The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-02-11
DON'T BE sLEEPLEss.
Slumber Softly Till the Baby Wakes
You up.

UneTe can De no uOuDU Whichever VI Ino SUI
stantial benefit which would thereby be
secured for mankind. Some fortunate in
dividuals, like Napoleon l., can command
sleep the moment they lay their heads on
the pillows, others find themselves all
through life sleeping the sleep of the jus
every night, without any difficulty be-
ing experienced as to occasional wakeful-
ness, except when illness happens to super
vene.
The Duke of Wellington, who always
slept on a camp bedstead, had maxim
that when a man turned in bed it was time
to turn ont; aud here it may be remarked
that great soldiers appear to be peculiarly
constituted in their power to .ummon sleep
at will. Finally this may be due to the
habits of discipline which they have
learned. They say to their brains, go to
Sleep" and at once the word of command is
obeyed,
Insomnia, however, is an evil of civiliza-
ton, which is growing, and If the letter
which a correspondent has addres ed to "a
weekly contemporary is to be relied on a
plan has at last been hit upon to cure the
MALAY and to secure natures sweet restorer
at moments notice. We are oil familiar
with the stereotyped advice in cases of this
kind to "turA the pillow" to think of
something else" or to imagine and count a
number of mountain sheep going through a
gate. Many time and oft has the too
wakeful brain-worker attempted TO carry
these and similar prescriptions into practice,
usually with results diSproportionate to the
efforts Involved.
1t may be said without much exa ygeraton
that the man who can first imagine flock
of sheep, t. en- a half opel gate, and then
| can force his hypothetical sleep to go
through one by one without crowding or
dod eng or turning tai, is fit for treason,
strategems, or writing the sublimest poetry.
He is no ordinary man, and it Is for ord
nary individuals tlat the saving prescrip-
ton is required.
What, taen, does our latest saviour of
| society precisely recommend? First of all
ne enters into a sort of philosophical ra-
| tionale of sleep and no sleep. at is now, |
| believe he writes, generally accepted
thai our conscious Notwithstanding proc
esses are carried on in the sinister half of
| our brainsn-why does he not say the left
| half at once!-"that is, in the lobe which
| controls The action of the right arm and
leg" He has thought and thought again of
what use the dexter half of the brain"
could possibly be, and he concludes that the
| right lobe is the organ which is employed
dong what is called unconscious cerabara-
| ton" in table-turning and other splritualiS-
| tic manifestations.
NoA, during sleep we "unconsciously
| cerebrate,n which accounts for our dreams
being of a character which the correspond
| ent only family describes when he calls
! hem Fantastic, non-moral and sprte-
| like Musing on these matters, he came
| to the practical difference that to bring
| back sleep when lost we must quiet the
| conscious, thinking and left side of cur
brains, and bring into activity the right
side alone.
This sounds all very well, but it might
turn out very difficult TO split our brains
into two halves, and begin using the
right side when we want the left to be EN-
loved. However the proof of this par
ticular prescription Of course lies in the
question whether it really induces sleep or
not.
ARMED with this idea" says the COM
inendable experimental correspondent, the
next time | found myself awakened at 2 or
3 O'Clock il the morni g, Instead of merely
trying to Danish painful thoughts and re-
peating, as was my habit, that recommend
able Soporlhc, Paradise and the Peri |
reverted at once to the dream from which
had awakened and tried to go on With Il.
| In moment was dsleepl And from tn t
time the expe imeut. often repeated. has
hardl9 ever failed Not seldom the result
| is sudden as the fall of curtain, aud seems
| like a charm"
| 1t would be more consoling if we we're
| told that the plan "never" failed, instead
| of "hardly ever" also we need advice as TO
| when a person has had no dream to think
OF, or cannot for the life Of him remember
what 1t was, and obviously it is impossi-
BILE to begin to think about our last DIR am
wnen one has only Just gone to bed. With
these deductio s, the plau may be as well
worth trying as any other. We cannot
always have volume of sermons at our
bedside.
Among prescriptions of a more or less
sensible kind which have been at various
lines propounded and actually put into
use for inducing sleep may be me toned
the hop pillow, in which our forefathers
had considerable faith, the narcotic es-
sential oil which produces the hop scent
being supposed to be exceedingly sopo-
rifle.
The hop pillow was used by George III.
habiturallv when that monarch suffered
from insomnia. Then S. A. Ellis long ago
announced as a grand discovery to tae Scot
tisn Curative Mesmeric Association that
sleep was all matter of whicn way ones
head points.
In a certain direction the electricity of
the earth, which is supposed to flow be-
tween the poles, passes along the body, and
so tends to the enjoyment of repose. Per-
sons wishing to avoid sleepless nights nj st
therefore, Sir. Ellis advised, always sleep
south by north, with their heads poin ing IN
the latter direction, and they must mot re-
ligiously avoid attempting to slumber If
JAeir bed lies east and west.
This idea boasts some supporters nova
days, but the consequences II its universal
prevalence would lead to extraordinary re-
suits For example, architects would have
gre tier difficulties in building suitable
private reside ces than they encou ter
even now, if they were obliged TO put their
doors and fireplaces so that every apart
ment would allow Of q bed being situa ell
in exactly the same position all over the
house.
Let us imagine also a country house,
where the ge tlomen all retired to bed
about IL o'clock the ladie, having departed
TO rest long before. What a rude awaken
ing would ensue for the latter when they
were suddenly reused by hearing horrible
rumbliugs as OF thunder IN the rooms on
every side and above them They would
think it was On earthquake without doubt;
whereas, as a mere m tier of fact, 1t would
be only that each guest was simultaneously
attempting to shift his four poster into a
line coasonant with the teachings Of cleo
trical science.
There was, moreover, London gentle
man who years ago really believed he had
found an ab-outely certain prescription
for banishing wakefulness, and he was will
ing 10 implrt his knowledge TO other for
a handsome fec on the express C ndition
that the information should Ego no
further"
When the sleep practitioner died one Of
his patients info med an expectant world