- 



SOME RULES ABOUT SLEEPING 53 



I knew a woman once who had only slept five hours 

 that week, and she said nobody knew how she suffered. 

 When she did sleep again she was the happiest woman 

 you ever saw. 



There are certain things that help many people to go 

 to sleep. The patter of rain on the roof is one, the rustle 

 of leaves is another, and the gentle singing of a lullaby is 

 still another. All these things help because they keep on 

 without much change. They are what we call monotonous. 

 The sound goes on in the same tone, and it is soothing. 

 But when the sound stops the people waken at once. 



Perhaps you have seen how quickly an old man 

 stiffens his neck and sits up straight when the minister 

 stops preaching. It is the same with a baby too some- 

 times. He sleeps while the nurse is singing, but when 

 she stops he wakens and begins to cry. 



People know that monotonous things make them 

 sleepy, so when they are excited or tired and cannot 

 sleep they try all sorts of schemes that are monotonous. 

 Sometimes they count slowly from one to one hundred ; 

 then they count backwards from one hundred to one. 

 Sometimes they repeat a verse of poetry over and over 

 again, or they say to themselves,/' Sleep, sleep, sleep," 



Intil at last they go to sleep. 



Once when I could not sleep I learned to say the 

 alphabet from both ends to the middle, like this : a z b y c 

 xdwevfugthsirjqkplomn. At the same time 



