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Show THE NECESSITY OF PLENTY OF SLEEP. A writer in Scribner, considering The Relations of Insanity to Modern Civilization, speaks of the loss of sleep as a prominent cause of insanity. He says: During every moment of consciousness the brain is in activity. The peculiar process of cerebration, whatever that may consist of, is taking place, thought after thought comes forth, nor can we help it. It is only when the peculiar connection or chain of connection of one brain cell with another is broken and consciousness fades away into the dreamless land of perfect sleep, that the brain is at rest. In this state it recuperates its exhausted energy and power, and stores them up for future need. The period of wakefulness is one of constant wear. Every thought is generated at the expense of brain cells, which can be fully replaced only by periods of properly regulated repose. If, therefore, these are not secured by sleep, if the brain, through over-stimulation, is not left to recuperate, its energy becomes exhausted; debility, disease, and finally disintegration supervene. Hence, the story is almost always the same: for weeks and months before the indications of active insanity appear, the patient has been anxious, worried and wakeful, not sleeping more than four or five hours out of the twenty four. The poor brain, unable to do its constant work, begins to waver, to show signs of weakness or [unreadable], hallucinations or delusions hover around like fleeting shadows in the air, until finally disease comes and "Plants his siege against the mind, the which he pricks and wounds with many legions of strange fantasies, which, in their throng and press to that last hold confound themselves." |