608 SLEEP. 



dently assume the highest importance, and disparage tinose who 

 read, observe, and reflect, and are anxious to advance the general 

 good rather than their own little interests. The exhaustion being 

 greater before sleep has remedied it, the beginning of sleep is ne- 

 cessarily the soundest part, and persons are less easily roused at 

 the early part of the night ; and, after sleep, light at first finds 

 the eyes so sensible that it is disagreeable. Emotion, con- 

 tinued and at length wrought up to the highest pitch, will induce 

 sleep : whence persons condemned almost always pass the night 

 in sound sleep before the morning of their execution, and gene- 

 rals sleep on the eve of their great battles. Severe pain, or a too 

 vivid sensation, leaves drowsiness. Exhaustion of the brain by 

 defective support of its nutritive functions equally produces sleep 

 as over exertion of its functions. Loss of blood, purging, starv- 

 ation, cold, diseases that impair nutrition or cause exhaustion by 

 general excitement, produce sleep, perhaps coma ; young infants 

 and old people frequently require stimulants and nutriment to 

 rouse them from coma. Cold will induce a fatal sleep ; yet, if the 

 cold is not powerful enough to produce torpor, it will keep a 

 person awake by the disagreeable sensation. Every one must 

 have been unable to sleep from not having sufficient bed-clothes 

 on a cold night ; and cold feet frequently prevent repose. 



Defective moral and intellectual excitement incline to sleep : 

 stupid and passionless people are generally great sleepers, and a 

 good method of getting to sleep is to think of nothing, to turn 

 aside from every thought that presents itself on the pillow. The 

 withdrawal of all causes of sensation powerfully contributes to 

 sleep : and all animals, when inclined to sleep, place themselves 

 in a position which shall require no exertion of volition, and 

 retire from and exclude as much as possible all external excite- 

 ment. 



The excitement of the brain may be reduced and thus sleep 

 brought on by impressions on the senses just sufficient to with- 

 draw attention from every feeling and thought, and yet insuf- 

 ficient to maintain much activity. A discourse stupid or 

 delivered monotonously, a dull book or one not understood, is 

 pronounced sleepy from its effects ; the murmur of a rivulet and 

 the hum of bees ; the sight of any thing waving, as of a field of 

 standing corn or of the hand drawn up and down before the 

 face by a mesmeriser, attracting attention much more than an 



