Many believe that "early to bed and early to rise" is the proper way, that the hours of sleep before midnight are more refreshing and invigorating than those after. This is merely a belief, perhaps a good one. Early retiring leads to regularity, which is very desirable. Late retiring often means loose mental and physical habits. Those who are regular about their time of retiring and live well otherwise feel refreshed whether they go to bed early or late. Children should always retire early, otherwise they do not get enough sleep. The night is the natural sleeping time for most creatures, as well as for man. This is a heritage of ages. There was no artificial illumination during the stone age. Man could do nothing during the darkness, so he rested. However, those who must work at night find no trouble in sleeping during the day. The tendency among men is the same as among animals, to sleep more in winter than in summer, not that more sleep is required, but because the winter nights are longer. Children should go to bed early. They require more sleep than adults because of the greater cell activity. Also, children who stay up late generally become irritable and nervous. It is not well to eat immediately before retiring. The sleep following a late meal is generally interrupted, and there is not that feeling of brightness and clearness of mind, with which one should awake, next morning. Lunching before going to bed is a bad habit. Some believe they must have an apple, or perhaps a glass of milk, before retiring, for they think that this will bring sleep. The body should not be burdened with extra food to digest during the sleeping hours. This time should be dedicated to the restoring of the body, and the blood contains ample material. Dreaming is largely a bad habit. A normal individual rarely dreams, and then generally following some imprudence. Dreams begin in childhood and are then due principally to excessive food intake. As a producer of nightmares overfeeding has no equal. During adult life dreaming is caused by bad physical and mental conduct, plus the habit which was formed in childhood. Fear, anger, worry, stimulants, too much food, impure air and too warm clothes are some of the causes that produce dreams. Like other bad habits, dreaming is difficult to overcome once it is firmly established. The cure consists in righting one's other bad habits and in not thinking about the dreams. A sleep that is disturbed by dreams is not as sound as it should be and consequently not as refreshing as normal sleep. The conscious mind is not completely at rest and, the subconscious mind is running riot. Normal sleep is complete unconsciousness. This is the sleep of the just and must be earned.