Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-19
DON'T STRIVE a9FoR SLEEP.
II You Do You're vesy Apt to Spend I.
SleeHtess Night.

From the London Spectator.
Let any readersf when next they pass q
sleepless night notice carefully what hap
pens. 1t will probably fbe somewhat as fol-
lows: Suppose. for instance, that they are
in the habit of being palled at 1880; they
will hear the clocHs strife 4, 5, 6 and 7, and
then. when the kHock at the door comes,
they will either be fast asleep or else they
will drop asleep Immediately afterward.
and in either case possibly they will, to
their intense disgust, oversleep themselves.
What is the expla natlon of this? Simply
that by far the cpmmpnest cause of pro-
it, the anxious effort to obtain sleep And
so they lie awake hour after hour YEARLY
striving for it, until at last, when strikes
the effort is given up as useless; at once,
the strain being taken off. the worn-out
brain takes its rest-the sleep which has
been SO longed for comes at last great
physician has truly said: 1.-The body will
always rest if the mind will let it,
Some years ago when house physician at
London hospital used to experiment on
this subject. On my midnight rounds I
would frequently receive complaints of
sleeplessness from weary patients, often
when there was no pain or other definite
reason for it. l would say to them: ''Oh,
1t doesn't really matter, you are resting all
right; it won't do you any harm; just lie
awake and think how comfortable you are
/
say: Nurse shall bring you a poultice,"
or Il will send you something when L have
finished my rounds" Almost invariably
on my return, in twenty minutes time,
they would be sleeping peacefully; no fur
ther remedy was needed.
Every doctor will tell you how often some
simple sleeping draught is sent and never
taken-never needed. The mere fact of
knowing it is there is sufficient; the anX-
ious dread of another sleepless night has
been taken away, the mind is at rest, and
sleep comes in the natural way. And so it
would seem that by far the commonest
cause OF sleeplessness is the anxious striv-
ing to obtain sleep. 1t follows, therefore,
that all such devices for procuring it, as
counting an imaginary flock of sheep. fixing
the attention the circulation, making an
effort to stop thought, are wrong theoretic-
ally, as we'll as being usually worse than
useless in practice. What, then, is the real
remedy? Why, simply to give up the at
tempt to sleep If ones sleep does not come
as usual. Give up trying. If sleepless
night is to be ones lot, one must accept it
as philoSophically one can, remembering
that many and many man has had to lose
nights rest before and has been little, if
any, worse for it. To the sleepless one I
would say: make up your mind to stay
awake for the night" Nine times out of
ten the blessing, striven for in vain, will
come unsought. and that almost immediate
ly, so that on looking back the next morn
ing the last thing you remember will be
your determination to lie awake.
Directly you cease to strive for sleep, to
wish ardently for it, the strain will be
taken off, the brain-the body-will rest be-
cause the mind Is no longer preventing it,
and sleep will be the happy result And to
make the requisite observation-disclosures,
should say, renunciation-this thought may
be a help to you. 1t is the anxiety for
sleep and the worrying about its absence,
far more than the s1eeplessness itself, that
cause the feeling of prostration which fol-
lows a sleepless night. The man whose
duty or occupation has forced him to give
up nights rest is in a far better condi-
ton the next day than the man who has
spent a restless night in the vain and weary
search for sleep. 20 20