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74 SLEEP. 



Trouhled or disturbed sleep is really sleep dur- 

 ing which the brain is not entiiely resting. 

 Sometimes, in exceptional cii'cunistances, and es- 

 pecially when we have been over-excited or 

 over-stimulated in any way, the brain almost 

 refuses to rest at all ; we fall into a state of more 

 or less perfect insomnia; and, even if we manage 

 to drop off somehow for a few minutes, we are 

 vaguely conscious all the time that the brain is 

 still working of its own accord, so to speak, that 

 flitting dreams are hovering about us in the midst 

 of our imperfect slumber, and that the whirl and 

 stir to which we have exposed ourselves now re- 

 fuse to sober down at once into absolute quiet. 

 In such circumstances the best relief is to bathe 

 the head and brows in cold water until the fever- 

 ish condition has partially subsided. This common 

 and effectual remedy better explains than almost 

 anything else could do the true meaning and 

 cause of sleeplessness. The blood is circulating 

 too freely through the brain and keeping it up to 

 its wakeful degree of activity — such activity 

 being indeed often in excess of ordinary excite- 

 ment ; by applying cold water the sufferer drives 

 back the abnormal flow of the circulatorv fluid, 

 and so ensures the needful rest to the overwrought 

 nervous centres. So simple a physical remedy as 

 this proves often far more efficacious than all the 

 purely mental nostrums, such as repeating over 



