St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-05-24
HOW TO woo SLEEP.
Varying Opinions as to the Effect
of Regular and Irregular Noises
Upon Sleepers.

After all the experienced sleepers
who have told in the papers of the
last century or SO just how to SLEEP
when you can't sleep, there now
comes one with a new method. It
would be supposed that all the meth.
DDS had been exhausted, like the
sleepless persons who have tried
them, but it seems not. The new
discovery is that you can sleep best
where there are noises of irregular
nature and recurrence. 1t is suspect
ed that this method has the same
advantage as the air gun mentioned
in current play. that it can be
used only by the inventor, says the
New York Tribune.
He is true to his city. He prefers
a front room somewhere in the mid
die of the city to back room up
town. The back rooms uptown are
too quiet for him. Downtown there
are irregular noises-trolley cars,
which approach with low hum, ris-
ing to a whoop and sometimes a
scream and clang as they arrive,
and then depart with clash, fading
into a murmur and a soothing purr;
wagons which rattle, automobiles
which buzz, men who sing lullabies,
such as men do sing at three o'clock
in the morning, when they are on
their way home and think that the
people whose dwellings they pass
will like them; women who say
''good night. many times as they
reach home, and so on.
The sleeper's explanation is that
noises of different sorts, recurring
at irregular intervals, take his mind
off deep and continued thought on
any one subject, which might keep
him awake. This, he maintains, a
regular noise would not do. 1t has
been suggested that if he wants his
mind taken off his thoughts he must
have bad conscience, but he offers
to bet that his conscience is as good
as the next mans. The next man,
though blessed with much sporting
blood, declines to take the bet, be-
cause there is no way of settling it.
It has generally been believed that
for most persons more likely way
to induce sleep is to produce on the
mind a sense of monotony, rather
than of variety. The experience of
the witness just quoted seems to re-
semble that of the sleepy-headed peo-
pie in an old story, who always went
to sleep the moment they began to
be interested in anything. He even
goes so far as to maintain that the
old method of thinking of driving
pigs under a gate owes its efficacy
to the variety of the operation rath-
er than to it's monotony. The prob
able truth is that nobody ever did
go to sleep driving pigs under
gate. anyway.
OF the other stale ways of bringing
on reluctant sleep, the most seem to be
aimed at the production of sense of
and the freeing of the mind
from every thought of any possible va
riety or interest. One of the most IA
miliar, probably as useless-and also
as useful-as any, is to think of an
endless flock of sheep jumping over
wall. Another is to think of repeated
waves breaking on the beach. Akin to
this is one purporting to come from
India, which is to say continually to
ones self: "Om-om-om-om "om"
being, it is said, the Indian word for
sea. Anybody who thinks or knows
that ION" is not the Indian word for
sea is at liberty to say so; the writer
does not know. To count hundred
is almost too old way of going to
sleep to deserve mention, but here is