Bedtime

“ Bed-time at last comes, to save you from doing something rash, and you spring upstairs, throw off your clothes, leaving them strewn all over the room, blow out the candle, and jump into bed as if you had backed yourself for a heavy wager to do the whole thing against time. ”

“ To sit up till near midnight, and to get up just after midnight, are perhaps equally injurious, though not by any means equally common. Spend the close of each day at home; and go to bed early, with an empty or nearly an empty stomach, a cheerful temper, a quiet mind, and a good conscience. Let the air be pure, yourself pure, your clothing and bed simple and cool, and your room also cool. Wake with the first rays of the morning in summer, and about the same hour in winter. Get up as soon as you awake; and if your sleep has been insufficient, go to rest a little earlier the succeeding evening. ”

“ When you begin to feel the cool air unpleasant, then return to your bed, and you will soon fall asleep, and your sleep will be sweet and pleasant. All the scenes presented by your fancy, will be of the pleasing kind. I am often as agreeably entertained with them, as by the scenery of an opera. If you happen to be too indolent to get out of bed, you may instead of it, lift up your bed-clothes so as to draw in a good deal of fresh air, and, by letting them fall, force it out again. ”

“ Helen: How can we get to sleep if wakeful when we go to bed?
[Pg 181]
Mother: Those who can not sleep well should spend much time out-of-doors during the day. One should not eat for several hours before going to bed; for if the stomach must work, it often keeps the rest of the body awake. Every one should have a clean bed, and sleep where he can have plenty of pure air. To work till one is tired, if not carried too far, will also help. But, even though a person does all these things, if he tries to sleep when the mind is worried or excited, the gentle nurse will not come. ”

“ She goes to bed, but, for the first few hours, she is too much excited to sleep; toward morning, when the air is pure and invigorating, and, when to breathe it, would be to inhale health and life, she falls into a feverish slumber, and wakes not until noonday. ”

“ Let a man go to bed say ten o'clock. Let him sleep until six next morning. The ordinary man will awaken feeling refreshed and ready for his daily toil. Let him go to bed at ten, lie awake all night, next morning he will not feel refreshed and during the day he may feel sluggish and sleepy. Let him go to bed and lie awake night after night for a few weeks, what will be the result? He will be a physical wreck. Although he may have the same amount of hours lying in bed, he will not feel recuperated and refreshed unless he has had his natural sleep and this can only come to pass. ”

“ A. Yes; when we have not had much exercise in the open air, and consequently are not tired, and when we, during our sleep, breathe corrupted air, or lie in warm feather-beds, we find ourselves after some time lazy, stupid, and unhealthy.
Q. Ought we to sleep in cool fresh, and clean air?
A. Yes; and it therefore behoves us not to sleep in warm sitting rooms, but in cool, lofty roomy chambers, that have fresh air; whose windows are kept open in the day time; and in beds without curtains, or with curtains not to be drawn.
Q. What kind of bed is fittest for grown up persons? ”

“ The restlessness is allayed, and a quiet state of body and mind succeeds. It needs but a suggestion to induce him to retire for the night. After being a few minutes in bed, sleep steals over him, and his heavy breathing tells that he is in the world of dreams. ”

“ A youth is frequently allowed to spend the early part of the morning in bed, breathing the impure atmosphere of a bedroom, when he should be up and about, inhaling the balmy and health-giving breezes of the morning:—
"Rise with the lark, and with the lark to bed: The breath of night's destructive to the hue Of ev'ry flower that blows. Go to the field, And ask the humble daisy why it sleeps Soon as the sun departs? ”

“ The bedroom should be dark, cool, and well ventilated, the bed comfortable and the covers light but warm. The patient should be told that rest is the most important thing for him, [259] and that he should not try too hard to sleep nor worry if unsuccessful. The patient should try to banish from his mind, at bed time, thoughts that are distressing, and even those that are especially interesting. By using patience and persistence most persons can regain the power of sleeping even when habits of sleeplessness have been long established. ”

“ I verily believe that a fair description—none of your poetical balderdash, but an honest plodding description of a perfectly comfortable bed, and of the process of going to sleep, would, judiciously administered soon after dinner, overpower the vivacity of any tranquil gentleman who loves a nap after that meal—gently draw the curtains of his senses, and extinguish the bed-room candle of his consciousness. ”

“ Of course one should use discretion in taking a sun bath.
“One should not forget that he needs a lot of [61] sleep—eight full hours of it. Sleep is necessary for resting not the body only; it should also be a rest for the mind and the nervous system. Remember that sleep is not mere rest in the sense of inaction; sleep is a vital process in repairing and rebuilding used-up nerve and brain cells, so you see it is essential that the brain be at rest in order to gain full recuperation.
“As one becomes more advanced in the sport he will realize how large a part the mind plays in a race. ”

“ I don’t believe in looking too far ahead, and a good night’s sleep, with no turning out to come on deck in the middle of the night, and with a good breakfast waiting for you, and nobody to set you at work, is a good enough prospect for me. So I rolled myself up in my blanket, with a good soft mattress under me, and a real feather pillow under my head, and was asleep inside of five minutes. ”

“ I am very tired and spunkless to-night, and I haven’t any lofty thoughts and inspirations, for the needs of the flesh are seeming to predominate, and what I want more than anything else is a wonderful hot bath in a beautiful warm bathroom, and then such a long sleep in a beautiful big bed, where I cannot hear any bugle-calls, any breakfast bells, any coughing nurses, or anything except perhaps soothing, joyriding automobiles. ”

“ Habits.—In the correction of troubles of sleep one of the difficulties that the physician has to contend with when patients have grown accustomed to staying up late and finally have so disturbed their sleep mechanism that symptoms of insomnia develop, is the declaration that there is no use for them going to bed early since they cannot sleep. If a man has been accustomed for a long period to go to bed between midnight and 2 a. m. and his habits are suddenly changed so that he goes to bed at ten or even eleven, it is very likely that for some time after retiring he will not sleep. ”

“ Back to bed I’m bound to go.
High my heart, or bowed my head,
All my days but lead to bed.
Up, and out, and on; and then
Ever back to bed again,
Summer, Winter, Spring, and Fall—
I’m a fool to rise at all! ”

“ The hours at which I obey the injunctions of nature are in general extremely irregular. I sleep, I eat according to circumstances or the situation in which I am placed; my sleep is ordinarily sound and tranquil. If pain or any accident interrupt it I jump out of bed, call for a light, walk, set to work, and fix my attention on some subject; sometimes I remain in the dark, change my apartment, lie down in another bed, or stretch myself on the sofa. I rise at two, three, or four in the morning ”

“ The woman should retire to her bed-room, undress, and go to bed. The room should be darkened, and at [Pg 198] the same time there must be an abundant supply of fresh air. One soon forms the habit of taking a short nap, of perhaps half an hour; one hour should be spent in bed. After this, she gets up, takes a shower or other bath, dresses, and is then ready to enjoy life and be a comfort to her family. In this way alone can absolute relaxation, rest of mind, and body be secured. ”

“ Such a spree of emotionalism can hardly fail to tire, but it is not fair to blame the insomnia.
He who makes up his mind to it can rest almost as well without sleep as with it, provided he keeps his mind calm and his body relaxed. "Decent hygienic conditions" demand not necessarily eight hours of sleep but eight hours of quiet rest in bed. Tossing about drives away sleep and uses up energy. I make it a rule that my patients shall not turn over more than four times during the night. This is more important than that they should sleep. ”

“ I rise at two, three, or four in the morning; I call for some one to keep me company, amuse myself with recollections or business, and wait for the return of day. I go out as soon as dawn appears, take a stroll, and when the sun shows itself I reenter and go to bed again, where I remain a longer or shorter time, according as the day promises to turn out. If it is bad, and I feel irritation and uneasiness, I have recourse to the method I have just mentioned. I change my posture, pass from my bed to the sofa, from the sofa to the bed, seek and find a degree of freshness. ”

“ A similar nap in the afternoon is not so good, but is better than nothing. The tepid sitz-bath on going to bed will often produce sleep, and so will gentle percussion given by an attendant with palms of the hand over the back for a few minutes on retiring. To secure sound sleep do not read, write or severely tax the mind in the evening. ”

“ This function should therefore be promoted by all means, and we shall devote a special chapter to sleep, its causation, and the treatment of insomnia. Let us, however, at once mention that sleep can best be encouraged by the use of a large, airy room, and going to bed early, say, at ten to half-past, and rising at five or half-past, when sleep has been undisturbed during the night. Seven hours’ sleep is the best; longer sleep, if over seven and one-half or eight hours, injurious, except for anæmic girls and women. ”

“ People have tried a holiday in bed before now, and found it a failure, but that was because they were ignorant of the rules. They went to bed with the open intention of staying there, say, three days, and found to their surprise that each morning they wanted to get up. This was a novel experience to them, they flung about restlessly, and probably shortened their holiday. The proper thing is to take your holiday in bed with a vague intention of getting up in another quarter of an hour. The real pleasure of lying in bed after you are awake is largely due to the feeling that you ought to get up. ”

“ Sleep nine hours every night, beginning as early as 9.30 p.m. The beauty sleep is in the first part of the night. When thoroughly awake in the morning do not lounge in bed, but rise at once. Bathe first, or exercise before bathing as you prefer. ”

“ Treatment of Insomnia.—The mechanical measures for the relief of insomnia have for their purpose the withdrawing of the blood from the brain to the surface of the skin. Hot foot-baths; general warm baths; cold douches to the spine, brisk exercise; light massage, and cold rooms. Mental work should be laid aside several hours before retiring; late suppers avoided; coffee, if taken at all, should only be taken for breakfast, and then only one cup. Reading or amusement should be selected that does not excite the nerves. ”

“ I went to bed at ten o'clock, for the purpose of securing a good night's rest, and of being fresh and vigorous in the morning, but eleven, twelve, and one found me wide awake; nor could I have lain in a state of unconsciousness much above an hour when the sound of the bugle restored me to my senses. ”

“ Five o’clock, and people snoring in bed, when they might be up and out enjoying this lovely air, the sweet dewy scent of the flowers, and the clear sunshine, and be inhaling health with every breath they draw. ”

“ Health requires that one-third of the time shall be spent in sleep; the bed was made for sleep; and the most refreshing sleep can only be obtained by occupying the bed alone. If two persons occupy the same bed and one is restless, the sleep of the other is necessarily disturbed. ”

“ The dressing-room door will regulate the quantity of air to be admitted into the bed-room, opening it either little or much, as the weather might be cold or otherwise.
Fresh air during sleep is indispensable to health—If a bed-room be close, the sleep, instead of being calm and refreshing, is broken and disturbed; and the boy, when he awakes in the morning, feels more fatigued than when he retired to rest. ”

“ If the patient is inclined to be wakeful a hot foot bath may help her, or sponging the entire length of the spine for fifteen minutes, using very hot water and long downward quiet strokes. No conversation should be encouraged during preparations for the night. Patients in bed all day often lose the habit of sleeping at the regular time, and lie awake far into the night from a vague feeling that someone else is coming or something further is to be done for them. ”

“ The young girl should sleep on a hair mattress, and the bed clothing should be light. Eight to nine hours sleep is sufficient; in the words of the English proverb, “early to bed and early to rise, is the way to be healthy, and wealthy, and wise.” ”

“ It is a strange thing this bed, this mimic grave, where we stretch our tired limbs and sink away so quietly into the silence and rest. "O bed, O bed, delicious bed, that heaven on earth to the weary head," as sang poor Hood, you are a kind old nurse to us fretful boys and girls. Clever and foolish, naughty and good, you take us all in your motherly lap and hush our wayward crying. The strong man full of care—the sick man full of pain—the little maiden sobbing for her faithless lover—like children we lay our aching heads on your white bosom, and you gently soothe us off to by-by. ”