being interested in your insomnia, it
will go away, although from a health standpoint it matters very little
whether it does or not." We had two conversations on the subject, and
a week later she came back to tell me that she was sleeping eight
hours a night.

One woman had had insomnia for thirty years. After I had explained to
her that her body had adjusted itself to this way of living and that
she need not try to get more sleep, she snored so loud all night and
every night that the rest of the family began to complain!

A certain banker proved very quick at catching the idea. He had been
so troubled with insomnia and intense weakness that his doctors
prescribed a six-months voyage in Southern waters. Knowing that my
prescriptions involved a change in point of view rather than in scene,
he came to me. Although he had been getting only about half an hour's
sleep a night, he went to sleep in his chair the first evening, and
then went upstairs and slept all night. He resumed his duties at the
bank, walking a mile and a half the first day and three miles the
second. During the months following, he reported, "No more insomnia."

=Keeping Account.= A bright young college graduate came to me for a
number of ailments, chief among them being sleeplessness. She was also
overcome by fatigue, having spent four months in bed. A four-mile walk
in the canon and a few other such outings soon dispelled the fatigue,
but the insomnia proved more obstinate. After she had been with me for
a week or two, I took her aside one day for a little talk. "Well?" I
said as we sat down. Then she began: "Sunday night I was awake from
half-past one to four, Monday from twelve to one, Tuesday from one to
three, Wednesday from two to four, Thursday--" By this time she became
aware of the quizzical expression on my face and began to be
embarrassed. Then she stopped and laughed. "Well," she said, "I did
not know that I was paying so much attention to my sleep." She was
bright enough to see the point at once, gave up her preoccupation in
the all-absorbing topic and promptly forgot to have any trouble with
so natural a function as sleep.

=Making New Associations.= Examples like this show how natural is
childlike slumber when once we take away the inhibitions of a
hampering idea. Age-old habits like sleep are not lost, but they may
easily be interfered with by a little too much attention. When a
person who can scarcely keep his eyes open all the eveni