The morning call., 1891-01-02
SCIENCE OF. SLEEP.
A Lady's Plan for Preventing
Insomnia and Suicide.
Decentralization by the will-The Body and It's
Parts Must Be Surrendered Uncondition- i:
aly-Physieal Culture.

Women have been instructed in almost
everything that pertains to living. They
nave been taught how to walk and stand and
talk and how to eat, and now there comes a
lady from Boston to teach women how to 60
to sleep and how to behave after they have
gone to sleep. The etiquette of slumber
will strike the average reader as bit of alb
surdity, but, like most fads, this last new
one has something in it. l believe, says
writer in the New York Press, the pro-
mulgator of this new idea, Miss Alice
Cowell, names it the Hygiene of Sleep"
and her theory is ''the LIBERALIZATION of the
body That means that il you go to sleep
properly and according TO rule you will be
In the same state as if you were dead, save
Tor the fact that the circulation goes on. j..
You VIII not dream, you will not move,
neither will you talk and tell dreadful and
fatal secrets, as people do in books. You
simply lie an inert mass trusting to Provi-
dence and the bed to take care of you and
hold you up. Miss Cowell says it is " in
stinctiye egotiSm' that makes people try. to
look out for themselves when they are
asleep. They will not trust the bed for sup
port, but
CLING TO IT FINANCIALLY,
As if some sudden and malicious freak Of
the springs might toss them on the floor.
They dig their heads into the pillows as if
the feathers.
They clutch the ed-clothes, brace their
feet against the billboard, tie themselves
in knots and writhe and wiggle as If they
were upon red-hpt spikes. 1t is no wonder
that the sleeper gets up tired after such a
night as this. Not long ago heard a lady
say: " feel as if had been dancing all.
night" 80.
Women seem to be the greatest sufferers
from the antics of sleep. Miss Cowell tells
OF lady IN Boston who tore out whole
handfus of her husbands hair when asleep.
The poor man had either to. seek another
couch or buy wig, He chose TO-: do the
former. Miss CoWell makes tile statement
that II people would train themselves to al
low sleep It's greatest mission the woes of
the world would be reduced to minimum.
Suicides would be thing unheard OF. 1t is
this uHabated state of nerve tension that
brings about mental desperation. 1t makes
people nervous and critical. Everything is
awry, and the world is upside down.
The mission of Miss Coweil is to tell peo-
pie how to get unwound and lay them down
in peace. She says it is the habits we take
to bed with US that play the mischief with
divine sleep. How shall we conquer them?
Alter listening to lecture by Miss COWell
deduce the following synopsis OF her theory:
FIRST OF all, you must learn the science Of
LIBERALIZATION, and that is the spiritual side
OF physical culture. This great principle is
embodied briefly in these words: mind
active, body passive" The physical result
Is the perfect independence Of each mem Der
of the body. ~.
For instance, seamstress would have not
TO accompany every movement oil her needle
with like movement of her
BACK AND HEAD.
A scho0l-teacher uting one hand to clean
the blackboard would allow the other hand
to remain still. A writer would move the
pen without working the lips, or gripping
the pen until the whole arm ached. Few
people converse without working the fingers
in some way. There are orators who cannot
speak unless they comfort The body in the
most absurd manner. In this Way lot of
vital energy is wasted.
The exercise which Miss C0Yell gives be-
gins with the head, which is supposed to be
wooden ball, and is rolled about at will
1T won't fail off, says the teacher. ut
can't fall off. Then the arm is handled as
If 1t were "a log of wood, the leg swings like
pendulum from the hip, anu thus every
member of the body is devitalized. Even
the eyelids are taught self-cOitrol. The re-
suits OF these exercises are the calling INTO
activity Of all the muscles of the body, and
at the same time rendering them
WHOLLY INDEPENDENT
OF each other. Each member is made i'm
medlately res onsive to the call from the
brain and wholly Indifferent to ANYTHING
but its own business.
Now, how does this tend to produce rest
1ul sleep? Because the nerves AMI muscles
are trained TO keep still when they are not
wanted. Surrender yourself, lay your bur
den down: God will take care of you and
the bed will hold you, says the disciple of
9eVltailzation. The mind and body are
brought TO this perfect state of obedience by
the various exercises above men toned All
me different members of the body are I'm
hmDered, detached, so TO speak. These ex-
erclses must be conducted with great seri-
business and solemnity, but to the frivolous
outsider. VINO IS not familiar with the great
principles of physical regeneration. these
performances are aSfully funny.
:. After you have rendered your body en-
tlrely passive, thea get into bed, sit upright
ana conceive of the backbone as a strand of
beads. Then let yourselfdown slowly, bead
by bead, until the head falls back inert
upon the pillow. Drop the arms helplessly
and let the entire body be Invested of the
responsibility which the bed is there to as
sumo. You should lie upon the back If pos
slble; II not, upon the left side Such Is the
ber.-Pittsburg DISPATCH