Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1905 — HOW SLEEP MAY BE WOOED [ARTICLE]

HOW SLEEP MAY BE WOOED

Varninti •( the Peet Will Quiet the NerTOU Brain. Most of tbe mental devices for wooing sleep have failed because they have nearly always tried to resort to “loaU treatment” In other words, they have made a homeopathic attempt to stop thinking by thinking about something else, a process which might also be called “elimination by substitution.” But all thinking, spontaneous or forced, draws more or less blood to the brain, prevents deep Inhalations and bars the gate to the kingdom of dreams. Any device, on the other hand, which will make one take deep long breaths spontaneously, the invariable forerunner of sleep, may be counted upon as a genuine remedy for insomnia. Even deep breathing' which is forced is better than any purely mental attempt to win sleep, but if the deep breathing can be produced involuntarily one is sure of a passport to Nodland. After several nights of experiment to this desired 'end the writer decided to apply the principle adopted by the masseurs, who begin their manipulations “at the point farthest from the seat of difficulty,” which in the case of insomnia would be the feet Lying on the right side, with the knees together and considerably flexed, the victim of insomnia should begin to pedal both his feet slowly up and down, with the movement entirely in the ankles. The pedaling should keep time with the natural rhythm of respiration and be continued until it is followed by deep and spontaneous breathing. Several people who have tried this remedy report that involuntary deep breathing Invariably begins before they have pedaled up and down a dozen times. In obstinate cases of insomnia the patient may need to keep up the pedaling two or three minutes or even more, with intermissions, if necessary. The treatment may also be varied by moving the feet alternately Instead of simultaneously, though the latter method has proved the more speedily efficacious in the cases known to the writer. The explanation of the result obtained is probably simple. The blood is pumped from the head, and with the removal of brain tension a general relaxation follows, with a sequent deep respiration and its resulting sleep.—Good Housekeeping.