Rest and Sleep
As long as you can continue the practice do not allow the children to get "too old" for an afternoon rest. Even if he can not sleep, to lie down and relax will be of very definite value to health and bodily resistance of disease. If you are encouraging the cultivation of "the silence" and periods of constructive thought this can be combined with the rest period.
Rest and relaxation should be synonymous. To be able to relax thoroughly is of great value in the strenuous years of later life and should be cultivated and become habitual when young. In order that the child's sleep shall be of utmost value teach him to practice relaxation upon lying down and always doing so before falling asleep. This, coupled with a positive mental attitude, will make his sleep most profitable.
Never allow the child to go to sleep in anger or fright. Take time to change all negative mental conditions to positive ones before you leave him. Unless unavoidable he should not be punished before retiring. The mental attitude in which he falls asleep will continue through the night. Experiments have proven that fear, worry, hate, etc., produce an actual poison in the blood and it affects the bodily condition, of course. Blood taken from a man while in a fit of anger and injected into a rabbit will kill the rabbit almost immediately. These facts are not new but they need to be taken more into consideration in training children.