Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1889-12-12
VICTIMS OF INSOMNIA.
They Form a Very Large Majority Of
Daily Brain Workers

less When wooing Tired Natures Restorer
Afflicted wretches Who Would Give
Worlds for snore.
The inexperienced observer, think
ing the matter over, will be very apt to
conclude that going to sleep is the most
simple and easiest thing in the world.
This is the popular view Of going to
sleep. And yet this popular view is
not OF universal application. There
are those to whom the attainment of a
substantial snore is what the coy Eyes"
of a sweet young thing is to the impas-
stoned lover.
The man who doesn't sleep either
retires very early or very late. He
adopts the latter under the vain de-
fusion that the longer he remains from
bed the more he narrows the space
which separates him from dreamland.
This is no more sensible than the act
OF the intoxicated person who leans
against the corner of his room waiting
for his bed to come around where he
is.
Sleep seems to have the ability to sit
and stay awake as long rs you. The
uluu tlnlClSu W luoOllllcly WHO - JlO
last 10 go to bed, late at night, is no
nearer sleep than he would have been
had he gone six hours earlier.
The sleepless victim who retires
early is the less coward. He faces his
fate boldly. II he gain no sleep by it
he has at least the merit of not at
tempting to dodge his enemy. He is
careful not to disturb this bit OF
somnolency. He disrobcs himself as
gently as if he were u slumbering in
FAINT He tries not TO think. He often
falls into doze when he has gotten
into bed. when he awakes in second
or two with the idea that he's about to
go to sleep, conviction which shocks
like piece OF ice on his spine. He
comes in an instant to full conscious
ness. His eyes unclose and are glued
open. Il may be that he has not slept
single minute during the proceed ing
three nights, and yet he is as wide
awake and no more sleepy than If he
had Just been aroused from a sound
slumber OF ten hours duration.
Now, the man who doesn't sleep finds
himself with wide staring eyes; and he
at once commences, seriatm, &,
thousand idiotic operations. l have
lain and counted. | have counted all
there is to count, forward and back
ward, by fves, tens, fifties and in
every other possible way. l have add
ed them, subtracted, multiplied them
and extracted their square and cube
roots.
have started sheep over fen ce
counting each as it sprang over. l
hn, chic
counted would more than cover farm
of 10000 acres. | am fully prepared
to swear that the sheep counting bust
ness, as a means inviting slumber, is a
mean humbug. With me it is played
out.
Another cure for insomnia is TO fast
en- the eyes immovably on a specll in
the wall. At hotel one night, l had
exhausted the sheep and pulse business
and all other available remedies save
the speck-curc. AS dernier resort /
fell back on this remedy. Convenient
ly and directly above me on the cell
ing caught sight OF what seemed the
black head OF nail. On this | fasteu-
ed my vision with the intensity that
mariner would fix his gaze on lamp
in a distant lighthouse, to lose view
of which would be instant destruction.
The man who doesn't sleep is never
at the end OF his resources. Trying
to look mentally at the end of his nose
Is one of the panaceas highly recon-
mended to produce sleep. Another
method is to tie handkerchief about
the hand.
All! the indescribable wretchedness
and horror of chronic insomnia! 1t is
filled with torturing decisions. The
wide-a-wake victim will hear the clock
strike the hour, and after an age will
fall into a slumber. He awakes sud-
denly with glad feeling. He has slept
for hours. 1t must be daylight, and
he looks eagerly at the windows to see
II there are any indications OF dawn.
The solemn clock begins to strike.
The last hour struck was 10. "Onem
1t is 1 o'clock, sure! He has slept
nearly two hours. "Twow He has
slept three hours. Glory, hallelujah
"Three!" 1t is o'clock, and his
heart swells with satisf ction. "Four!"
Better and better! The horrible night
mare which has bound him is suddenly
wrenched from him as were the tenta-
cles OF the devil fish which Enclosed
the body of Gilliatt "Four!" He is
cured. "Five!' Six hours sleep! His
soul overfows with an ecstatic Joy.
"Six!" Why, it must be past day
light. The curtains must be all closed
so as TO shut of the lightm
"Sevenm What. no light yetp He
eagerly scans the blaclxness. Let me
once more see the blessed day. He
rushes to a window. pulls back the
curtain and gazes. Nothing but dark
ness, profound, impenetrable. A pres
sure falls on his heart and groves
weightier rs the memorable clock
strikes Eighth Miner 'Tenl"
"Eleven!" "Twelve!" 1t is midnight
and his sleep, his remumerative slum-
Der, did not extend over a single min
ute.
Insomnia is not pain; that is, ply
steal pain. 1t is something in the ma
ture OF u blank, dead, level, sandy
desert on which there rests dull
glare. One thinks incess ,ntly and in.
coherently. An impression inserts
itself in the vagrant thoughts to the
effect: "If l don't sleep soon, it Is
idiocy, heart disease, or DEATH" I'm.
der the influence OF this impression. the