The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1888-08-09
THE FleNps IN YOUR PILLOW.
The Horrors of Insomnia, From Which
There is no Escape.


Those who are afflicted with insom-
MIA know to the full the futility of re-
cipes. Some advocate a pine-needle
pillow: some hop pillow; others one
so hard that it might have Jacobs
stone in the middle. For the first two
you are oppressed by their odor-op-
pressed rather than soothed; the last
makes your head ache and gives you
sore spine all the day after. Others,
again, tell you TO eat and drink just
before going to bed. A 'nightcap,"
they say, of genial spirits, with a few
biscuits munched discreetly. will do
wonders for you. The blood will be
| brought from the brain to the stomach
and an active digestion 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 result, with no
better nights in the way of slumber
than before You are told to bathe
your face and wrists in cold water, and
] You do SO. Whereby you have a
swinging cold which confines you to
| bed for a week and to the house for a
fortnight.
Then YOU have mental prophylactics,
| and You hear with envy how one man
cures himself of insomnia, drives of
the hags who beset him. and wins
back the sweet Genius of Sleep by
counting imaginary sheep jumping
over an imaginary fence. He goes of
like a lamb, he says, before he gets to
the hundredth. You try the same ex-
pertinent and you go on to thousand
OF more-with the result of feeling in
kind of whirlwind, where the flying
straws take the form of fieecy ewes and
the whirling dustheaps are aerobatit
rams. Your jumping sheep become as
torturing as that barrel-organ tune
which sounds in your ears, do what
YOU will, and they stick to your brain
as the tune stieks-reason or none. As
for that unbidden music, you think te
exercise it by going over the strain
from the first note to the last. You
are conscientious in your memory. and
put in every little trill and quayer thai
may have. been Incorporated. Now
then, you think, you have finally laid
that noisy demon and are free to turr
your mind to that contemplation of sill
ence. Not bit of it. Suddenly the
tune starts out again, louder, clearer
more insisting than before. and yot
have to go over your work once more
and have for the second time the bit
terness of failure. You try, too, t.
! come upon sleep by repeating poetry
all the poetry You know. Sometimes
} this has a lulling effect. as when you
) pound away at piece known by hear
as Familiarity as the alphabet. But fO
the most part you waken up yourself
3 by just so much as you think to have
| soothed; and the repetition of poetr.
, proves, like the counting of sheep, ;
: mental stimulant instead of a sedative
Then you are wider and wider awake
) than ever, and your pains are increased
not lightened.
Then there flow in on You all tn
sorrows of your life, and everythin!
,, you would gladly forget insists on be
: ing remembered with Photographic
clearness and in gigantic proportions
Are you little at cross corners with !
beloved friend?-the slight misunder
standing, which few moments OF hon
est talk will clear away, becomes tn
fracture of your friendship, which NJ
time, no effort, can ever repair. Ih
word that was said in thoughtlessnes
becomes the intentional insult-the de
| 4Hc iOoh blfLC hsiA A'
significance at all become as the thrus
of sword and the sting of whip; ant
, wherever you can torture yourself yol
J do-all because the power OF sleep ha
gone from you and your feverish bloo'
IS firing your throbbing brain. S
with all your life. If you are in mo
mentary difficulty about money, yol
are on the verge of ruin and the thres
hold of the workhouse. If You hav
had an infinitesimal check in Your Ca
reer, you are cast down from your sc
cure holding and can never make you
footing sure again. Whatever ma
have happened to ruffie the still water
of the lake and break the deep silenc
of the woods is Il cataclysm, no less
and sleeplessness eXaggerates like tn
microphone and makes the footsteps
of fly like the swinging tread of
grenadier. Thus you give yourself VI
for lost; and to the physical torment
of your condition are added the menta
agonies of fear, despair and anticipates
destruction.-Lond Queen.