he sleeps well who knows not that he sleeps ill.
publius syrus ( 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,48 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.
