I AM GETTING SLEEPIER

Hutt News, Volume 2, Issue 31, 9 January 1930, Page 5

I AM GETTING SLEEPIER

Real insomnia, from which very few j people suffer by the way ,is one of the most deplorable of all ailments. It is J caused by nerves, indigestion, or an over j excited brain, but it can nearly always be cured —if taken in time! | -day after day, that you "haven't slept i all night" you are probably not speaking the truth, although you imagine, you are! It-is true you of ten have mere restless dozes, during which you are not quite' unconscious and from which you wake feeling unfreshedj but part ■of the Tfcere is also a false insomnia which, though not serious> is almost as painful. When you tell yourself and your family brain has rested and you have slept well enough to keep you going' the following j day. ■■ *" .-•■'■••-'■ j

v Ido not mean to suggestion for a moment that this is a desirable state of affairs. Far from it I It must be changed and that speedily. You must realise that the first step towards really restfui * nights is to ensure bodily health anclf then—let mind triumph over matter. . Sleep is. largely a question of will power. Therefore go to bed at "a reasonable hour. and tell yourself that you are really sleepy. Relax every musclej see

tling windows make yo^ glad to be in a comfortable bed... .it is seven o'clock anoi the milkman is rattling •cans outside the house!

If you suffer from real insomnia, due to indigestion, eat nothing after seventhirty at night and include lettuce in. this last meal, if possible.

Some1 people advise sufferers -from nervous insomnia to tie a • small square of camphor in a muslin bag and inhale it until sleep is induced. But this may give you a headache, so I still insist that the triumph of mind*over mat--ter is the" one and only lasting remedy. If you can overcome the troubles of the day-by tackling them bodily, you can certainly overcome the terrors of the night by telling yourself that they are mere bogies j that nothing can happen, anyway, until to-morrow, and that to gain .strength for to-morrow you must sleep to-night.

that even your fingers are slack. - Now you are lying in the unconsciously relaxed attitude of a tired child. Even your mind is relaxing... .eveiything is" delightfully unreal and misty.... .the rat

undress, d(> not permit yourself to doze. Keepl awake, reading or working. Then about noon the next cay compare your feelings withm those thai usually follow one of your "sleepless nights.'* —E.H.

If you, value your personal appearance," you must try to "break the habit of. sleeplessness. The strained; overwrought" look in the eyes, the dark circles beneath them, are not due to actual lack of sleep, but to the nerveracking thought that' you cannot sleep, j have not slept. - j If you doubt me, try an* enforced/ "night duty 7 for a whole night. Do not