Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-07-08
REWARD or INSOMNIA
SLEEPLESS INDIVIDUAL HAS
SOME RECOMPENSE.
At Least He Can Rest His Body, and
Listening for the Coming of the
Day is Pleasure 70 Be
Appreciated.

Few men are more to be pitied than
the confirmed insomnia" Few men
seek more pity. Whose cannot sleep
must retail his tale OF trouble to his
associates, friends and chance &C
quaintances. He expects considera-
ton and unconsciously demands ad-
miration.
But as a matter of fact, nearly ev-
cry wakeful person in culpably respon-
sible for his wakefulness. The longer
he stays awake the more nervous and
more iTritated he becomes. He comes
to dislike himself, to dislike nature, to
dislike a world so poorly arranged.
His wakefulness is a tense mental
strain, more wearying than days
labor. The wearier he becomes the
more resentfuI he feels, and he RACES
against his helplessness.
All Of which is sheer folly. Going
to bed is as much for the purpose of
resting the body as of resting the
mind. If the mind refuses to rest, the
body should be given fair chance.
Counting TO impossible number and
such artificial devices are usually vain.
The best plan is to lie relaxed and at
ease, thinking Of something altogether
agreeable. A reading lamp at the head
Of the bed and a handy book may be
resorted to. Even if one stays awake
thus for hours his body is resting,
and in the morning he is partly re-
FvOrh1a A o+7, - r.
Fear of insomnia, or 'insomniaphO-
bia," is the aiIment from which most
sleepless persons suffer.
But if sleeplessness cannot be put
aside there is a certain reward for
the sufferer. He can listen for the
coming of the day, which is a pleas
ure denied to healthy sleepers Just
now he hears the first heralding of
dawn at about 3:45. The herald is a
rooster in some neighbours back yard.
Heretofore that rooster has been
greatly disIiked and the neighbor has
shared in his fowls unpopularity.
Raucous crowings have awakened
many a querulous slumberer. But
when one is wide awake the CHEEKY
welcome to the new day is altogether
agreeable. Chandelier calls and calls
and at length he has his answers; 9TH
er ROSTERS near and far send back
their sanction of his message of opti-
mism and confidence. And if the lis
tener peers beneath the window shade
there is the first showing of the wan
mystic light which battles the birth of
the dawn.
Ten minutes more and a robin be-
gins his song Once we'll begun he
does not cease for a long time. When
the light grows strong the robin be-
comes less enthusiastic and his song
is intermittent. Only at the days be-
ginning does he sing his best and
Ioudest.
A few more minutcs pass and an
orioIe commences to sing, or perhaps
a wren. And the busy English spar
rows cluck and chiTp right beneath
the window. There comes a faint rum
Bile from the awakening city. The
milkman clatters to the back door and
clatters away again. A little morning
breeze stirs the curtains, and breath
of it, fresh and cool, comes to the
crumpIed bed. A laborer passes whis-
Ting on his way to work, but it seems
a drowsy whistle. The robins music
seems to subside into a sleepy mono
tone. There is the almost soundless
sound of the f1tful wind in the maple
leaves. And then, and then-.-CleVe-
land Plain Dealer.