The Probert Encyclopaedia of Medicine

HYPNOTICS

Hypnotics are agents which induce sleep. They act in one of two ways, either by producing temporary anaemia of the brain, or by lowering the excitability of nerve-cells. Natural sleep is accompanied by cerebral anaemia, and this is why a warm bath aids sleep as it dilates the skin-vessels and so diverts a considerable part of the blood-supply from the brain. Warming the feet has a similar effect.
Research Hypnotics