The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-10-13
DON'T STRIVE FOB SLEEP.

1
they pass sleepless night notice care
fully what happens. 1t will proba-
bly, be somewhat as follows Sup
pose, for instance, that they are in
the habit of being called at ,. 80 they
will hear the clock strike q, S, 6 and
7, and then, when the knock 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
explanation of this? Simply that by
far the commonest cause of prolonged
sleeplessness is the worrying about it,
the anxious effort to obtain sleep.
And so they lie awake hour after
hour wearily striving for it, till at
last, when 7 O'Clock strikes, the eff
fort is given up as useless, at once
the strain being taken off, the worn
out brain takes its rest-and sleep
which has been SO longed for comes
at last. A great physician has truly
said, "The body will always rest if
the mind will let it."
Some years ago, when house ply
sician at London hospital used to
experiment on this subject. On my
midnight rounds l would frequently
receive complaints of sleeplessness
from weary patients, often where
there was no pain or other definite
reason for it. 1 would say to them,
"Oh, it doesn't really matter, you
are resting all right; it won't do any
harm just lie awake and think how
comfortable you are here" Or to
the weaker natures / would say:
"Nurse shall bring you a poultice, y
or 81 will send you something when
l have finished my rounds" Almost
invariably on my reture twenty min
utes later they would be peacefully
sleeping, no further remedy was
needed.
Every doctor will tell you how Of
ten some simple sleeping draught is
sent and never taken-never needed.
The mere fact of knowing that it is
there is sufficient the anxious 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 striving to obtain
sleep. 1t follows therefore that all
such devices for procuring it, such as
counting an imaginary flock of sheep,
fixing the attention on the circula-
ton, m king an effort to stop
thought, are wrong theoretically, as
well as being worse than useless prac-
tically. What, then, is the real re-
medy? Why, simply to give up the
attempt 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
as one can, remembering that many
and many a man has had to lose a
nights rest before and has been little
if any the 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
morning, the last thing you remem
Der will be your determination to lie
awake.
Directly you cease to strive for
sleep, to ardently wish for it, the
strain will be taken off the brain, the
body will rest because 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 help to you. 1t is
the anxiety for sleep and the worry
ing about its absence, far more than
the sleeplessness itself, that cause the
feeling of prostration which follows
sleepless night. The man whose
duty or occupation has forced him to
give up nights rest is in a far bet
ter condition the next day than the
man who has spent restless night
in the vain and weary search for
sleep.