The continuance of this habit of thinking of business day and night brings on the insomnia habit and that, in turn, gives rise to the delusion that you are fighting for your natural sleep. This produces worry, the demon that kills and maims.
To have an occasional wakeful night is natural; it is an evidence of intelligence: the mental dullard never has wakeful nights.
Unless the fear of sleeplessness becomes a full grown phobia, no anxiety need be felt. The fear of insomnia, the over-anxiety to go to sleep, is to be more dreaded than insomnia itself.
To Get Results.
To get refreshing sleep you must put yourself in a state of actual physical tiredness. Take exercise. Walk in one direction until the first symptoms of becoming tired appear, then walk home. Take a hot bath, then sponge with cold or cool water. Put a cold cloth at the head, and rub the backbone with cold water.
Open your windows wide, then relax. Don't worry; you are going to sleep.
Lie on your back, open your eyes wide, look up as if you were trying to see your eyebrows, hold your eyes open this way ten to twenty seconds, then close them slowly. Repeat this several times.
Sleep will have descended on you before you realize it.
Or occupy your mind with auto-suggestions like this: "I am going to sleep—sound, heavy, restful, peaceful sleep. My eyelids are getting heavy—heavy. I am going to close them and go to sleep."
Don't try to count imaginary sheep jumping over fence rails. Don't count numbers. It is a bad habit.