The paradoxical cure for wakefulness: How action leads to rest

“ Let us now consider the case of a person suffering from insomnia. If he does not make any effort to sleep, he will lie quietly in bed. If on the contrary he tries to force himself to sleep by his will, the more efforts he makes, the more restless he becomes. ”

“ The relief of insomnia in dyspeptic derangement, however, must not be sought through the administration of anodynes and hypnotics alone. Only when the entire life of the patient has been regulated upon a physiological basis can refreshing sleep be obtained. Change of habits, change of occupation, change of locality—these are the only curative measures in a vast number of the cases of wakefulness that occur in modern life. ”

“ All but babies have too little sleep. Everybody ought to get at least eight hours’ sleep in a day. Insanity often results from want of sleep. Always sleep on the right side, never on the back. Always breathe through the nose when asleep or awake. Never have a fire in your sleeping-room, unless you are an invalid. The need of cleanliness, pure air, pure water, sunshine and a cheerful disposition, etc., are too well known to need insisting upon here. These are necessary for the preservation of health, and without health there can be no real happiness. ”

“ SHAKESPEARE'S INSOMNIA, AND THE CAUSES THEREOF. I.
Insomnia, the lack of "tired Nature's sweet restorer," is rapidly becoming the chronic terror of all men of active life who have passed the age of thirty-five or forty years. In early life, while yet he "wears the rose of youth upon him," man rarely, except in sickness, knows the want of sound, undreaming sleep. But as early manhood is left behind and the cares and perplexities of life weigh upon him, making far more needful than ever the rest which comes only through unbroken sleep, this remedial agent cannot longer be wooed and won. ”

“ It is resistance that keeps us awake in all such cases. The curtain flaps, and we resist it; the door swings to over and over again, and we resist it, and keep ourselves awake by wondering why it does not stop; we hear noises in the street that we am unused to, especially if we are accustomed to sleeping in the stillness of the country, and we toss and turn and wish we were in a quiet place. ”

“ Persons who take daily exercise till they perspire freely, do not have to be so careful in the matter of exercise as those who neglect exercise.
"I can digest anything I eat, since I joined the gym.! before that everything I ate disagreed with me," is the testimony of very many, after being in the hall of health for a few weeks.
Nothing produces sweet, dreamless sleep like proper exercise. Nothing will so brace up the nervous system. Insomnia and nervelessness quickly fly away from him who takes daily bodily exercise short of fatigue. ”

“ Work hard, but do not be a drudge. A few hours’ vigorous labor will accomplish a great deal, and encourage you to continued effort. Be prompt, systematic, cheerful, and enthusiastic. Go to bed early and get up when you wake. But take sleep enough. A man had better be in bed than at the tavern or grocery. Let not friends, even, keep you up late; “manners is manners, but still your elth’s your elth.”
“But what has this to do with good farming?” More than chemistry and all the science of the schools. Agriculture is an art and must be followed as such. ”

“ Arise early, go to bed at a certain hour, eat at stated times, pray, read and study by a method, and so get the most out of the moments as they swiftly pass, never to return. Allow yourself so much time for sleep, so much for private devotion, so much for recreation. ”

“ If, when it has proved to be inevitable, one sits up quietly, reads a book for a time, plays a quiet game of solitaire, it may be on a board kept beside the bed for such purposes, or in some quiet way succeeds in bothering away the thought of insomnia, then almost surely sleep will come after a time, quietly and restfully, and the lost period will not prove harmful. If nature does not want to sleep she must not be forced into it, but gently led and after a time the wakefulness will disappear. ”

“ Flatulence, namely the presence of large volumes of gas in the digestive tract, frequently acts as a mechanical source of irritation by which wakefulness is induced. Evidently the factors favoring healthy sleep are the inducing of fatigue, preferably by physical exercise, the avoidance of chemical irritation or of excitement in the hours just before going to bed, and finally the adoption of dietary habits which shall insure good digestion. ”

“ GENERAL DIRECTIONS In many cases no local ailment would appear to be responsible for the insomnia, and yet in every instance attention must be given to the body’s entire needs. The habit of deep breathing from the diaphragm must be developed and be regularly practised both indoors and out. This alone sufficed in one complicated case to bring sleep every night. The diet30 must be carefully chosen and followed in the face of every importunity of a silly and capricious appetite. Tea and coffee, save at the morning meal, must be in almost every case eliminated from the menu. ”

“ This nervous fatigue is not usually conducive to sleep, but a tired condition of the muscles of the body generally, as a result of natural physical activity, is always favorable to sleep. Many who complain of insomnia, therefore, would often be able to remedy their trouble by the simple expedient of a long walk, covering sufficient distance to bring about the physical fatigue which makes sleep possible. Conditions of air, temperature and bed covering are also important factors in connection with the quality of sleep. ”

“ Clearly, then, the mere sensation of fatigue does not necessarily indicate the need of rest, or sleep, or food. A man, especially if he has dined late and heavily, may awake in the morning, even though he has had a good spell of sleep in an ill-ventilated room, feeling tired. Yet that feeling of tiredness is removed, not by further dozing, but by exercise, fresh air, or often brain work. ”

“ When you feel tired, it is because your mind has worn the machinery of the body by using it. Now, when you lie down and sleep, the muscles stop working; no messages pass through the nerves, and the brain is at rest, because the mind pretty much stops thinking. But all this time that you sleep the blood keeps circulating, and the breathing goes on. What is this for? It is that the repairing of the machinery may be done, so as to get the brain, and nerves, and muscles ready for the work and the play of to-morrow. The repairing, you know, is all done with the blood. ”

“ It is certain that too much exercise will prevent sleep, as well as too little. We seldom however hear the active and laborious complain of restless nights. It is the indolent and slothful who generally have these complaints. Is it any wonder that a bed of down should not be refreshing to a person who sits all day in an easy chair? A great part of the pleasure of life consists in alternate rest and motion ”

“ The temperature of the air is one of the most important factors in the determination of sleep. A high temperature keeps every one awake—a fact well known among the unfortunate denizens of the garrets in our great cities. Not only is wakefulness the direct result of heat, but it is aggravated and embittered by the accompaniments of a torrid climate—insects, foul air, and cutaneous disorders. ”

“ When we cannot sleep, to rise, throw back the bed-clothes so as to cool the bed, walk about the room, go to the window and fill the lungs with oxygen often tend to quiet the body and mind. We must learn to know our own needs and to find out each for himself what meets them. ”

“ Do we belong in the class of the people who must get their rest by giving up, by the abolition of all function, or in the class who rest by the change of function, by doing something different from the day's work? It is a question of fact and must be found out by each individual for himself.
Just here the individuality of fatigue, which I have been trying to make clear all along, becomes obvious. We are rested by making a success of something. If we have been making what seems to us a failure of something, it is amazing how it rests us to make a success of something. ”

“ Suggestive Treatment.—The psychotherapy of sleep consists in changing the patient's attitude of mind toward his sleep. It is quite impossible for him to sleep normally and regularly if he worries much about it and if the afternoon and evening hours are mainly spent in wondering whether he will sleep, anxious as to when he is going to sleep like other people, marvelling how long he will last in health and sanity if his tendency to wakefulness continues. There is no factor so strong in insomnia as getting one's self on one's mind. ”

“ Absence of occupation is not rest,
A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd. ”

“ The factor that changes these same elements into different results is something inherent in the individual person or plant.
So that we are not entirely responsible for what we dream, yet the mental habits, the real tone of mind maintained during waking hours, has its effect upon dreams. They constitute an index of the mind. So far as sleep is concerned, of course, “subjective” mind is simply our remembered experiences, our mental capital, and can be used in waking hours and is constantly so used: we get traces of these in our dreams. Age, sex, and temperament also affect the nature of dreams. ”

“ If you have the habit of feeling as if you could never get refreshing sleep in a sleeping car, first be sure that you have as much fresh air as possible, and then make up your mind that you will spend the whole night, if necessary, in noticing the rhythm of the motion and sound of the cars. If you keep your mind steadily on it, you will probably be asleep in less than an hour, and, when the car stops, you will wake only enough to settle comfortably into the sense of motion when it starts again. It is pleasant to notice the gentleness with which a good engineer starts his train at night. ”

“ There are three facts which may help to remove the resistance which naturally arises at any unusual sound when we are tired and want to get rest.
One is that in almost every sound there is a certain rhythm. If we yield to the sound enough to become sensitive to its rhythm, that, in itself, is soothing, and what before was keeping us awake now helps us to go to sleep. This pleasant effect of finding the rhythm in sound is especially helpful if one is inclined to lie awake while travelling in sleeping cars. The rhythm of sound and motion in sleeping cars and steamers is, in itself, soothing. ”

“ Possess yourself of the belief that sleep is unnecessary for you, that you are as well off without it. Occupy your mind by reciting poetry, recalling the past, or planning work for the future, assuring yourself that your body is getting rest. ”

“ When you are awakened by this uneasiness, and find you cannot easily sleep again, get out of bed, beat up and turn your pillow, shake the bed-clothes well, with at least twenty shakes, then throw the bed open and leave it to cool; in the meanwhile, continuing undrest, walk about your chamber till your skin has had time to discharge its load, which it will do sooner as the air may be dried and colder. When you begin to feel the cold air unpleasant, then return to your bed, and you will soon fall asleep, and your sleep will be sweet and pleasant. ”

“ How often do we hear people complain that they suffer from insomnia, when in fact they get a reasonable amount of sleep, and indeed often keep others awake by their snoring.
When you wake, get up, for a second sleep does no good. ”

“ When you are awakened by this uneasiness, and find you cannot easily sleep again, get out of bed, beat up and turn your pillow, shake the bed-clothes well, with at least twenty shakes, then throw the bed open, and leave it to cool; in the meanwhile, continuing undrest, walk about your chamber, till your skin has had time to discharge its load, which it will do sooner as the air may be drier and colder. When you begin to feel the cold air unpleasant, then return to your bed, and you will soon fall asleep, and your sleep will be sweet and pleasant. ”

“ Before leaving the subject of sleep, we should note the benefit to be derived from regularity in sleep. All Nature seems to move rhythmically and sleep is no exception. Insomnia may be treated by means of habituating one's self to get sleepy at a certain time, and there is no question that the rising process may be made easier if one forms the habit of arising at the same time every morning. To rhythmize this important function is a long step towards the efficient life. ”

“ Getting up an hour or two earlier often gives a degree of vigour which nothing else can procure. For those who are not much debilitated, and sleep well, the best rule is to get out of bed soon after waking in the morning. ”

“ You lie in bed till ten or eleven in the morning, yet you are weary, exhausted, when you get up. I see you in my mind's eye as you go out into the street; the morning has dawned too early on your blinking eyes. ”

“ I have found my greatest happiness in labor. I early formed the habit of industry, and it has been its own reward. The young are apt to think that rest means a cessation from all effort, but I have found the most perfect rest in changing effort. If brain-weary over books and study, go out into the blessed sunlight and the pure air, and give heartfelt exercise to the body. The brain will soon become calm and rested. The efforts of nature are ceaseless. Even in our sleep, the heart throbs on. ”

“ Let your rest on the one rest-day consist, not in lolling idly and carelessly, but in turning your faculties in some other direction; because the truest rest is to be found, not in luxurious ease, but in using the fresh vigour of your life in other compartments of the brain than those which have been worn by the demands of the six days. ”

“ True rest, therefore, issues from work. Intellectual rest occurs through the perception of fruitful progress in one’s work, and through the solving of one’s problems. Physical rest is found in those natural intermissions which are given by daily sleep and daily food, and the essential and restful pause of Sunday. Such a condition of continuous and wholesome activity, interrupted only by these natural pauses, is the happiest condition on earth, and no man should wish for himself any other outward happiness. ”

“ SLEEP, REST AND RELAXATION. The late Sir Andrew Clark once said that he never knew anyone die from insomnia, though he knew of many who had died from trying to cure it. To a man who really suffers from insomnia, perhaps, this is but doubtful consolation, but in any case the latter half of this great doctor’s remark is valuable. For probably more poison is taken to remedy insomnia, and on the whole with worse results, than in the alleviation of any other disease which flesh is heir to. ”