Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1889-12-06
VICTIMS OF INSOMNIA.
They Form Very Large Majority Of
Daily Brain Workers
Torturing Decisions That Haunt the Sleep
less When Wooing Tired Natures Restorer
Afflicted Wretches Who Would Give
Worlds for q Shore

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 n
substantial snore is what the coy yes"
OF 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 droamand
This is no more sensible than the act
Of the intoxicated person who leans
against the corner OF his room waiting
for his bed 10 come around where he
is.
Sleep seems to have the ability to sit
and stay awake as long as you. The
man afflicted by insomnia, who is the
last 10 90 10 bed, late at night is no
had he gone six hours earliec.
The sleepless victim who retires
early is the less coward. He faces his
fate boldly. If he gain no sleep b. 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 disrobes himself as
gently as if he were "a 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 idel that he's about to
60 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
n single minute during the proceed ing
three nights, and yet he is as vide
awake and no more sleepy than If he
had just been aroused from sound
slumber OF ten hours duration.
Now, the man who doesn't sleep finds
himself with wide S.aring eyes; and he
at once commences, seriatim. {.
thousand idiotic operations. | have
lain and counted. l have counted all
there is 10 count, forward and back
ward, by iives, tens, fifties and in
every other possible way. | have add
ed them, subtracted, multiplied them
: and extracted their square and cube
roots.
: ! have started sheep over a fen ce
counting each as it sprang over. |
have continued this till the sheep
counted would more than cover farm
Of 10000 acres. ! am fully prepared
TO swear that the sheep counting bust
ness, as 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 speck in
the wall. At hotel one night, had
exhausted the sheep and pulse business
and all other available remedies save
the speck-curc. AS dernier resort l
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 fasten-
ed my vision with the intensity that a
mariner would fix his gaze on lamp
in distant lighthouse, TO lose a 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 "a 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 q 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
, IL there are any indications Of dawn.
The solemn clock begins TO strike.
I The last hour struck was 10. "Oner'
1t is l o'clock. sure. He has slept
nearly two hours. "Twor He has
slept three hours. Glory, hallelujahl
Three 1t is 3 O'clock, and his
heart swells with satisfaction. "Four!'
Better and better! The horrible night.
mare which has bound him is suddenly
. wrenched from him as were the tenta-
Giles of the devil fish which iuclosed
the body OF Gilliatt "Four!" He is
| cured. "Fiver' Six hours sleep! His
soul overnows with an ecstatic joy.
"Sixw Why. it must be past day
: light The curtains must be all close
so as to shut of the light"
'Seven" What no light yetP lie
eagerly scans the blackness. 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 as the memorable clock
(: strikes Eight "Nine" TEN
: 'Eleven!" "Twelve!" 1t is midnight
, and his sleep, his remumerative slum
: Der, did not extend over "a single min.
q ute.
Insomnia is not pain; that is, p by
steal pain. 1t is something in the ma.
ture of IA blank, a dead, level, sandy
: desert on which there rests dull
glare. One thinks incess ,ntly and in
coherently. An impression insert:
itself in the vagrant thoughts to the
4 effect: "If / don't sleep soon. il /.
5 idiocy, heart disease, or DEATH" I'm.
4 der the influence OF this impression, the