“LIGHT” SLEEPERS
He sleeps well who knows not that he sleeps ill.
PUBLIUS SYRUS (42 B.C.).
Someone may say that such things as stimulation of the mind are simple
causes of wakefulness, and so easily overcome that it is hardly
necessary to consider them; yet, simple as they are, they frequently
make the wakeful one impatient. The more complex causes are really as
easily dealt with as these simple ones, when once we have learned to
control the mind. Take, for instance, the complaining “light sleeper”
who cannot sleep if anybody else makes a noise, or if anything out
of the ordinary occurs. He is in a steady state of apprehension lest
something will happen to disturb his rest; and generally something does
happen. A baby cries, a dog barks, a heavily-laden team lumbers by,
an automobile honks, a locomotive shrieks, or a steamer whistles, and
sleep forsakes him for the night.
He pronounces anathema on the offending cause; he pities himself for
his sensitiveness, at the same time that he almost despises his
fellows who are so “dead and unresponsive that they can sleep through
such a racket” he suffers at the thought that he may get no more sleep,
yet he enjoys the prospect of rehearsing to a sympathizing audience in
the morning the tortures of such a delicate organization as his. This
sort of sleeplessness is made up of so many contributing causes that
it is difficult for any but the most perfectly honest man to decide
what makes him so susceptible to noise. But it is undoubtedly true that
some of these causes are due to fear, to training, and, most of all, to
self-interest.
It is always difficult to make the super-sensitive person realize
that his suffering is due chiefly to self-consideration and a desire
to control others. It is an undue recognition of one’s own claim upon
the very circumstances of life that makes one offer so many surfaces
which may be “hurt.” We may be disturbed in our sleep by the ordinary
pursuits of our fellows because we have an exaggerated idea of the
importance of certain conditions that appeal to us and make for our
comfort. We wish to sleep at a certain time, and we should like to
regulate all our neighbors so that they, too, should suspend all
activities at that same time. We accustom ourselves to quiet; and then
insist that we cannot do without it.
There is a story told of a man working in a foundry who formed a part
of two “shifts” of workmen and betweenwhiles slept for some hours in
the foundry. When released from that strain, he found that he could not
sleep at home because it was so quiet, and it became necessary for the
members of his family to unite in making ringing, pounding noises to
lull him to slumber.
It is a well-known fact that those who live near the cataracts of
the Nile cannot sleep if they get beyond the sound of the pounding.
Soldiers, who are wearied after a hard day’s march or fighting, will
sleep soundly beside twenty-four pounder guns steadily firing; or even
sleep on the march, their legs moving mechanically though their senses
are steeped in sleep.
Country people coming to the city are kept awake by the unusual street
noises, while city-dwellers, accustomed to the roar of elevated or
subway trains, are unable to sleep in the country because of the
intense silence which Nature’s noises often emphasize.
Unreflecting man is a creature of habit: if any change occurs in his
routine, he finds it difficult to adapt himself to it. He seldom comes
to understand that it is chiefly insistence upon his own needs as apart
from the needs or interests of others that makes him require certain
conditions for sleeping. In either case the cause of wakefulness is
easily found; but nobody other than the individual most concerned can
remove it.
If we are living in selfish disharmony with our fellows; if we are
indulging feelings of envy, malice, uncharitableness or hatred towards
those about us, we are not likely to sleep refreshingly. All such
emotions do more harm to the one who feels them than to those against
whom they are directed. They may undermine the health, destroy the
mental poise, and blot out the sense of kinship with mankind. The
Hebrews understood that so well that he who would offer a sacrifice is
reminded that, if he have aught against his brother, he must leave his
gift at the altar and make his peace before he can offer an acceptable
sacrifice to God.
If wakefulness be the result of impatience with our brother, there is
only one cure for it: that is, to replace it with loving patience. It
is the lack of love, or the possession of very narrow love, that causes
us pain in our relations with other people.