The distinguished English surgeon. Sir Henry Thompson, who lived well beyond eighty years of age (when surely he would seem to have some right to do so), wrote a little book on how to be well and grow old and describes a habit which he had acquired and that I have often recommended to patients and friends as well as used myself with advantage when there is a tendency to cold feet, either habitually or occasionally. It is, moreover, useful whenever there is a tendency to insomnia because some exciting occupation has preceded going to bed. Before retiring Sir Henry used to sit beside his bath tub and let the hot water flow into it over his feet, gradually becoming warmer and warmer, until he could no longer stand the heat. A temperature well above 120 degrees may be borne with comfort after a while, though at the beginning it would seem entirely too hot. The feet are kept in the hot water at least five minutes. When taken out they should be thoroughly red and show evidence of a good deal of blood having been attracted to them. If they are now carefully wiped and rubbed vigorously there will usually be no further tendency to cold feet that night and sleep will come naturally. Sir Henry said that when he had been out at meetings where he had to make an address or had to take part in business of any kind that inclined to make him wakeful, he found this an excellent method of preparing himself for immediate sleep.
It must not be forgotten that the worst forms of cold feet are found among those suffering from flatfoot. The dropping of the arch interferes with the return circulation and also with lymphatic circulation. These individuals feel very tired because of their foot condition, yet their cold feet often disturbs their sleep at the beginning of the night. The only effective relief for this is afforded by proper treatment of the feet. (See the chapter on [Foot Troubles3].)
Lack of Air.—On the other hand, occasionally it happens in spite of all that has been said in recent years about fresh air in sleeping rooms, windows are hermetically sealed and even then people cover themselves with many thicknesses of bed clothing and are too warm. I have found over and over again that where people could not be persuaded to leave a window open all night (and when they are old and deeply prejudiced in the matter I do not insist, for the suggestion of possibly catching cold would almost surely keep them awake), the thorough airing of rooms before retiring made a great difference in the sleep of elderly people. When patients are young, I simply insist on the window being wide open for some time before they go to bed and slightly during the night, except in extreme cold weather. Many a patient who complains of waking several times during the night and being awake for some time on each occasion will begin to have longer periods of sleep without a break if such a change in the ventilation of the room is effected. [{658}] Anyone who has seen fever patients who had been restless, disturbed and wakeful, sink into a quiet slumber after the room has been thoroughly aired and the temperature of it reduced ten or fifteen degrees, will realize how helpful this same method of treatment will be in nervous, wakeful irritability.
How important air is for the obtaining of the power to sleep for many hours every day can be best understood and appreciated from the habits insisted on for patients in tuberculosis sanatoria as a result of experience. When there is any tendency to a rise in temperature in these patients they are kept absolutely without exercise. They are either in bed or on a lounging chair all day, but they are out in the air or at least close to an open window. As a rule, they sleep some in the morning and then they sleep again in the afternoon. This would ordinarily be fatal to sleep at night in even healthy people taking considerable exercise and therefore presumably tired and more likely to sleep than these patients who had made no exertion during the twenty-four hours; but it is not often, after patients have been for ten days or two weeks at the sanatorium, that there is any complaint of lack of sleep at night. This is true in spite of the fact that patients are often wakened by coughing during the night, yet after a comparatively short interval they go to sleep again and sleep until morning. This is not true when patients do not pass most of their time in the open air and when their rooms are not well aired.
Sleep at Sea.—I know nothing that is more effective in doing away with insomnia than a sea voyage. The passengers sit on their lounging chairs all the morning in the open air, usually sleeping for some time, often for several hours. During the afternoon this is repeated. In spite of this extra sleep they turn in, not long after ten, and sleep well until morning. There is practically no exercise and the air usually excites such an appetite that five and even six meals a day are consumed. There is no disturbance of digestion unless some special excess is indulged in, and, above all, sleep is rather favored than impaired by the large amount of food taken. This experience which is so common, is very valuable as indicating just what is the best pre-requisite for sleep. It is not exercise and tiredness to such a degree that one fairly drops from fatigue, but such an oxidation of all tissues by the breathing of pure air that there are no toxic waste products left in the system to act as excitants for disturbance of sleep.
Cold Water.—In summer, when wakefulness is due to heat, a cool bath, or at least a rub down with cold water and going to bed without drying is an excellent method of inviting sleep. Under these circumstances the sheet acts as a soothing cool pack and people who have been wakeful for hours before, or at least have found considerable difficulty in getting to sleep, sleep promptly. The mechanism of sleep-production is easy to understand. There is less blood to go to the brain when the little capillaries at the surface are pretty well extended and after the application of cool water the reaction which follows the closing of the capillaries in response to cold leaves them of sufficient size to accommodate a large amount of the blood of the body. Of course, in both cases there is the suggestive value of a proceeding of this kind so well calculated to predispose the patient's mind to go to sleep without solicitude.
Diet.—As has already been outlined in the hints that precede, the first thing in the treatment of insomnia is to remove any causes that may be at work in producing wakefulness. Among the most common of these in our modern life is the taking of coffee or tea, important in the order mentioned. Every physician has frequent experiences of people who complain of insomnia, yet who take a cup of coffee late at night. A large proportion of humanity cannot do this with impunity and expect to go to sleep promptly. Occasionally one finds that patients complaining of sleeplessness are taking three to five cups of coffee a day. This must be stopped. A physician may be told by such patients that they cannot get along without their coffee. I have only one answer for this and it is meant to show patients that if they want to sleep they must take the means to secure it and, above all, must remove all disturbing factors. I tell them that if they cannot do without coffee they may continue to do without sleep. If they want to sleep they must give up coffee or at least must limit the amount. I have found it comparatively easy to get people to limit coffee-taking by the suggestion that there should be one tablespoonful of strong coffee taken to a cup of hot milk. This gives the taste, or rather the aroma of coffee, for coffee has properly no taste to speak of, and while, at first, patients crave the stimulation they have been accustomed to, it takes but a few days to overcome this craving entirely.
Usually it is easy to get people to confess that they are taking too much coffee. For some reason not easy to understand it is harder to get them to acknowledge that they are taking too much tea. Coffee is taken with a certain amount of deliberation. Tea may be and often is taken at odd intervals for friendliness' sake and sometimes patients do not know how much they are taking. Six or seven cups a day may be their usual quota, yet they do not realize it and at first are inclined to answer that they take it only two or three times a day, forgetting the little potations between meals. Tea is not so prone to cause wakefulness as coffee, yet the toxic irritant principle in both is the same and when the amount of tea and its strength are sufficient, the same results follow. The tea habit must always be given up if there is complaint of lack of sleep, especially early in the night.
There is a very common persuasion that the eating of food in any quantity shortly before going to bed, and especially the eating of certain materials, will keep people awake. It is well known, however, that there are a great many people who can eat anything and sleep well after it and young children sleep best when their stomachs are full. There are undoubtedly idiosyncrasies in this matter that must be respected, but many patients are deceiving themselves. They are eating too little and their wakefulness is more due to the mental state than to anything else. As this contradicts a very prevalent impression, I may say that it is said deliberately and only after much experience with people inclined to be over-solicitous about their diet and their health generally and who were actually producing wakefulness or at least very light dreamful sleep, by their elimination from their diet, and especially from their evening meal, of many nutritious substances. I make it a rule to insist with patients that if it is more than five hours since their last meal they must take a glass of milk and some crackers or a cup of cocoa and something to eat before going to bed. This is particularly important if they have been out in the air much between their last meal and bedtime.