The Art of Natural Sleep: With definite directions for the wholesome cure of sleeplessness: illustrated by cases treated in Northampton and elsewhere

By Lyman P. Powell

"The Art of Natural Sleep" by Lyman P. Powell is one of the first examples of a self-help manual for better sleep. Written to help readers combat insomnia, Powell discusses the techniques that worked for him. It first introduces the commonly held theories at the time of what happens when one sleeps, why sleep is important, and what causes insomnia before Powell writes about the suggestions he has to help improve one's sleep health. Considered to be a great advancement in the field of accessible healthcare resources at the time, this book is still at the root of many sleep theories over a century later.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Good Press
• Release date: Nov 5, 2021
• ISBN: 4066338079688

Book preview

Lyman P. Powell

The Art of Natural Sleep

With definite directions for the wholesome cure of sleeplessness: illustrated by cases treated in Northampton and elsewhere

Published by Good Press, 2022

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EAN 4066338079688

Table of Contents

PREFACE

OUR NATIONAL DISEASE

THEORIES OF SLEEP

WHAT SLEEP REALLY IS

THE NECESSITY OF SLEEP

INSOMNIA AND ITS CAUSES

THE VALUE OF DRUGS

THE REMOVAL OF ALL PHYSICAL CAUSES

GENERAL DIRECTIONS

SECONDARY AIDS TO SLEEP

DR. LEARNED’S PLAN

RELAXATION AND RHYTHMIC BREATHING

THE EMMANUEL METHOD

FAITH REQUIRED IN GOD AND MAN

THE SPECIFIC TREATMENT

SOME IMMEDIATE RESULTS

THE CO-OPERATION OF THE PATIENT

THE ULTIMATE EFFECT

ILLUSTRATIVE CASES

I. CURED BY SUGGESTION ALONE

2. CURED BY FAITH REINFORCED BY SUGGESTION

PREFACE

Table of Contents

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This little book, like my book on Christian Science which appeared a year ago, is the evolution of a pamphlet.

The first half of the pamphlet was written in the middle of a sleepless night some years ago. The last half was written about two years ago, after I had found relief by auto-suggestion from the lifelong bondage of insomnia and had thereby doubled my capacity both for work and play.

First published in the spring of 1907 as my weekly message under the heading of The Parson’s Outlook to the 5000 readers of The Hampshire Gazette in and about Northampton, the article on sleeplessness was republished by request in the same paper some months later; then, as the demand increased for it, in pamphlet form. This year past it has been used in the Emmanuel Clinic, both in Boston and Northampton, with such gratifying results that more than 300 sufferers from insomnia in one part of the country or another have testified by letter or by word of mouth to the benefit they have received from it.

At the suggestion of the Rev. Elwood Worcester, Ph.D., D.D., two magazine editors, and two publishing houses, the pamphlet is now enlarged into a book with the earnest hope that the suggestions it contains may be of service to many whom the pamphlet, privately printed and gratuitously distributed, could not reach at all.

There are books enough, perhaps, on the theory of sleep. The volume by Marie de Manaceïne on Sleep—Its Physiology, Pathology, Hygiene, and Psychology will surely long remain the standard work. Dr. Upson’s Insomnia and Nerve Strain is based on the author’s discovery of the vaso-neural circuit and will not be neglected by those who wish to understand certain physical obstacles to sleep which have