Insomnia, or sleeplessness, is a symptom common to many nervous diseases, and one which requires prompt attention, as without sleep little good can be accomplished in other directions by treatment. The treatment must depend very much upon the age, occupation and other circumstances of the patient. If in a child, out-door play at games requiring exercise sufficient to produce fatigue should be encouraged.

In men and women worried by business or domestic cares, disappointments or anxieties, the case is much more serious. If possible, they should, for a time, leave home and business, when they will often leave their worries also behind them. Mental labor should be abandoned entirely, and physical labor or sports requiring little thought, of a kind most comformable to the tastes of the patient, and affording the most pleasant diversion, should be chosen and followed to the point of fatigue. A generous diet of the most nutritious food should be taken, and a comfortable spring-bed, in a well ventilated, cheerful room, should be provided. One of the bromides, with tonics, may be prescribed, together with meat and milk. In severe cases the hydrate of choral, in from fifteen to thirty-grain doses, may be given at bed-time.