At the age of twenty-one，Sam Untermyer was earning seventy-five thousand dollars a year；and other young attorneys rushed to courtrooms to study his methods.In 1931，he was paid—for handling one case—what was probably the highest lawyer’s fee in all history：a cool million dollars-cash on the barrelhead.
Still he had insomnia—read half the night—and then got up at five A.M.and started dictating letters.By the time most people were 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 asound night’s sleep；but if he had fretted and worried about his insomnia，he would probably have wrecked his life.
We spend a third of our lives sleeping—yet nobody knows what sleep really is.We know it is a habit and a state of rest in which nature knits up the ravelled sleeve of care，but we don’t know how many hours of sleep each individual requires.We don’t even know if we have to sleep at all！
Fantastic？Well，during the First World War，Paul Kern，a Hungarian soldier，was shot through the frontal lobe of his brain.He recovered from the wound，but curiously enough，couldn’t fall asleep.No matter what the doctors did—and they tried all kinds of sedatives and narcotics，even hypnotism—Paul Kern couldn’t be put to sleep or even made to feel drowsy.
The doctors said he wouldn’t live long.But he fooled them.He got a job，and went on living in the best of health for years.He would lie down and close his eyes and rest，but he got no sleep whatever.His case was a medical mystery that upset many of our beliefs about sleep.
Some people require far more sleep than others.Toscanini needs only five hours a night，but Calvin Coolidge needed more than twice that much.Coolidge slept eleven hours out of every twenty-four.In other words，Toscanini has been sleeping away approximately one-fifth of his life，while Coolidge slept away almost 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 to suicide 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 result was that I was getting to work late in the morning.I worriedabout it-and，in fact，my boss warned me that I would have to get to work on time.I knew that if I kept on oversleeping，I would lose my job.
“I told my friends about it，and one of them suggested I concentrate hard on the alarm clock before I went to sleep.That started the insomnia！The tick-tick-tick of that blasted alarm clock became an obsession.It kept me awake，tossing，all night long！When morning came，I was almost ill.I was ill from fatigue and worry.This kept on for eight weeks.I can’t put into words the tortures I suffered.I was convinced I was going insane.Sometimes I paced the floor for hours at a time，and I honestly considered jumping 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 have brought this thing on yourself.Go to bed at night，and if you can’t fall asleep，forget all about it.Just say to yourself：“I don’t care a hang if I don’t go to sleep.It’s all right with me if I lie awake till morning.”Keep your eyes closed and say：“As long as I just lie still and don’t worry about it，I’ll be getting rest，anyway.”’
“I did that，”says Sandner，“and in two weeks’time I was dropping off to sleep.In less than one month，I was sleeping eight hours，and my nerves were back to normal.”
It wasn’t insomnia that was killing Ira Sandner；it was his worry about it.
Dr.Nathaniel Kleitman，professor at the University of Chicago，has done more research work on sleep than has any other living man.He is the world’s expert on sleep.He declares that he has never known anyone to die from insomnia.To be sure，a man might worry about insomnia until he lowered his vitality and was swept away by germs.But it was the worry that did the damage，not the insomnia itself.
Dr.Kleitman also says that the people who worry about insomnia usually sleep far more than they realise.The man who swears “I never slept a wink last night”may have slept for hours without knowing it.For example，one of the most profound thinkers of the nineteenth century，Herbert Spencer，was an old bachelor，lived in a boarding house，and bored everyone with his talk about his insomnia.He even put “stoppings”in his ears to keep out the noise and quiet his nerves.Sometimes he took opium to induce sleep.One night he and Professor Sayce of Oxford shared the same room at a hotel.The next morning Spencer declared he hadn’t slept a wink all night.In reality，it was Professor Sayce who hadn’t slept a wink.He had been kept awake all night by Spencer’s snoring.
The first requisite for a good night’s sleep is a feeling of security.We need to feel that some power greater than ourselves will take care of us until morning.Dr.Thomas Hyslop，of the Great West Riding Asylum，stressed that point in an address before the British Medical Association.He said：“One of the best sleep—producing agents which my years of practice have revealed to me—is prayer.I say this purely as a medical man.The exercise of prayer，in those who habitually exert it，must be regarded as the most adequate and normal of all the pacifiers of the mind and calmers of the nerves.”
“Let God—and let go.”
Jeanette MacDonald told me that when she was depressed and worried and had difficulty in going to sleep，she could always get “a feeling of security”by repeating Psalm XXII：“The Lord is my Shepherd；I shall not want.He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.He leadeth me beside the still waters....”