I often have problems falling asleep, so I work instead. I don’t put any stock in the insomnia remedies, but I found this old cure to be interesting, if not strange.
This information is being placed on this page for research purposes only.
Here Is Cure For Insomnia
Wrap a Wet Bandage Around the Leg to Draw Blood From the Head, Says a Physician.
A curious cure for sleeplessness has recently been reported. A piece of calico, about 18 inches wide and 2-3/4 yards long is rolled up like a bandage, and a third of it wrung out of cold water. The leg is then bandaged with this, the wet parts being carefully covered by several layers of the dry part, as well as by a layer of gutta percha tissue, and a stocking drawn on over the whole.
This causes dilation of the vessels of the leg, thus diminishing the blood in the head and producing sleep. It has been found by Winternitz that the temperature in the ear passage begins to fall a quarter of an hour after the application of the bandage, the decrease amounting to 0.4 degrees C., and the normal not being again reached for from 1-1/2 to two hour afterwards.
The writer has employed this means of producing sleep for a couple of years and finds it especially useful in cases where there is congestion of the brain. Sometimes he has found it necessary to reapply the bandage every three or four hours, as it dried.
Source: Fort Mill Times. Newspaper. April 24, 1913.
