Sleep and sleeplessness / Haydn Brown.

  • Brown, Haydn.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Sleep and sleeplessness / Haydn Brown. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    Asthma Asthma of course causes sleeplessness, for the lungs and breathing muscles are unduly hard at work all the time the fit is on. Even mild asth- matic difficulty of breathing will cause sleepless- ness, but it is necessary to observe that both the acute and the mild form are usually secondary to a defective alimentary system, the primary cause being either some amount of indigestion, or still more ab initio a highly strung and excitable ner- vous system which has created the indigestion. In many cases of asthma, therefore, three causes have contributed to sleeplessness, namely: (a) ex- citable temperament, (b) dyspepsia, (c) the labour of breathing which the asthmatic condition en- tails. Now, asthma may be scientifically termed both a sign and a symptom of toxaemia, for not only a study of causation but a close observa- tion of the results of various kinds of treatment leads me to conclude that an impure condition of the blood is at the foundation of the disorder. Whether the patient have a neurotic history, or whether there are indications of alimentary de- fects, or a mixture of both, a wisely prescribed dietary will almost unfailingly succeed in allevi- ating if not in actually curing every case—that is to say if time be allowed for a gradual trans- formation of the blood to take place, the change of diet being gradual and carefully altered from time to time, so that as perfect an assimilation and nutrition may be maintained as is possible all the time, so far as it is practicable for careful observation to regulate. It is true that asthma is frequently