The medical discoveries and advice in the early 1900s flip-flops between scary and silly. I have seen everything from harvesting lightning to cure rheumatism to “magic” syrups to cure deafness. The early 1900s were a time of discovery, trial and error, and weird theories. This cure for insomnia is humorous, to say the least, but it may actually work at relaxing you. For example, a trick used at some alternative schools for children is to have upset children blow bubbles until they settle down. It slows down their breathing and helps them regain focus. This cure isn’t too far off from the bubble trick.
NEW CURE FOR INSOMNIA
Will Disappear if You Puff on an Empty Pipe Before Retiring.
Among the recent discoveries accidentally made is the fact that insomnia may be cured if the person afflicted will but spend a few minutes before retiring each night puffing an empty tobacco pipe. The remedy is therefore available to those who do not smoke as well as to the devotees of the habit, for it is not necessary that the pipe shall have been used by a tobacco smoker. To smokers the remedy involves no cost whatever, but of nonsmokers the capital outlay of the price of a pipe is required. It must be a wooden pipe, and curved, not straight.
Having retired for the night, the sufferer should lie perfectly flat on his back, discarding pillow rests, and puff steadily at an empty pipe until he feels thoroughly drowsy. The desired result usually is achieved after about sixty to 100 puffs have been made. The puffing should be done slowly, with a deep inhaling movement. The expelling motions must be made deliberately with narrowed mouth. During the entire operation the pipe should not be removed, as each displacing and replacing movement tends to wakefulness.
Those capable of great concentration of thought should, if smokers, imagine they see volumes of smoke and those who eschew the burning weed will be helped by counting the puffs.
As sleep is often successfully wooed while yet the pipe is in the mouth, bowls of meerschaum or clay are not recommended, since these are liable to be broken when the coming of slumber allows the pipe to slide from the mouth. Nervous people may be reassured that there is no danger in falling asleep with the curved pipe caught between one’s teeth. Sleep always occasions the grip to be removed. That may hold also of straight pipes, but for other and obvious reasons these are less suitable than those with curved stems. [Source]
