The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-11-15
HOW TO REST AND SLEEP.
A PHYSICIAN GIVES SOME SIMPLE DIREC-
TIoNs FOR GETTING GOOD RESULTS.

TIoNs FOR GETTING GOOD RESULTS.
Anyone who is nervous should be
careful how she expends energy. To
rest should not be an art difficult of
requirements or one requiring teach
er-yet many know very little of it..
II you are physically tired, a very few
minutes on the fiat of your back is
worth, as means of repair, an hours
sitting in chair but mind that it be
flat, not reclining on lounge, or with
your spine bent out of shape in deep
chair in which your weight rests on
any part Of your body except the part
intended to support it-above all, not
in rocking chair, that special trap
for the nervous. Besides getting into
this position you must lie still in it,
not holding yourself down on to the
couch or endeavoring to hold that ar
ticle of furniture down-that is, you
must be loose, relaxed, unstrug. Look
at child in bed, limbs sprawled all
abroad, for chow to do 1.-THE ease of
the careless position is more character
istic of perfect relaxation than the
more composed attitude of sleeping
adult. says DR.. John K. Mitchell, in
'Harper's Bazaar. Learn to keep still
when you rest when you move, move
on the part OF the body needed; do
not waste your force by walking with
your arms and face as well as with
your legs. If circumstances force an
unusual and fatiguing amount Of exer-
tion upon you, break it now and then
BY periods of absolute rest. No mat
ter how brief they are, they will be
useful if you make them complete and
perfect in the way described. This is
true of metal as well as bodily exertion.
A minute or two minutes of quiet,
with closed eyes, if possible, with your
tension relaxed and the gearing of the
machinery thrown of for the moment,
will help and refresh you greatly.
Here, again, more may be gained if the
ability to relax mentally can be ac-
quired, in a fashion similar to the
withdra wing of muscular tension.
Learn to empty your mind when not
using it.
This will not only help for the pur-
pose of Temporary repose, but may be
made useful in bringing about sleep.
1t can, like the trick of muscle relaxa-
ton, be acquired and made habitual.
You will then be less liable to have
your days work of worry pursue you
to bed and fasten upon you, to the
banishment of all possibility of going
to sleep, or if you escape this, follow
you into the land of Nod and hag ride
you in your dreams.
DR.. Mitchell gives some good ad-
vice about the art Of wooing sleep that
is worth quoting.
"Overanxiety about sleep hinders
its coming and makes one wakeful.
Muscular relaxation and mind emp
tied of thought are the preliminary re-
quisites," he says. 1T may be worth
while to add that while we know very
little of the physiology of sleep, it is
pretty certain that the amount of blood
in the brain is lessened during sleep,
though whether this dininution in the
blood supply is preliminary to or con-
sequent upon sleep is insure. The or
dinary household remedies for wake
fulness are founded on this fact-a hot
footbath, a hot water bag to the body,
a warm drink, which draws blood to
the stomach, all having more or less
the effect of reducing the
quantity of blood in the head. AL
most all sleep-producing medicines act
in the same manner, but these are un-
desirable for nervous people, who too
easily grow dependent upon them.
The habit of their use is not 80 dan
gerous as the slavery TO pain-suppress-
ing drugs, the greatest reason against
them being rather in their somewhat
nervous and physical after
effects. On the other hand, thought
increases the amount of blood
in the head"