Power Through Repose | Page 6

us through sleep.
Suppose, instead of eating our dinner, we should throw the food out of
the window, give it to the dogs, do anything with it but what Nature
meant we should, and then wonder why we were not nourished, and
why we suffered from faintness and want of strength. It would be no
more senseless than the way in which most of us try to sleep now, and
then wonder why we are not better rested from eight hours in bed. Only
this matter of fatiguing sleep has crept upon us so slowly that we are
blind to it. We disobey mechanically all the laws of Nature in sleep,
simple as they are, and are so blinded by our own immediate and
personal interests, that the habit of not resting when we sleep has
grown to such an extent that to return to natural sleep, we must think,
study, and practise.
Few who pretend to rest give up entirely to the bed, a dead
weight,--letting the bed hold them, instead of trying to hold themselves
on the bed. Watch, and unless you are an exceptional case (of which
happily there are a few), you will be surprised to see how you are
holding yourself on the bed, with tense muscles, if not all over, so
nearly all over that a little more tension would hardly increase the
fatigue with which you are working yourself to sleep.
The spine seems to be the central point of tension--it does not give to
the bed and rest there easily from end to end; it touches at each end and
just so far along from each end as the man or woman who is holding it
will permit. The knees are drawn up, the muscles of the legs tense, the
hands and arms contracted, and the fingers clinched, either holding the
pillow or themselves.
The head, instead of letting the pillow have its full weight, holds itself
onto the pillow. The tongue cleaves to the roof of the mouth, the throat
muscles are contracted, and the muscles of the face drawn up in one
way or another.
This seems like a list of horrors, somewhat exaggerated when we
realize that it is of sleep, "Tired Nature's sweet restorer," that we are
speaking; but indeed it is only too true.
Of course cases are not in the majority where the being supposed to
enjoy repose is using all these numerous possibilities of contraction.

But there are very few who have not, unconsciously, some one or two
or half-dozen nervous and muscular strains; and even after they become
conscious of the useless contractions, it takes time and watchfulness
and patience to relax out of them, the habit so grows upon us. One
would think that even though we go to sleep in a tense way, after being
once soundly off Nature could gain the advantage over us, and relax the
muscles in spite of ourselves; but the habits of inheritance and of years
are too much for her. Although she is so constantly gracious and kind,
she cannot go out of her way, and we cannot ask her to do so.
How simple it seems to sleep in the right way; and how wholesome it is
even to think about it, in contrast to the wrong way into which so many
of us have fallen. If we once see clearly the great compensation in
getting back to the only way of gaining restful sleep, the process is very
simple, although because we were so far out of the right path it often
seems slow. But once gained, or even partially gained, one great enemy
to healthful, natural nerves is conquered, and has no possibility of
power.
Of course the mind and its rapid and misdirected working is a strong
preventive of free nerves, relaxed muscles, and natural sleep. "If I could
only stop myself from thinking" is a complaint often heard, and reason
or philosophy does not seem to touch it. Even the certain knowledge
that nothing is gained by this rapid thought at the wrong time, that very
much is lost, makes no impression on the overwrought mind,--often
even excites it more, which proves that the trouble, if originally mental,
has now gained such a hold upon the physique that it must be attacked
there first. The nerves should be trained to enable the body to be an
obedient servant to a healthy mind, and the mind in giving its attention
to such training gains in normal power of direction.
If you cannot stop thinking, do not try; let your thoughts steam ahead if
they will. Only relax your muscles, and as the attention is more and
more fixed on the interesting process of letting-go of the muscles
(interesting, simply because the end is