IF WE WANT TO WORK WE MUST SLEEP.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2355, 24 July 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

IF WE WANT TO WORK WE MUST SLEEP.

The restoration of energy, which sleep alono can afford, is necessary for*.the maintenance of norvous vigor, and »here« the muscular system, if overtaxed, at lust rotas to wwk, the brain under similar circumstance ton frequently refuses to rest. Tho sufferer, instead of trying to remove or lessen tho cause of his sleeplessness, comforts himself with the hope that it will soon disappear, or else hat recourse to alcohol, morphia, the bromide*, chloral, etc. Valuable and necessary as these remedies often arc, (1 refer especially to the drugs), there win be no question as to the mischief 'which attends their frequent use, and there, is much reason to fear that their employment in the absence'of any medical authority is largely on the increase. Mlany of the -''proprietary articles" sold by druggist*,, and in great demand at the pretest day,, ewe their efficacy to' one ur wore of these powerful dvugs. Not a few deaths have been caused by their use, and in a still larger number of eases they Jhave helped to produce the fatal result. Sleeplessness is always accompanied by indigestion in some one or other of its protean forms, and the tore conditions react upon and aggravate eaeh other. If rest could not be obtained, and if' the vital machine flan not be aupplied with a due moment of fuol, and, moreover; fails 'to utilize that which is supplied, mental and bodily collapse car not be far distant.'The dotails of the downward process vajy, but the result it »uch the same in all cases, Sleeplessness and loss of appetite are followed by the loss of flesh and strength, nervous irritability alternating with depression, palpi tafcioa and other derangements of the heart, especially at night, and many..ol those symptoms qrouped 'together undw the old term." hypochondriasis." When this stagihas been reached " the borderlands of. insanity" are vifoin measurable distance', even if they have not already boon raaoaed.-Tho Fortnightly Review.