Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 160, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1910 — ODD WAYS OF COAXING SLEEP. [ARTICLE]

ODD WAYS OF COAXING SLEEP.

“Spectacle Monoscope” a Device Especially Recommended. Some very sensible observations on the question are contained in a book written by Dr. Haydn Brown, just -published by Messrs. Hutchinson. Warmth and ventilation he regards as two essentials to sleep. “Every bed that once would have had a warming pan put through It each night,” he says, “should to-day at least have an India-rubber hot-water bottle —for the comfort of the robust as well as the unhealthy. Cold provokes indigestion, which keeps people awake; therefore It behooves the thoughtful to keep cold out by whatever reasonable means the present century’s inventors may afford us.” Dr. Haydn Brown favors the Weir Mitchell treatment to induce sleep—the fixing of the mind on a single subject; but thinks the tiring of the eyes method discussed some time ago by Sir Walter Laird Clowes, though founded on the wrong assumption that the eyeballs rotate in sleep, is more efficacious. Impressed by the benefits obtained by Dr. Edwin Ash’s hypnoscope and Dr, Braid’s earlier method of tiring the eyes to induce hypnotic sleep, the London Outlook says, Dr. Brown invented what he calls a monoscope, to fix on a pillow or cushion, to direct the vision to a minute reflected light upon which the eyes are centered until rest and sleep ensue. But a still more effectual appliance in certain instances, he considers, Is the result of hds recent researches, the “spectacle” monoscope. This Is described as a long, oval disk of aluminum, having a pair of arms like those of ordinary spectacles which pass over the ears. Upon the disk are placed two spots, which, when In comfortable position over the eyes, appear as one. After looking at this spot for a few moments the sensation of tiredness of the eyes and a desire for sleep is irresistible. A few seconds are sufficient to sleep some subjects."