nothing more or less than a habit, and
"habit spells ease." The brain cells are not irritated by either
internal or external stimuli; there is no effort to keep awake;
virtually no energy is expended,--except in restless tossing and
worry. If the body is kept still and emotion eliminated, fatigue
products are washed away and the reserves are filled in with perfect
ease.

=Thinking in Circles.= Habit means automatic, subconscious activity,
with the least expenditure of energy and the least amount of fatigue.
We have already noted the ease with which heart and diaphragm muscles
carry on their work from the beginning of life to its end. Anything
relegated to the subconscious mind can be kept up almost indefinitely
without tire, and to this subconscious type of activity belong the
thoughts of a chronic insomniac. Despite all assertions to the
contrary, his conscious mind is not really awake. If he is questioned
about the happenings of the night, he is likely to have been unaware
of the most audible noises. The thoughts that run through his brain
are not new, constructive, energy-consuming thoughts, but the same old
thoughts that have been going around in circles for days and weeks at
a time.

It is true that a person sometimes chooses to wake up and do his
constructive planning in the night. This kind of thought does bring
fatigue, up to a certain point. After that the body hastens its rate
of repair or automatically goes to sleep. Activity of this kind is
always a matter of choice. He who really prefers sleep will shut the
drawers containing the day's business and leave them shut until
morning.

=Day-Dreaming at Night.= However, the man who makes a practice of
staying awake rarely does much real thinking. He lets the thoughts run
through his mind as they will, builds air-castles of things he would
like to do and can't, or other kinds of air-castles about the
disastrous effects of his insomnia on the day that is to come; he
worries over his health, or his finances, and grieves over his
sorrows. He is really indulging himself, thinking the thoughts he
likes most to think, and these consume but little energy. Like a horse
that knows the rounds, they can go jogging on indefinitely without
guidance from the driver.

WHAT CAUSES THE FATIGUE

=Tossing and Fretting.= The thing that tires is not the insomnia but
the emotion over the insomnia. If people who fail to sleep are
perpetually fagged out, it is not from loss of