Insomnia.
Closely connected with mental and bodily disorders as a cause of suicide is sleeplessness, apart from organic disease. There is, I suppose, nothing more trying to the sensations, and nothing more exhausting to the nervous system, than this symptom. Its tendency to become habitual, and to become more and more complete, are its harassing qualities. I have held inquests on cases distinctly referable to the misery caused by want of sleep.
That sleeplessness is an important factor in producing suicide is pointed out very forcibly by Dr. Jos. Williams in an article in the “Lancet” of 1850. “Business men especially apply to their doctors for this ailment, and their request is often answered by a little anti-dyspeptic mixture, whereas a powerful sedative for a few nights, until rest and change can be arranged for, would be the means of preserving life.”
The “Medical Times and Gazette,” 1872, in referring to two similar deaths from suicide, those of Mr. Justice Willes and Hugh Miller the Geologist, insisted also on the necessity of procuring sleep and rest for worried men, and so did good service.