Sleep cannot act as a restorer if you retire to sleep in a state of mental or bodily tension. The nerves and muscles of the body must be entirely relaxed. Some people scarcely ever completely relax themselves. Their brains and bodies are busy all day and all night - they go right on with the strife and toil of the day. When they sit in a chair, they unconsciously exert an energy to hold the chair down instead of allowing the chair to support and rest the muscles.

Whenever you find an opportunity to rest, just let go all muscular tension, relax and rest. While it is necessary that you concentrate or focus your attention on your work or any given subject, yet it is equally important to know how and when to let go and relax. Those who have learned the art of relaxation and who wisely control their mental forces can by an order from the will completely let go at the desired time.

When, you lie down to sleep do so with the definite purpose of rest and sleep in your brain. The hours allotted to sleep, is not the time for business, domestic or social plans. Do not picture yourself at work, or conversing or dealing with anyone on business subjects. An abundance of perfect child-like sleep and rest is necessary for the preservation of health and beauty. A few hours of dreamless sleep will do far more good than many hours spent in tossing to and fro with alternate periods of half sleep and wakefulness.

The mental mood in which you retire to rest has an important influence on the benefits you will receive from the night's sleep. If you retire satisfied that you have done your best to realize your ideal of what your life should be, with the bright expectancy of continued success, happiness and new life, your sleep will do you much good. Your attitude will enable you to fall asleep with the naturalness of a child, to whom the cares of existence are unknown.

Never retire to sleep with a thought of inharmony toward anyone, for all bitter feelings are indications of disturbances within yourself that will surely destroy the harmony necessary to normal, restful sleep. Instead, retire with an attitude of love, peace and thankfulness for the day's favors. This attitude will not only assure you of restful sleep, but it will have an elevating influence on your character and will raise you to a higher mental plane where you will receive more abundant life.

If you are now suffering from the lack of restful sleep due to not having followed the correct rules for rest, I advise you to begin today to follow the advice given in this lesson. If you suffer from insomnia, take the relaxation exercises for from fifteen to thirty minutes and then crawl into bed and allow the body to lie limp and relaxed. Relax the lower jaw and in a few minutes, you will be in a sweet, restful sleep. Should you be in the habit of waking during the night and remaining awake for hours at a time, you can cure the habit if you get out of bed as soon as you wake and walk around the room until your body is quite cool. Better still, go to the window and inhale a quantity of pure air, then return to bed and relax all muscles as before and you will go to sleep again in a very few minutes. Don't lay in bed and toss and turn until you grow nervous. Get right up and let the air get to your skin. It does not matter how cold the air may be, it will not harm you, if you keep moving, for your body needs it. If your room is thoroughly ventilated so as to admit the oxygen your system requires, you will not wake up and become restless. Remember this.

The attainment of a century of youth is a high ideal, therefore, your entire life must be remodeled along perfect lines. Each act of existence must be so expressed as to afford the greatest amount of vitality. Therefore sleep, one of the simplest acts of life, should be enjoyed in abundance. Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of people know not the real meaning of sleep. They are the people who need to study and follow these instructions.

If you are one of this number, affirm your right to be a master of your physical sensations and not a slave. Determine to concentrate your thought on work when you need it and to let go and relax the mind and body when the proper time comes. To do it, you have but to try conscientiously. You can sleep and you can rest.

The coming of natural sleep is gradual. The senses are lost one by one. The eyes close first because sight is useless in the dark. Next taste is lost, then the sense of smell. Hearing is the next to succumb and the sense of touch is the last to desert us. In waking the process is reversed. The sense of touch regains consciousness first.

The amount of sleep necessary to complete rest depends, as I have said before, upon the quality of the sleep. As a rule, from eight to nine hours is enough. As much of that as possible should be taken before mid-night for reasons previously mentioned. You must be the judge as to just how much sleep is best for you. Better a little more than not enough.

Do not attempt to sleep in a room that is not properly ventilated. To do so, is to poison your system and create symptoms of disease. Refreshing, renewing sleep cannot come to you if you are breathing and re-breathing impure air. Pure, cool air at all times is what you need. Don't be afraid of taking cold. Colds never come from pure air; they are the efforts of Nature to throw off an accumulation of waste matter that has become congested in the system, as a result of overeating, insufficient bathing, or the breathing of impure air.

If you keep your blood pure and its circulation act ive by following the rules given in these lessons, you will never have a cold. In a few years, it will be recognized as an admission of gross carelessness for anyone to suffer with a cold or any other ailment. If you are sick in future you will have only yourself to blame.

Before closing this lesson, I wish to bring to your attention the fact that to rest does not mean that you must always cease activity. A change from one set of muscles to another will be found highly refreshing. Therefore, when you are tired from the routine of your daily work you can often secure rest and pleasure from some exercise or play that uses a different set of muscles. The exercises given in the previous lesson will create rest and comfort when you are tired from work.

You should study to work in a harmonious, natural manner. Avoid all unnecessary tension. Make no nervous or unnecessary movements. See that each movement of the body has a definite purpose and you will avoid a useless waste of vital force.

Another important essential of rest is proper recreation. Life should not consist of merely working, eating and sleeping. There should be a time for play and a time for work. The nature of the recreation to be taken is largely a matter of choice. But, in a general way, it should tend to vary the day's activities. Outdoor recreation, of course, is best. In taking any other kind, be careful to see that the air is pure and that it has not been breathed over several times by other people. There is no need to postpone the realization of your ideal of rest for another world or a future existence. Rest is for you here and now, if you will accept it. In proportion as you learn the laws of perfect rest and fulfill them in your daily life, you will renew the body so that youth and power can be preserved for the desired length of time. Let each day, therefore, be one of reposeful activity, and, each night, be one of perfect and rejuvenative sleep.