Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1888-12-28
Why Don't You Sleepl

know to the full the futility Of recipes
Some advocate a pine needle pillow some
hop pillow others, one 80 hard that il
might have Jacobs stone in the middle.
For the first two you are opposed by their
odor-oppressed rather than soothed the
last makes your head ache and gives you
sore spine all the day after. Others,
again, tell you 10 eat and drink just before
going to bed.
A "nightcap" they say, of genial spiri'v
with few biscuits munohed di.cretely,.
will do wonders for you. The blood
brought from the brain to the stomach
and an active indigestion will cure your
sleeplessness like magic. You follow their
advice-the prescription being pleasant
and you find that you have to take your
liver and your "gouty diathesis" IN hand
as the result, with no better nights in the
way of sleep than before. You are told to
battle your face and wrists in cold water,
and Won do 30, whereby you have swing
ing cold which confines you In bed for a
week and to the house for fortnight.
Then you have mental phylactics
and you hear with envy how one n;ar
cures himself OF insomnia, drives off ths
hags who beset him, and wins back til,
sweet genius of sleep by counting imasin-
ary sheep jumping over an imaginary
fence. He goes off like lamb, he ssys
before he gets to the hundredth. You Try
the same experiment, and you go on to q
thousand or more-with the result Of feel
ing in a kind of whirlwind where the fly
ing straws take the form OF aeecy ewes
and the whirling dust heaps are acrobatI'
rams.
Yonr jumping sheep become ms torturinl
as that barrel organ tune which sounds il
your ears, do what you will, and they sticl
to your brain as the tune sticks-reason o
none. As for that nnbidden music, yo,
think to exercise 1t by going over tn,
strain frOm the first note to the last. YoI
are conscientious in your memory and pn
in every thrill and quaver that may bav'
been incorporated. Now, then, you thinl
yon have finally laid that noisy demon
and are free to turn your mind to the con.
temptation OF silence. Not bit of II
Suddenly the tune starts ont again, loud
er, clearer, more insisting than before, an,
yom have 10 GO over vour work once more
and have for the second time the bitter
ness of failure. You try, too, TO com
|, upon sleeping by repeating poetry-all tn
poetry yon know. Sometimes this has
lulling effect, as when you ponnd away a
, = piece you know by heart as familIarly a
the alphabet. But, for the most part, yo
wsken up yourself by Just so much as yo
think to have soothed, and the repetition
of poetry proves, like the counting c
sheep, mental stimulant instead Of sed
amert. Then you are wider and wide
awake than ever, and your pains are in
, creased, not lightensd, says the Ionic
Queen.
! Then flows in on you all The Sol
would gladly forget insist on being re
| membered with Photographic clesrne,
l and gigantic proportions. Are yon lii
tie at cross-corners with beloved friend
v the slight Misunderstanding which
: few moments OF honest talk will cle'
away becomes the fracture of your friend
/ ship, which no time, no effort can repai
The word that was said in thonghtlessne
becomes the intentional insult-the de
v signed outrage. The look that had J
Significance at all becomes as the thru
. OF sword and the sting of whip; al
= whenever you can torture Yourself you d
--all because the power Of sleep has gol
e from you and your feverish blood ia firir
d your throbbing brain. So with all yo
life. II you are in momentary Difficult
II about money, yon are on the verge Of ruI
e and the threshold OF the workheuSe.
% you have had an in6nitismal check
your career you are cast down from yo
k secure holding, and can never make yo
% footing sure again. Whatever may ha
d happened to rufile the still waters of 4
1t lake and break the deep silence of &
% woods IA a ostsclysm no less OF ,leeplessn'
exaggerates like microphone, Al
~ makes the footsteps of fiy like the swim
n, ing tread of the grenadier. Thus y
/ give yourself mp for lost and to I
physical iormenis of your condition a
10, added the mental agonies OF fears, desp.
rs and anticipated destruction.