aded. Instead of having a clear, vigorous brain capable of
powerfully focusing his mind, he approaches his work with all his
standards down, and with about as much chance of winning as a race
horse who has been driven all night before a contest would have. Not
even a man with the will of a Napoleon could win out under such
conditions.

It is of the utmost importance to stop the grinding, rasping process in
the brain at night and to keep from wearing life away and wasting one's
precious vitality.

Many people become slaves to night worry. They get into a chronic
habit of thinking after they retire--especially of contemplating their
troubles and trials,--and it is a very difficult habit to break.

It is fundamental to sound health to make it a rule never to discuss
business troubles and things that vex and irritate one at night,
especially just before retiring, for whatever is dominant in the mind
when one falls asleep continues its influence on the nervous structure
long into the night.

Some people age more at night than during the daytime, when, it would
appear, if they must worry at all, the reverse ought to be true. When
hard at work during the day they do not have much time to think of
their ailments, their business troubles, their misfortunes. But when
they retire, the whole brood of troubling thoughts and worry ghosts
fill the mind with horrors. They grow older instead of younger, as
they would under the influence of sound, refreshing sleep.

Mental discord saps vitality, lessens courage, shortens life. It does
not pay to indulge in violent temper, corroding thoughts, mental
discord in any form. Life is too short, too precious, to spend any
part of it in such unprofitable, soul-racking, health-destroying
business. The imagination is particularly active at night, and all
unpleasant, disagreeable things seem a great deal worse then than in
the day, because in the silence and darkness imagination magnifies
everything. We have all dreamed of the evening's experience, after we
went to sleep: perhaps it is the refrain of a song or the intense
situation in a play which we live over again. This shows how powerful
impressions are; how important it is never to retire to rest in a fit
of temper, or in an ugly, unpleasant mood. We should get ourselves
into mental harmony, should become serene and quiet before retiring,
and, if possible, lie down smiling, no matter how long it may take to
secure this conditio