"HOW TO SLEEP WHEN YOUR WORK IS ON YOUR MIND" Excerpt from "How to sleep without pills" --------------------------------------------------- Mr. S. was account executive of a big advertising agency. His day consisted largely of a series of conferences, all of which both he and agency considered at least as important as a convocation of United Nations. At night there was a client to entertain or a client's radio or television show to listen to and worry over. By time Mr. S. was in bed he was so tense that he tossed half night, rehashing day's work, reconsidering his decisions, and in general, making himself as unfit as possible to do a good day's work next day.

Thousands of business executives take their work to bed with them, believing that with a little midnignt mulling, difficult problems will suddenly solve themselves. Occasionally this may happen, but it can't happen if you make a habit of taking your work to bed with you, if you toss and turn, fruitlessly considering decisions in a state of tension, and finally become panicky and fail to get enough sleep.

SOLUTION

Worrying over your work night and day won't make you richer, but it may make you die sooner. It's even bad economics. For example, a $100,000-a-year executive who dies fifteen years prematurely has lost $1,500,000. Isn't it good business for such a man to ask himself whether his nightly wrestling with his work is going to net him an extra $1,500,000?

Mr. S. once believed that taking his work to bed was necessary to his career. By time he came to me he wanted to break this habit, but couldn't.

His first step was to learn that sleep really begins at 8:00 a.m. If you are tense all day, you will be tense at night and pay penalty of being unable to sleep. Mr. S. had to be taught to relax during day.