Do you worry when you can’t sleep well？ Then it may interestyou to know that Samuel Untermyer—the famous internationallawyer—never got a decent night’s sleep in his life.
When Sam Untermyer went to college， he worried about twoafflictions—asthma and insomnia. He couldn’t seem to cureeither， so he decided to do the next best thing—take advantageof his wakefulness. Instead of tossing and turning and worryinghimself into a breakdown， he would get up and study. The result？
He began ticking off honours in all of his classes， and became oneof the prodigies of the College of the City of New York.
Even after he started to practice law， his insomnia continued.
But Untermyer didn’t worry. “Nature，” he said， “will take careof me.” Nature did. In spite of the small amount of sleep he wasgetting， his health kept up and he was able to work as hard asany of the young lawyers of the New York Bar. He even workedharder， for he worked while they slept！
At the age of twenty-one， Sam Untermyer was earning seventyfivethousand dollars a year； and other young attorneys rushedto courtrooms to study his methods. In 1931， he was paid—forhandling one case—what was probably the highest lawyer’s fee inall history： a cool million dollars-cash on the barrelhead.
Still he had insomnia—read half the night—and then got up atfive A. M. and started dictating letters. By the time most peoplewere just starting work， his day’s work would be almost half done.
He lived to the age of eighty-one， this man who had rarely had a sound night’s sleep； but if he had fretted and worried about hisinsomnia， he would probably have wrecked his life.
We spend a third of our lives sleeping—yet nobody knows whatsleep really is. We know it is a habit and a state of rest in whichnature knits up the ravelled sleeve of care， but we don’t know howmany hours of sleep each individual requires. We don’t evenknow if we have to sleep at all！
Fantastic？ Well， during the First World War， Paul Kern， aHungarian soldier， was shot through the frontal lobe of his brain.
He recovered from the wound， but curiously enough， couldn’t fallasleep. No matter what the doctors did—and they tried all kindsof sedatives and narcotics， even hypnotism—Paul Kern couldn’tbe put to sleep or even made to feel drowsy.
The doctors said he wouldn’t live long. But he fooled them. Hegot a job， and went on living in the best of health for years. Hewould lie down and close his eyes and rest， but he got no sleepwhatever. His case was a medical mystery that upset many of ourbeliefs about sleep.
Some people require far more sleep than others. Toscaninineeds only five hours a night， but Calvin Coolidge needed morethan twice that much. Coolidge slept eleven hours out of everytwenty-four. In other words， Toscanini has been sleeping awayapproximately one-fifth of his life， while Coolidge slept awayalmost half of his life.
Worrying about insomnia will hurt you far more than insomnia.
For example， one of my students-Ira Sandner， was driven nearly tosuicide by chronic insomnia.
“I actually thought I was going insane，” Ira Sandner told me.
“The trouble was， in the beginning， that I was too sound a sleeper.
I wouldn’t wake up when the alarm clock went off， and the resultwas that I was getting to work late in the morning. I worried about it-and， in fact， my boss warned me that I would have to getto work on time. I knew that if I kept on oversleeping， I wouldlose my job.
“I told my friends about it， and one of them suggested Iconcentrate hard on the alarm clock before I went to sleep. Thatstarted the insomnia！ The tick-tick-tick of that blasted alarm clockbecame an obsession. It kept me awake， tossing， all night long！
When morning came， I was almost ill. I was ill from fatigue andworry. This kept on for eight weeks. I can’t put into words thetortures I suffered. I was convinced I was going insane. SometimesI paced the floor for hours at a time， and I honestly consideredjumping out of the window and ending the whole thing！
“At last I went to a doctor I had known all my life. He said：
‘Ira， I can’t help you. No one can help you， because you havebrought this thing on yourself. Go to bed at night， and if you can’tfall asleep， forget all about it. Just say to yourself： “I don’t care ahang if I don’t go to sleep. It’s all right with me if I lie awake tillmorning.” Keep your eyes closed and say： “As long as I just liestill and don’t worry about it， I’ll be getting rest， anyway.” ’
“I did that，” says Sandner， “and in two weeks’ time I wasdropping off to sleep. In less than one month， I was sleeping eighthours， and my nerves were back to normal.”
It wasn’t insomnia that was killing Ira Sandner； it was hisworry about it.
Dr. Nathaniel Kleitman， professor at the University of Chicago，has done more research work on sleep than has any other livingman. He is the world’s expert on sleep. He declares that he hasnever known anyone to die from insomnia. To be sure， a manmight worry about insomnia until he lowered his vitality and wasswept away by germs. But it was the worry that did the damage，not the insomnia itself.