Insomnia : its causes and treatments / by Sir James Sawyer.

  • Sawyer, James
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Insomnia : its causes and treatments / by Sir James Sawyer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    THE CAUSES OF INSOMNIA With regard to the smoking of tobacco, many a man cannot sleep either sufficiently or soundly simply because he smokes excessively. Smokers often find by their own experience that they sleep badly if they smoke more than their usual quantity of tobacco, or if they smoke tobacco of a stronger kind than that to which they are accustomed. So a smoker who suffers from insomnia may find the cure of his sleep- lessness in the restriction of his smoking. He need not give up, nor shorten, nor change his work, nor need he change his surroundings ; if he restrict his smoking, he soon sleeps well. So also as to snuff - taking in relation to in- somnia. Men of nervous temperament, or men into whose temperament there enters a distinct and considerable blending of the nervous ele- ment, often smoke tobacco or take snuff largely. The consumption of tobacco by smoking or snuff- taking stimulates the cerebral circulation. This stimulation, if pushed to undue limits, induces cerebral vaso-motor debility, with a consequent tendency to persistent conscious thought, and so to wakefulness. Similarly, too, the drinking of alcoholic beverages causes insomnia. The man who drinks to commencing drunkenness mostly sleeps soundly, if not well. But many a so - called
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