The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1897-06-09
Reasons and Remedies for Insomnia
Leslie's Weekly

In the first place. beds are too often UNI
comfortable. motto of every house
keeper should be: Whatever else my house
contains. IL SHALL have comfortable beds.
They should be numerous enough so that
each and every member of the family can
have bed to himself: the mattress should
be Of hair on woven-wire or other good
spring undation; and the coyerlets
should be light or medium weight wool
blankets only. with more within easy
reach.
In the second place. half the people in
the world do not know that bedroom
should be ventilated. IL need not have a
gale blowing through 1t. but. as 1t would
he uncomfortable TO sit for seven or eight
hours awake in room without change OF
air SO il is quite as bad or worse to lie
asleep in such room. See that a con-
slant stream of fresh air gets into Your
sleeping room somehow. Except in the
very coolest weather. il Is usually feasible
for everybody to have a window open more
or less. as is found best. At home one can
usually have a door open also.
Scientists tell us that the air in room
is like the water in q lake or river. There
is a current which moves that in the mid
die. but that along the edges is more or
less stagnant. If your head Is close
against the wall YOU are breathing over
and over this stagnant air II your lungs
are ar all sensitive you VIII become uncom-
Portable Your organs will demand freer
air. You will toss. You will wake up.
You will find IL hard TO get TO sleep again.
The first you know you will have chronic
insomnia.
This leads 10 the third consideration,
which is. beware OF the alcove.
In the old days beds were closely cur
tanned. We have lived 70 deride and dis
card those smothering draperies. once re-
earded as necessary to refined living; but
the aIcove is scarcely less harmful than
the fashioned curtains. II you are
obliged to keep your bed in an alcove
move it well forward before retiring for
the night While avoiding the direct draft.
get as near The current In he middle Of the
room as you can, and as far from the
stagnant pool OF air in the end of the al
cove.
a lady who was In the habit of resting
for half hour or so after luncheon every
day. on a lounge in aicove In her IL
brary, found herself for years unable 10
rest comfortably on IL. Sometimes she
would have a headache soon after lying
down. Al other times she simply felt uu-
comfortable. and was impelied TO get up
and resume her work though she could
not tell why. After three or four years
she bought new couch somewhat easier
than the old one, but she was still unable
TO rest we'll on II. After nine years of this
puzzIing difficulty ii occurred 10 her one
day that ii she should move the couch out
of the shallow aieoge In which Il stood she
might rest better on IT, She found that
she had solved the mystery. During the
several months which have passed sinre
then she has rested most TRANQUILITY on the
couch. without headache and without any
OF the old sitting feeling for which she
could not account
The. alcove may give 20 room an ar
sistfc appearance but II Is undoubtedly y
check upon the breathing powers OF the
human lungs. DO not Try In sleep in an
alcove nor close against a wall OF any
sort.
In the fourth place carefully regulate
the amount OF clothing upon your bed IL
you must have a great deal of air in your
room. an average person viii need per-
haps three or four medium weight blank
cts for temperature Of from thirty to
forty degrees. Fer from Fifty 10 sixty de-
srees TWO good blankets should keep a
healthy person warrl-and so on. Night
sweats are often brought on by too heavy
clothing during sleep. snd especially by
the use OF conf II "a oles' and down quilts.
which arc Tnost unhygsenie and should
never be used in this latitude except in
the hftterest weather.
With proper beds. properly placed IN
properly ventilated rooms aIid supplied
wish just the right amount % clothing
the testimony az every fairly healthy man
eaca morning should be like that Of the
poet:
'.Nisai slid down one long stream o. sigh
ing wind
Ara in her Bosom bore ths baby. sleep"