The suppression of nervous irritability is the principal indication for treatment. This may be temporarily accomplished by the use of the bromides. But these must be reinforced by an ample dietary, with stimulant nervines and anti-spasmodics. Good wine, camphor, valerian, hyoscyamus, cannabis indica, and occasional doses of opium, will generally suffice to induce the needful repose. If confinement in bed precludes muscular movement for any length of time, passive exercise must be secured through the aid of massage. _Insomnia in spasmodic diseases._--This class of ailments will usually be encountered among patients who are enfeebled by unfavorable conditions of health, either congenital or acquired. Together with the specific treatment appropriate to the particular disorder, it often becomes necessary to make use of hypnotic remedies against sleeplessness. Thus chorea may sometimes reach a degree of inveteracy that renders sleep impossible. Alcohol and chloral hydrate must then be given in large and frequent doses. A laryngeal catarrh may excite spasmodic croup--a disorder speedily relieved with chloral hydrate. Old people of a nervous temperament sometimes experience paroxysms of a similar character, interfering with sleep whenever they suffer a catarrhal attack. Liberal doses of assafœtida and a Dover’s powder at night, associated with a course of antilithic treatment, afford great relief. Iodide of potassium, in the majority of asthmatic affections; the bromides and gelsemium in cases marked by excitability of the spinal cord; valerian, musk, assafœtida, camphor, and carbonate of ammonia, in cases of cerebro-spinal weakness and irritability; oxide of zinc, quinine, and chloral hydrate, when weariness and exhaustion are connected with a hyperæmic condition of the brain; such are the principal remedies against this variety of insomnia. Convulsions, if frequently repeated, may be subdued by the inhalation of ether or chloroform, until a sufficient quantity of the bromide of potassium can be introduced into the system. _Insomnia in childhood._--According to Vierordt,[55] the duration of sleep in the first week of life is only interrupted by the act of nursing. During the first month the infant should sleep at least two hours after each meal, waking only three or four hours out of the twenty-four. This period gradually increases; but, when a year old, the healthy child still sleeps more than he wakes. During the second and third years, he should sleep for ten or eleven hours at night, besides a nap of two hours in the daytime. After the fourth or fifth year, the daily nap may be discontinued. The fifth and sixth years require ten hours of sleep at night. From the seventh to the eleventh year, nine hours are needed. After the twelfth year, eight hours are sufficient.