Instead, do as
those peasants do--leave off eating meat and take a two-hour walk in the
sunshine. Then when nine o'clock comes, like the Bulgarian, go to bed
and stay there until morning.

If the person afflicted with "nerves" expects to get well and stay well,
he must go to bed at an early hour and get eight or nine hours of sleep
not only some nights but every night in the week. When one begins
dieting and taking outdoor exercise he should go to bed regularly at an
early hour even though he has not been sleeping well. No matter how many
sleepless nights he has experienced before beginning this regime, he
should retire early just the same, because, sooner or later, sleep will
come and the relaxed body is resting even if the individual does not
sleep. Now I have been through all this lying awake at night, so I know
from experience that it is best to go to bed early and at a regular
hour. If you can, you should sleep nine hours. Nervous people need more
sleep than others. Sleep is a better restorer of nerves than anything
else we can try. I do not believe that ten or even eleven hours' sleep
would be harmful to a nervous adult, because very often I have seen such
a person benefited by it.

Children should have all the sleep they want up to ten or twelve hours.
But after a child has wakened in the morning he should be permitted to
get up. It is not good for him to lie in bed after he wishes to rise,
for nature is calling him to get up and exercise.

The nervous individual not only should exercise systematically out of
doors but he should play some game. You remember when we were children
how much we loved to play? Well, to give up play when we grow up is all
nonsense. And just because people quit playing is the reason they have
wrinkles and frowns. Did you ever notice how often people laugh when at
play? There is something about play that compels one to laugh. And what
all people need, nervous people and others as well, is to get into the
habit of laughing more.

And it is not hard to find something to play. I like to play at basket
ball with a child, and I can enjoy tossing a ball for an hour if the
child will stick to the game that long. Playing basket ball in the open
air on a sunshiny day is one of the very finest exercises in the world.

If you are suffering from "nerves" and are able to be out of doors at
all,--I mean if you are well enough to be out, and at least nine out of
ten sufferers are,--get a basket ba