Sleep has its analogue in death; and it is an accepted scientific truth that the continuance of life in any living thing depends upon death. Through life to death; through death to life again. One manner of expressing this truth regards merely the outward fact, as when we say that animal tissue is renewed through decay; another regards the action and reaction proper to life itself, whereby it forever springs freshly from its source. And because of this inter-relation, this inter-dependency, between the two states of life and death, we.apply to all manifest existence the term, Nature, which in derivation means "forever being born."

In the regularly recurring periods of unconsciousness, in the hours we spend in sleep, we find exemplification of the relation that exists between our working, active moments, and those that are devoted to the renewal of our physical and mental equipment. It is during sleep that the human instrument of thought and of motive government, the brain, obtains its repose; it is then that the cells of the human battery are recharged, that the working principle receives its potential for transformation during conscious intervals. It is then, too, that the greater portion of tissue impaired by wear in bodily activity is rebuilt and prepared for use in further exertion when consciousness recurs. Sleep is both a physiological and psychological necessity, and literal death will follow within short time if it be denied.

In the fast inability to sleep sometimes occurs, due in instances to lessened wear upon body tissue because of diminished call on muscles and organs, since muscular labor is more or less curtailed during abstinence from food, and digestion is entirely in abeyance. It may also happen that in the earlier stages of abstinence waste is excreted in amount incapable of being promptly and fully evacuated, and slight brain congestion with accompanying wakefulness results. The hot bath and the enema here again find their mission, and their use before retiring will go far towards remedying any tendency to insomnia.

But no natural process may be compelled if conditions be such that its function in the organism is not at the moment essential. Demand dependent upon necessity governs every natural desire. Upon it wait hunger, thirst, and sleep; without it, these constructive processes cannot be evoked. Hence frenzied attempts to induce sleep are futile, not to say foolish. The cultivation of an equable frame of mind in health, the ability to cast aside the cares of the day when one lies down to rest, add to disease-resistive qualities, and, if illness does occur, prove valuable aids to the efforts nature then proceeds to put into operation for relief. Here also reading plays its part; not that which necessitates extreme concentration of mind, but that which diverts the mentality, leading it along cheerful, wholesome lines of thought. The expedients suggested are natural abetters of healthful slumber, and find fitting time for their exercise after the activities of the day are done.