Among the numerous aids to sleep are the hop pillow, which acts quite the reverse until one gets accustomed to its presence, and then it has lost any influence which it ever possessed. Hot milk; milk and egg; milk, egg, and brandy; a light meal; a long walk, a rapid drive, hot water up to the knees, a body compress, massage, a hot bottle to the feet - all have their advocates, but all fail in pronounced cases. A smart walk of a couple of miles after dinner or supper is an excellent plan as an assistant to health, with a glass of hot milk on the return, if a sufficient time has elapsed since leaving the table. Whatever conduces to reestablish the health will assist in the re-establishment of sleep. A wholemeal biscuit and butter, or gingerbread, in the night is often found useful to incite sleep, but this, too, is apt to fail if it is taken in a regular way, and it is not wise to make it a practice.

Insomnia should be treated calmly, for it means nothing to the man that is sound. It is an illusion to think that, unless much pronounced, it does any serious harm. We must think of what others are suffering - the wounded, the sick, and the dying, no hope in this life, and sometimes, alas! no hope in the next. Yet with all our mental suffering hope still remains - it is eternal in the human breast. Excitement and fear must give way to thankfulness and rest. If we must lie and think, we can construct plans for our daily life, its duties, its responsibilities, its usefulness, remembering that we are all here for a purpose. We must resolve to eat, to work, and to act in order to live, to take regular and sensible exercise, on foot or on horseback, and keep as fit as we can, always doing one mile, and if possible two, before breakfast in all weathers and at all times.

What is the remedy for sleeplessness? A natural, simple, and objective method of living, with a clean body, open windows at night, and a low pillow. To exist for pleasure, for luxury, or for business prosperity never yet made a good man - still less a happy man. There is much that we can legitimately enjoy in life without making either of these ends the hub on which it works. Simple meals are among the first points to be observed, with abundance of fruit and salads, for both give assistance to sleep. I am not describing a theory, but sensible, definite practice, which has rebuilt broken lives, restored all that makes life worth living, and conferred as much on the intellect as it ever enjoyed.

Comfort in sleep may be better obtained by clothing the bed like the body, by the indications of the thermometer, which should hang in the bedroom. One blanket less or more makes a great difference in very changeable weather, for sleep is often broken by chilliness on the one hand, or by perspiration when there are too many wraps on the bed, on the other. Some people fall off to sleep while counting five hundred, or while reciting a poem. I suggest the silent recital of hymns which direct the thought to that one Source of Love Whose Name should be the last on our lips.