The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-15
"A NEW WAY TO GO TO SLEEP.
Description of a Method Which, 1t Is
Said, Is a Sure Cure for Insomnia.

Description of "A Method Which, 1t Is
Said, Is a Sure Cure for Insomnia.
From the New York Tribune.
There is no more dangerous enemy to
the perfect mental condition of man than
insomnia. While those engaged in liter
airy pursuits and large and complicated
business transactions are perhaps more
apt to be unsuccessful suitors for the
favor of the drowsy god, still any one
is likely to get into disgrace with this
guardian of slumber.
Long continued inability to sleep should
be regarded with the greatest and grav-
est suspicious. There is a wakefulness in
the advanced stages of the disease that
is more to feared than pestilence. Every
muscle of the human body may be SO
Frustrated with fatigue that fire with
in scorching distance would scarcely i'm
pei the victim to arouse to action. The
tongue could with difficulty frame brief
petition for its own life, and yet the brain
goes dancing off into the most beautiful
flights of fancy, and is equally capable
of sustaining the most complicated, logi-
cal, well-digested argument. There is a
state of mental ecstasy that completely
ignores the existence of the body.
This may seem to the fortunate being
who has never suffered the most advanced
stages of the disease to be an exaggerat-
ed statement. But there are thousands
who have suffered even up to and beyond
that point Beyond that point means IN
sanity and death. A person who had been
a great sufferer from insomnia said that
IL he could be nend enough to wish a
curse upon an enemy he would give the
faculties to enjoy life in the fullest and
then deprive him of the ability to sleep.
Medical books record an instance of a
man in China who had been convicted of
numbering his wife under the most mex
cusable circumstances. The prisoner was
condemned to die from want of sleep. A
guard was put over him, each man being
relieved of his duty when an hour had ex-
pired, so that the guard might by no posi-
bility fall asleep. The miserable man liv-
ed in this torture for nineteen days, but
at the beginning of the eighteenth day he
implored the authorities to kill him in
some more merciful way.
The brain that is for a long period de-
prived of the benefits of sleep cannot be
in a healthy condition. AT this particu-
larry dangerous stage OF the disease the
most powerful opiates have no more eff
feet than so much water. Even before
reaching this point there are many people
who cannot take opium or morphine in
any of the various forms. Thousands Of
cures for insomnia have been tried by
sufferers, only to be found inefficient
There is one that can be practiced by all
persons of sufficient amount of will
power. and II persisted in is infallible
Briefly and practically described, this
operation is to fancy your brain rolltop
desk. What you want to do is to shut
the IDEAS up tnefein. w men you come to
try this experiment, you will discover
that the smile of the rolltop desk. is i'm
perfect, inasmuch as the cover that closes
the thoughts in rolls from the front to
the back of the head.
Lie down. Get all the bedding and your
own personal garments smooth SO that
you may be comfortable You must at
tempt to lie perfectly still after you have
once decided upon a comfortab Bile position
Nothing, except mental activity, is more
calculated to keep you awake than giving
away to restlessness You are now 1,ra9
pared to close that mental rolltop desk and
pen up your thoughts until you want them
the next day. This shutting up is done by
a powerful effort of the will not to think.
This may seem paradoxical, but try II. If