60 GOOD HEALTH 



once. The third morning I only half hear the noise in 

 my dreams, and after that I sleep through all his shaking 

 and poking without so much as turning over. 



Now if I had stayed awake those first few mornings, I 

 should have started the habit of waking at five o'clock, 

 and this would have kept me miserable all winter ; but 

 instead, I made myself go to sleep, until now that is my 

 habit and I like it. I trained myself to it. 



It is the same with an alarm clock. If you go to sleep 

 again each time after the alarm has sounded, in a few 

 mornings you will train yourself not to hear it at all. In 

 that way children train themselves not to hear the first call 

 to get up. If they have slept long enough, they ought to 

 get out of bed at once. Still, all I am trying to show 

 just now is that we can make our own sleep habits. We 

 can train ourselves in the opposite way too. 



If we heed the alarm clock, and stay awake, and get 

 up, it will always awaken us. 



It is strange, but we can train ourselves to hear some 

 noises and not to hear others. The things we attend to 

 are the ones that awaken us. A good nurse may sleep 

 through a thunderstorm, or a dreadful fire alarm, but 

 when her patient groans, or when she only whispers her 

 name, the nurse wakens in an instant. She has trained 

 herself to listen to that one particular sound. 



Some people are trained by the place where they live. 

 I have a friend who cannot sleep when she goes to the 



