ELECTRICITY FOR SLEEPLESSNESS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 190, 28 August 1937, Page 11

ELECTRICITY FOR SLEEPLESSNESS

Substitute for Drugs Electricity may'be used 'as a eure for sleeplessncss, as well as a substitute for drugs in producing local anaestliesia, it is indicated iu reports of research studies being carried on by Professor G. Ivalendarov, Russian biologist. The niethod, states the Popular Science Monthly, is an extension of tho systoin, known to scientists for several years, of applying certain kinds of electric current to living uerves to deaden them against pain. To determine whether electricity could produce complete and harmless anesthesia, or sleep, Professor Kalendarov first experimented with frogs. An electrode ivas connected to the ( i'rog's head, and another to the base of its spinal column. When the current was switched 011, tho frog fell aslccp immediatcJy, waking, apparentJy uuharmed, only ivhen the electricity was tunied off. After cxteusivo tests on other unimals, tho professor finally tried the experment 011 himself. Aivaltening proinptly after tho current i'low ccased, he doclarcd that he had felt only a slight discomfort before losing consciousness. No bad after-cffects developcd, and ''electric sleep" is now being carefully tested in Russian hospitals as a treatment in cases involving insomnia and for patients who would benefit from a long and drugless sleep after a major surgical operation. ~ 1