The Freedom of Life

Sleep R

its of cleaving to mistaken ways of living cannot be thrown off at night and

bits through the day helps us to get more rest from our sleep. At the end of a good day we can settle down more qu

verfatigue, material disturbances from the o

keeps us awake. We wonder why we do not sleep. We toss and turn and wish we could sleep. We fret, and fume, and worry, because we do not sleep. We think of all we have to do on the following day, and are oppressed with the thought that we cannot do it if we do not sleep. First, we try one

indifference about it. It will help toward gaining this wholesome indifference to say "I am too tired to sleep, and therefore, the first thing for me to do is to get rested in order to p

her things, a chance to relax and find its own freedom and rest. It is helpful to inhale while we count seven, exhale while we count seven, then rest and breathe naturally while we count seven, and to repeat the series of three for seven times; but to be strict with ourselves and see that we only do it seven times, not once more nor once less. Then we should wait a little and try it again,-and so keep on for a number of times, repeating the same series; and we sh

a cup of hot milk. If you are awake for another two hours take half a cup more, and so, at intervals of about two hours, so long as you are awake throughout the night. Hot milk is nourishing and a sedative. It is not

. If we do not lose courage, but keep on steadily night after night, with a healthy persistence in remembering and practising these five things, we shall often find that what might have been a very long period of sleeplessness may be materially sho

y that all narcotics are in suc

and leave the nervous system in a state of strain which cannot be helped

curtain or a swinging door, by unusual noises in the streets, or by people talking. How often we hear it said, "It did seem hard when I went

my head, so that they would not keep me awake at night." It would have been a surprise to her if she had been told

by wondering why it does not stop; we hear noises in the street that we am unused to, especially if we are accustomed to sleeping in the stillness of the country, and we toss

the street continue steadily on, our brains yield to the conditions and so sleep naturally, because

he resistance which naturally arises at any unus

abit of feeling as if you could never get refreshing sleep in a sleeping car, first be sure that you have as much fresh air as possible, and then make up your mind that you will spend the whole night, if necessary, in noticing the rhythm of the motion and sound of the cars. If you keep your mind steadily on it, you will probably be asleep in less than an hour, and, when the car stops, you will wake only enough to settle comfortably into the sense of motion when it

that listening alone, apart from rhythm, tends to make one sleepy, and this leads us at o

bject, it means merely bringing the brain into a normal state which induces sleep when sleep is needed. Firs

have the habit of feeling that we must necessarily be disturbed by it, and, if we can stop t

only make the suffering a little less by yielding and being willing that it should go on. I cannot go to sleep while some one is knocking my lame arm, nor can I go to sleep while a noise is hitting my ti

for with time their power to bring sleep gradually becomes exhausted, and then the patient finds himself worse off than before, for the reactionary effect of the drugs leaves him with exhausted nerves an

persistently as noise. So with a man who has been in the habit of sleeping under other abnormal conditions, the change to normal conditions will sometimes keep him awake until he h

t about it with a will, for we have all nature on our side. Silence is orderly for the night

ower of non-resistance is clearly understood, and the effort to gain it is persistent, not only the power to sleep, but a n

ur whole bodies are resting heavily upon the bed, we are letting go all the res

red in their bodies, and they must go through a conscious process of dropping it before they can settle to sleep as a normal child does, without having to think about how it is done. The conscious process, how

sleep. The reader will say: "How can I be willing that the noise should go on when I am not willing?" The answer is, "If you can see clearly

rselves to do wrong against a strong sense of right. Behind an our desires, aversions, and inclinations each one of us possesses a capacity for a higher will, the exercise of which, on the side of order and righteousness, brings into being the greatest power in human life. The power of character is always in harmony with the laws

that often keeps us awake by

ilure. The first thing for him to do is to teach himself to be willing to fail. If he becomes willing to fail, then all his anxiety will go, and he will be able to sleep and get the rest and ne

r sense of the futility of resistance, whether our expected success or failure depends on ourselves or on others, we can compel ourselves to a quiet willing

elves of the wrong we have done, and then to make up our minds to do the right thing at once. That, if the wrong done is not too serious, will pu

d plotters and murderers, and that he intended, for his part, to stop being a scoundrel, and,