The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-12-09
A TALK ABOUT SLEEP
A DOCTOR oVeRTHROWS AN OLD
THEORY AND exPoUNos A NEW ONE.

But can sleep, insisted the patient.
"Thats nothing, " repeated the doctor.
"Nothingl Why, l stay awake all
night,
"No. you don't e." rejoined tho doctor.
"You stay awake part of tho time and
dream some moro of the time that you re
awake, and betimes you sleep soundly."
'Well, you can put it that way IL you
want to- What I'm after is something
thatll make me sleep instead of lying
awake and will keep me from dreaming
that I'm awake"
You're going too fast, a." said the doc
tor I'm the first place, how do you know
that you need to sleep any more than you
dor Lots of people sleep too much for their
own good.
1--WE been accustomed to my seven
straight hours all my life, and | don't
know why l should cut down the allow
anco now"
"Some people," retorted the doctor.
come in here and say they We been accus-
toned to their throo square meals day
all their lives, and they don't see why they
should have dyspepsia now There are n
lot of possible dangers about too much
sleep in tho way of causing certain all
ments, to say nothing Of the wear and tear
of the nerves brought about by trying to
force yourself to sleep more than your ma
ture says, just because you've heard that
the normal man spends third of his life
in bed. Why, don't you know that the
! higher the intellectual rank the less sleep
| a man rcquircsp Goethe and Humboldt
| got along with two or three hours of sleep
| a day Napoleon needed only four or five
hours, and Kant scolded his pupils for ex-
| ceeding that limit. Now, you re intellec-
tual."
And n victim of insomnia, added the
| patient.
"When you re growing old, continued
the doctor, "you may know that your in
tellect Is all right and your powers are
unimpaired so long al you stay awake. It's
only when You feel constant need of
sleep that the decay of the mental facul-
ties has set In. "
! Then maybe I'm growing young, "
said the patient II used to take nap
after dinner and now | don't even do
that"
"A good thing for you. said the doc
tor. "You oughtnt to sleep after meals. "
"HOw about the famous siesta of Latin
countries?"
ats all wrong IL doctors wait long
enough, a case is pretty sure to come along
| that will tell them what they want t.
know It would, Of course, be easier tc
cut people up and find out the things we
| want to know as the questions arise, but
there are objections to doing that and sc
we have tn wait until good fortune injure:
somebody in the right way So 1T hap
| pened that once man had his stomach
I Il J. Dc. I....t 30,
made use of him. The doctor Learned
among other things that the process %
digestion became weaker while the maj
was asleep. The moral is that it isn't wei
to sleep after meals. Some people feel thu
need of nap after eating. That is be
cause their digestive apparatus isn't il
good working order or because they arr
gluttons In either case blood needed else
where is drawn to the stomach and thu
brain is impoverished. That's why ser
penis and certain other animals 20 Il
sleep after gorging themselves
"That may be all right about the othe
man," persisted the patient, but in I'M
case it is different don't sleep now he
cause I've had lot of care on my mind.
Maybe that's the reason and maybe j
isn't" replied the doctor Care work.
both ways Toward the end of his caree
Napoleon sometimes could scarcely keel
awake at critical moments in the midst o
a battle They said IL was his liver, but i
wasn't The same phenomenon was OBJ
served among the ancients. A passag
was called to my attention only tho othe
day from Montaigne's essay on sleep. H'
! describes the suicide of the Emperor Ohio
After having made all arrangements TO
, killing himself he was so overcome b.
drowsiness that he fell asleep and sooi
was snoring In the same way, Cation
when about to make away with himself
was overcome by sleep, and once the En-
peror Augustus, when engaged in nava
battle, could hardly keep himself AWAKE
long enough to give orders. "
Gan that is very interesting" said tn
patient But what has all that to d.
with my casep''
, Everything in the world" answered
the doctor. IF we only knew what sleel
was, might do something for you tina
would remedy the evil in direct manner
but unfortunately we don't We're no
even sure that we're anywhere near know
ing, but we think we are. DO you know
what the latest theory Of sleep isP O
course you don't It's only about tw'
years old, and it isn't yet in condition
for popular consumption. Ii is too com
plicated for me to explain to you Their
are too many technicalities and provisional
hypothesis and other involved things abou
1t. But the general idea of it is simpl
enough. You know there are such thing
as nerve cells, don't your Well, we use'
to suppose that they were continuous ant
formed a permanent line of communica
ton for ideas to pass over. Now we find
or at least we think we find, that they ar
only contiguous; that they connect on
with another by means of prolongations
, Sometimes they contract and draw Il
their prolongations, and then they are a
, much shut off and isolated as a medieva
baron used to be I'm his castle when b
, raised the drawbridge or as two cities ar
nowadays when q blizzard comes alonl
and blows down the telegraph wires Tha
, is sleep Sometimes IA few of the nerv
cells remain connected and exchang
: ideas That is what dreams are Whel
you're awake they're all connected, AM
as you go to sleep they contract and shu
, off the current Pretty theory. isn't II
Well. In your case, say, something wron
! that prevents the cells, or some of them
, from contracting and keeps them excited
So the thing to do is to try to soothe them
and that2s what I've been trying To dc