HOW'TO AVOID SLEEPLESS NIGHTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 735, 9 January 1915, Page 3

HOW'TO AVOID SLEEPLESS NIGHTS.

Sleep is a habit, lb is a very natural and beneficial habit, but one that can be easily broken through injudici : bus living and thinking. Poor sleepers are usually high-strung, nervous people, who have too active bodies or brains, or both,, and who are ambitious and inclined to neglect themselves. Insomnia cannot be cured by. drugs. It is always dangerous to use drugs to produce sleep, and they should seldom be resorted to except in serious illness, and then only on the advice of a physician. If you cannot sleep, and find that your sleeplessness is becoming a habit, begin immediately '■•o go slower. Curb your ambition, lea\ a off allnnnecessary woik and learn how to rest. Your body and your brain need repose and rest, but the trouble with the people who "cannot sleep" is, they do not know how to rest. Tlioy do not stop thinking, planning, worrying, and go to bed with active brains and only partly relaxed bodies a ; id then worry because sleep does not come. Perfect relaxation of body and mind is the first essential, and relaxation.of either one helps to relax, the other. There is one exercise which, properly practised, will ba found beneficial in more ways than ,one. Stand ereci. but without stiffness, arms hanging easily at the tides. Now very gently inhale air through the nostrils, at ihs same time lifting the arms straight out at the side. Time the motion so that when the lungs are fully inflated the thumbs touch above the head. Raise the face slightly ab the same time toward the ceiling. Then, without holding the breath, inhale g?-.-sweeping the arms, hands together, downward and forward, so that when the exhalation is complete tlioy again hang easily at the sides. Extreme gentleness and -slowness must bo observed, -without .force or haste. Lot the air flow into the lungs; don't force it "in.

When wakefulness is caused by a dull, sedentary life, more physical activity, outdoor sports, and brisk walk ing are good. Slow outdoor wa"\." and deep breathing are very beuefiento those whose wakefulness is the result of worry or fatigue.

Make yourself comfortable ,in bed. in a cool room, and "realise that the bed is holding you, not you the bed. Feel as heavy as you cnn. Then don't count or con dull sayings ; you want >o make, the mind a blank, fliile

thought, and this can be- don;; wi'.h a little practice. But if thought per&ist in p- .senting th?inreives, a mental repetition of the words, ' Lot go—relax relax," will aid yon in relaxing and letting go. Then, if you cannot sleep, doJi't worry over it, for any kind of worry will oily prolong your wakefulness. Be content to rest and after a while sleep will come. Go to bed early, even when you cannot sleep, and do not get up too early, unless you positively have to. Even a short morning nap, when you have lain awake many hours *of the night, is very refreshing.