The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-11-04
MENTAL CONTROL OF SLEEP.
Tue Extreme Folly of Reviewing tn,
DaY in Bed.

Day in Bed.
Body and brain need exercise and re-
pose in rhythmic alienation; sleep Is
the natural restorative of both, says
the New York Post. Medical doctors,
according to their relative conscien-
tiousness, administer a dozen worthless
substitutes for natural sleep---from the
stimulant, which they say will fill the
| exhausted frame with new vigor and
postpone the need for slumber, to the
narcotic used to benumb excited nerves
and induce kind of counterfeit re-
pose. When that tired fleeing" comes
on instead of going for a dose Of kola.
one should so to bed. Taking some
thing in the nature of q drug, when
what the brain and body need is sleep,
* crime. If the conditions OF urban
life make it impossible for men or wo-
fmen to rest when rest is called for, and
they feel that they must continue to
work for several hours after being tired
out, those conditions are all wrong and
ought to be changed. The fancied me-
ceSsity is one against which men in
stnctively rebel, and they would glad
ly eliminate it from the problem of ex-
istence if they could only trust one
dhtlHtT anu ACT uIdUllllOuSlN.
However, a greater amount of work
can be accomplished in a given time,
and with less fatigue, when the hours
given to sleep are really hours of sleep.
Many persons on retiring, nominally
for the purpose of resting, give them
selves up to process more wearisome
to the brain than the active work of
the day. Instead of going to bed to
sleep they go to bed to think. Well
meaning moralists taught our parents
that they ought not to close an eye
in slumber before reviewing all the
transactions of the day and setting
them down as the debts or credits in
u Franklinesque sort of mental book
keeping. They must also impress upon
their wearied minds at that time facts
they desired to remember-texts of
Scripture, demonstrations in Euclid.
addresses of acquaintances, Latin dec
tensions or French verbs. Particularly
must they charge the mind with the
time chosen for waking in the morn
ing. If, after an hour, lying on his
back in strenuous serebration of this
sort, your father found that he could
nor go to sleep, he might think of in
terminable professions of sheep jump
ing one by one ove- a hedge, and count
them as they jumped: or he might
count his own heart-beats. or the tick
ing of the clock on the stairs If still
unable to sleep. he might sit up and
read for an hour or two, until his eye
lids felt as If lined with sandpaper
and his feet were like ice. BY this
time she clock would be striking one,
and he would begin to count the hours
till time to get up, and then, after de-
termining to have the satisfaction of
declaring in the morning that he did
not sleep a wink all night, he prob
ably fell into an uncomfortable, dream
plagued slumber.
Now, that Is not the way to sleep.
Instead Of taking cares to bed, one
should dismiss them the moment one
begins to undress. The bed should be
sacred to sleep. and ordinary waking
thoughts should not be permitted to
invade it for a moment. If the usual
working day proves too short for the
business that has TO be considered, let
the gas burn ali night for once, and sit
up to work it out; but do not go to
bed to lie awake thinking. Some per-
sons declare that they cannot cease to
think. When the light is out. and
there are nc external objects present
to divert the attention. the mind be-
gins to act with extraordinary persist
enCy and refuses to stop. They are at
its mercy. The best they can do is
to set it to counting silly rural sheep,
instead of calculating the movements
OF bulls and bears on the street"
Nonsense! Thinking is voluntary.
The current of thought can be stopped
by an act of the will as promptly and
almost as mechanically as the water
can be TUNED Oft at the bath room
faucet.
The trouble With us when we say we
cant stop thinking" is really what
we do not want to. Like the self de-
luded victim, Of bibulous Indulgence,
the man that cannot stop could stop
if he would. He that goes to bed
simply because it Is 10 o'clock, with
out at once and definitely dismissinG
thought, is an unconscious hypOcrlte.
He does not sleep, of course. and this
Is why it is better to sit up ana work,
SO long as the impulse (or need TO
WORK lasts, until one acquires the
power to suspend thought as well.
This can he cultivated--it must be 4
the brain is to do it's duty. The man
that cannot stop thinking soon falls
in with the popular idea that insom-
MIA is disease, and therefore beyond
his control. Disease-tnat magic word
that gives self indulgent weakness re-
spectability ana removes it from the
limbo Of responsible imperfections!
There is no limit to the power of an
intelligent will. Humboldt could live
ana be sane and useful on an allow
ance of two hours sleep out of the
- Edison once remained awake for
y hours in order to complete mental
task. Sucn feats, however are but
little harder than that of going to
sleep at will which Napoleon, with
Europe on his shoulders, was able to
do. Almost any business man would
pronounce them easier, bat sleep. be-
ing normal, should he far more readily
enjoyed than dispensed with.
BRITISH LANDOWNERS.