The physiological problem is uncomplicated. As Dr. Learned, who more than a quarter of a century ago cured himself of habitual insomnia by getting control of the respiratory and circulatory functions in the sleeping posture, has made clear, the problem is simply to shift the belt of attention from the wildly whirling wheel of introspection to the steadier wheel the will revolves. By deep regular respirations, accompanied by rhythmical movements of the head and hands and feet, Dr. Learned has frequently brought the wandering attention back from some side track it sought in fitfulness to the main line of the controlled consciousness. So surely has he in recent years become convinced that the problem is usually psychical that he no longer emphasises physical exercises in or out of bed. Instead he provides an ingenious little tablet on which the wakeful one with unlifted pencil steadily records in waving lines his inhalations and his exhalations until at last, fatigued by the long exercise, the brain becomes anæmic and sleep overtakes the drowsy mind. RELAXATION AND RHYTHMIC BREATHING To Mrs. Annie Payson Call[11] and Dr. Emily Noble we owe of late the stress we lay on muscular relaxation and rhythmic breathing, which practised faithfully will now and then bring sleep where drugs are worse than useless. Muscular relaxation can be learned by any who will take the trouble. The Delsarteans are already adepts at it. The letting of the arms drop limp by the side as one sits in an easy chair, the letting of the trunk sink unsupported against the easy chair as though it were sinking into a yielding bank of snow, the letting of the head fall forward or sideways without resistance will furnish even to the slow of wits a visual image which will serve as a sufficient pattern in the relaxation of the whole body. Dr. Emily Noble, who has seen Oriental soldiers at the end of a long march throw themselves in complete relaxation on their backs, gives in her _Rhythmic Breathing plus Olfactory Nerve Influence on Respiration_ possibly the most practical of all directions for the mature in the important art of relaxation. She bids him lie upon his back on a hard surface, with head turned to one side in order to relieve the tension on the muscles of the neck, with arms extended at right angles, with the palms turned up, with feet turned out and spread for comfort at least a foot apart. The lungs are then to be cleared of their static air by a few deep inhalations, made through the left nostril because in the average man it seems to furnish a freer channel for the air than the right nostril. Next the insomniast settles down to lighter rhythmic breathing, which is nothing but the consequence of the conscious effort to make each exhalation equal to each inhalation. He should take the “breath in as gently as the fog creeps in from the sea.” He should let it out “as the air goes out of little children’s balloons when it is allowed to escape.”