The Watchman And Southron

Sleep Without Drugs

Starting with the proposition that blood flows out of the brain when one goes to sleep, Dr. John V. Shoemaker offers some hints to sufferers from sleeplessness. Drugs act temporarily but in the end prove injurious. To quote from a recent article in the Saturday Evening Post:

Distractions of the mind are excellent remedies for insomnia. It is often a good idea to send a nervous patient to the play, the opera or the minstrels. His attention is called away from himself and his troubles; he comes home and goes peacefully to sleep. Nor is the effect of music to be despised. It has a tendency to soothe irritable brain cells, and in many instances I have known it to produce most happy results. The use of water outside and inside of the body is neglected. There is a great deal in the old fashioned water cure, though charlatans once brought it into disrepute. The next time you suffer from insomnia take a hot bath and swallow a bowl of water as hot as you can drink it. The two together will make your skin act, stimulate your circulation, lull and quiet your brain. Hardly will you lie down before you will find yourself falling asleep.

The magic effects of a hot footbath in putting restless brain to sleep are well known, but that remedy is not always convenient. A hot drink can usually be had, and with no other aid stubborn insomnia may often be cured in children and grown persons. Friction on the spine or at the back of the neck by rubbing will induce sleep, but the simplest of all expedients to woo the drowsy god are a high rest for the head and plenty of fresh air in the room.