p. 15 | The Sleep of the Sleepless by David Paulson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 29, 1912

The Sleep of the Sleepless

By David Paulson

DAVID PAULSON, M. D.

MODERN civilization is developing an alarming number of people who are almost entire strangers to the luxury of sound and refreshing sleep. The amount of sleeping powders and other nerve-quieting remedies that is sold is enormous, and is rapidly increasing year by year. All drug sleep is, however, a wretched substitute for the real article. Sleep-producing remedies induce a stupor by a species of intoxication. That is why the insomnia patient so frequently remarks after such sleep, “I feel as if I had been on a drunken spree.”

Thirty centuries ago the Scriptures declared that “the sleep of a laboring man is sweet,” and to-day it is the sedentary man, or he who earns his bread by brain work instead of by the sweat of his brow, that is a candidate for insomnia. This only confirms the inspired declaration that “the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.” Eccl. 5:12. And this applies quite as well to the entire stress and strain of our modern business system.

A recent editorial on this subject in the New York Medical Record gives the following additional common causes for the prevailing sleeplessness:—

“Perhaps the second most efficient reason why we sleep too little is the general use of gray-matter stimulants—coffee, tea, cocoa, tobacco, alcohol, all or one or more in a day. Largely because at times they have enjoyed good sleep immediately after taking these stimulants, when, in reality, as a rule they are. Of course, at times one may sleep in spite of them, for reasons that no one can as yet explain. As it is, throngs of sedentary people are kept from feeling normally sleepy at the proper time by these stimulants.”

“A third reason obviously is the evening-entertainment habit, despite the necessity of early rising for work. How numerous are the theater-mad and the opera-mad and the bridge-mad in our day! And they unduly waste the sleep-time.”

Our city population, who must almost constantly endure the clanging of the street-car, the “honk” of the auto, the rattling of the heavy truck, and a thousand other artificial sounds, scarcely knows what a quiet sleep is except when a night is spent in the country with some friends.

In addition to these ordinary causes may be mentioned the uncertainty of business affairs, the remorse of a guilty conscience, and the despair of one who is not at peace with God.

How to Coax Sleep

It has been said that you may lead a horse to water, but you can not make him drink; so you may go to bed and close your eyes, but you can not force yourself to sleep. From a somewhat extensive experience in dealing with nervous patients, the majority of whom were more or less sleepless, I offer the following practical suggestions:—

1. Don’t worry because you can not sleep. Some remarkable experiments made by Edison in his electrical laboratory show that very little sleep suffices for a time, provided the waking hours are not spent in worry. Remember that just lying in bed and enjoying the rest is a fair substitute for refreshing sleep.

2. All means that tend to relieve the congested brain are sleep producers; for instance, a short warm bath just before retiring, which draws the blood into the skin. Sometimes a long lukewarm bath is even more soothing. A fairly good substitute is a warm foot-bath, or even a hot-water bag or hot brick to the feet or to the spine after going to bed. Raising the head of the bed by putting two bricks under it works like magic in some cases. Occasionally, wrapping the head in a light towel wrung out of cold water will also encourage sleep.

3. The drinking of a cupful of hot water or hot milk is a reliable remedy for many a sleepless patient.

4. Moving the bed out on the veranda not only tends to induce sound sleep, but to improve the general health as well. Extensive experience has convinced me

that the “sleep-outs” actually require less sleep than the “sleep-ins.”

5. Avoid, as far as possible, all exciting work, reading, or games in the evening. Some moderate but agreeable physical exercise is the ideal thing if nothing else is available. A pleasant walk may be indulged in often with the most happy results.

6. Sleeplessness is sometimes merely a bad habit, which can be broken most successfully by some decided change, like a brief visit to agreeable friends, a week’s camping out, a little trip to the seashore or mountains. When planned sensibly, such an outing may easily be taken without any great outlay of either time or money, while the benefit to be derived from it generally far exceeds the actual expense.

7. Sleeplessness is sometimes caused by a heavy heart instead of a congested brain. Such cases require intelligent spiritual treatment rather than the most expert physical remedies.

The assurance of sins forgiven; the knowledge that divine grace not only can but will restore fully “the years that the locust hath eaten” (Joel 2:25); that the domestic sorrow or other heartaches, when committed to the great Burden-bearer, will in his hands be transformed into a sweet blessing instead of a grievous curse,—such assurance I can say from abundant personal observation will enable many a poor, nerve-racked, sleepless sufferer to exclaim, “Thou hast put gladness in my heart. . . . I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.” Ps. 4:7, 8.

Hinsdale, Ill.