Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1915-04-06
How To Sleep Despite Insomnia

How To Sleep Despite Insomnia
In the present age of overwork and
artificial excitement there are numer-
GUS people who find it very difficult to
get sufficient sleep.
Included in this category are those
who suffer from sick headache, hys'
terical and neurasthenic persons, those
under the influence of some obsession
and melancholic and homeopathic SUBJ
jects of all kinds. ..
It is futile to increase the doses.
They have no further effect. But they
are noxious and poisonous to the sys-
TEN, so that the remedy becomes worse
than the disease.
Sleep may be obtained by simple
means. 1t is enough to act upon the
brain by means of physical agents. The
patient may be induced to fall asleep
by some continuous, monotonous exclt-
alton, a prolonged use of the sense of
sight as, for instance, by the fixation
of some brilliant object, or Of the sense
of NEARING by means of the ticking OF
a pendulum.
When the doctor has succeeded In
making the patient fall asleep he en-
deavors to cause him to sleep as long
as possible This is a difficult matter
in cities where noises are too intense
and too varied. They do not cease
even during the night, and increasingly
they recall to the nervous patient his
business, his occupations and social
obligations.
The physical and moral overstrains
which are the inevitable consequence
of our intense civilization must be
counteracted by sleep, which while re-
pairing the nervous waste will also
strengthen and temper the nervous
energy.
For this purpose scientific methods
are being devised and applied In the
establishment of homes for treatment
by means of sleep "cure" remote
from towns. DR.. Felix Regnault in an
excellent article on this subject, from
which the information here given is
extracted speaks in the highest terms
of a sanitarium founded for this pur-
pose by DR.. Lemesle of Loches.
His establishment is situated in Tou-
raine, country with mild and equa'
BILE climate and light atmosphere. he
causes his patients to sleep by the
means indicated above, and If these
are insufficient he has recourse to
still more efficaciouS remedy-namely,
blue light.
AS DR.. Windt, the celebrated German
physiologist, first pointed out, the diff
ferent rays of the solar spectrum nave
a varied action on the nervous system.
Mons. Lumiere of Lyons observed that
those of his employees who worked IN
rooms illuminated by red light became
nervous and rapidly fatigued.
This effect disappeared when he re-
| placed the red light by means CT green.
Red is, in fact, for men as well as for
animals, the most exciting part of the
spectrum. Green gives tranquility,
| while violet, indigo and blue are sooth'
ing. Patients are therefore treated by
phototherapy. The walls and ceiling
of the room are all papered or painted
blue and the windows have blue glass
| All the furniture is lacquered in white
or blue in order that no other color
! may combat the influence OF the blue
| light.
When night falls light is supplied by
| electric lamps with blue bulbs. In or
der to effect a gradual transition be-
tween the sedative blue and the ordln
airy white light the corridors and halls
are illuminated with green light. After
a short sojourn in the blue light the
nervous patients begin to feel the
incessant flow of ideas diminish. Calm
| comes little by little and presently re
| freshing sleep.
Amid such surroundings the patient
| soon has to sleep. Care is taken not
to disturb him. The more the sleep
can be prolonged-for days or even
weeks-the more the subject will bene
fit from it's efficacy. The patient takes
| his food and attends to his own wants
| in a quasi-automatic manner, immedl
| ately afterwards resuming his inter
| rupted sleep. Many overworked and
nervous people from the cities, who
complain of thousand different ills
would be rapidly restored to health by
such sleep cure"