Hydrotherapy for Sleeplessness

Hydrotherapy is also effective in treatment of insomnia. Application of hot packs to the spine before retiring, hot fomentation to the spine, hot foot bath or an alternate hot and cold foot bath at bedtime are all time-tested methods. The cold hip bath with the feet in hot water and the prolonged neutral immersion bath (92 to 96º F) at bed time, when one's nerves are usually irritable, are also effective measures. A neutral immersion bath for one hour daily is also helpful in the treatment of depression. This bath is administered in a bath tub which should be properly fitted with hot and cold water connections. The patient should lie in the tub after filling it with water a temperature ranging from 92º to 98º F. The head should be kept cold with a cold compress. This approach is especially useful in treating depression caused by thyroid dysfunction. It is difficult to recognise the first symptoms of goitre because they are of a very short duration. They usually appear as emotional upsets and can pass almost unnoticed. These spells of emotional upsets gradually increase in duration, when other symptoms also appear. These include loss of power of concentration, depression and weeping. The patient appears to be very easily irritated. The approach of a nervous breakdown is often suspended. The thyroid gland may swell but this has no relation to the severity of the ailment because many serious cases have practically no visible swelling. There is always a rapid though regular heart beat and any undue excitement increases this to a quick pulsation which may even be conveyed to the thyroid gland. There is, in most cases, a tremor of the hands and a feeling of extreme tiredness, together with a lack of power to make any real muscular effort. The eyes may incline to protrude although this does not appear in all patients. A most alarming symptoms of goitre is the loss of weight which no treatment seems to check, and this can persist till the patient feels extremely weak. All the symptoms appear very gradually and that is why so many women do not complain until the trouble has reached serious proportions.