put him to sleep, when
he has desk full of old sermons in
the house," }AbsNaN 1870 fA
..Irresponsibly profane," we re-
peated. i
Quite SO. Maudsley declares in