The best remedy of all is to spend a whole day in the open air. This will often break the sleepless habit, and once a good night’s rest has been obtained others will be likely to follow. There is one other hint which sounds like an old wife’s tale. We do not pretend to be able to explain it, but experience has proved its efficacy in many instances. People have found that they can sleep better with the head pointing to the north than in any other position. Every method, however simple or inexplicable, is worth a trial, for there is no condition so distressing as insomnia, or so likely to lead to the much-dreaded neurasthenia. People often complain that they cannot sleep well in the summer-time. This is owing to the fact of the mornings being light at such an early hour. This can be remedied with the best results to the whole system by the plan of having dark green blinds fitted inside the windows. [Sidenote: Massage.] Those who, through some illness or infirmity, cannot take exercise, will find the greatest benefit from massage. If skilled massage cannot be obtained, gentle rubbing of the limb will fulfil the same useful purpose. CHAPTER XVI. HOLIDAYS. The greatest mistake than can be made is to wait for an annual holiday in the expectation that it is going to exonerate us from consequences of eleven months or more of sinning against the rules of health. Everyone, men and women alike, should secure a holiday if only for an hour or so every day of their lives, in the shape of some congenial change of thought or occupation. [Sidenote: Value of the annual holiday.] Yet the annual holiday has a place of its own in our well being. It takes us away from our ordinary associations, and brings us into contact with fresh scenery and new faces, which mean new personalities. It invigorates our bodies and tones up our minds, broadening them and furnishing them with new ideas, so that both from the physical and mental standpoints it is a valuable aid to health. It has a direct bearing on the subject of breakdowns, for change of scene is a potent means of getting a man’s mind out of the monotonous groove which is so wearing to his nervous system. It has an additional advantage in that it often happens that after a holiday he is apt to keep himself in contact with the fresh air and exercise, and recreation also, which he found so beneficial when he was away from home. In the incipient stages of breakdown, too, a complete change is one of the necessary items in treatment. Seeing, therefore, how important it is and what it means to so many people, it is well worth while to consider how the time and money involved may be expended to the best advantage. The usual plan is to fix on a spot because we have heard it spoken of as a “nice place to go to,” engage rooms by letter and set off, hoping for the best. Little wonder that the holiday often turns out a disappointment.