The Health Blog

Some degree of sleeplessness is a fairly constance feature of anxiety conditions. The main problem is that insomnia is such a disturbing symptom that we turn to sleeping tablets far too quickly. Most people can learn to use this relaxing technique to put themselves to sleep I have recently been treating a doctor with chronic anxiety who had been taking sleeping capsules every night for twenty-five years. He learned the relaxing method of putting himself to sleep in three or four sessions, and since then has taken no sedative at night at all. But it does not come quite as easily as this to everyone. Give yourself a little time to get into the swing of it, and be patient when it does not all come at once.

When you have mastered the relaxing mental exercises, it is quite a simple matter to put yourself to sleep. You will have been practising the exercises in relatively uncomfortable positions. Now do them when you go to bed, and with the added warmth and comfort they will seem very easy indeed. Just lie flat on your back and proceed with the exercises in the ordinary way:

Relaxed.

Legs are relaxed.

Utterly relaxed.

All I feel of them is their weight on the bed.

Heavy relaxation.

Heavy drowsy relaxation.

It comes all through me.

Heavy, drowsy, sleepy.

My body is heavy with it.

It is in my face.

Eyelids are heavy with it.

So drowsy, so sleepy.

It is all through me.

When you really feel the heaviness, and the sleepiness, and weight in your eyelids, you just turn over on to your side into a sleeping position and you are asleep.

If you wake during the night, you just repeat the same procedure. It is important to do it systematically and in a relaxed fashion. Do not allow yourself to get restless or irritable with yourself. Do it systematically and you will soon be off to sleep again.

A feature of this approach is that it is effective not only with insomnia which is caused by anxiety, but with insomnia resulting from almost any cause. Those who are kept awake by pain find it very effective. Elderly persons can use the method with success provided their mind does not wander too much during the exercises.

Improvement in sleep is the general rule for anxious persons once they start to practise the exercises.

A rather outstanding example was a professional man who had been taking sleeping capsules every night for more than twenty years, since he was a student. He came seeking help for general anxiety, and his difficulty in sleeping was hardly mentioned, as he had assumed he would be taking sleeping capsules for the rest of his life. It was only afterward that he told me he had been so impressed with his calmer state of mind that he had experimented, and had gone to bed without his usual capsule, and was surprised to find that he could sleep quite well. He said that he felt that his sleep was lighter but at the same time more refreshing.

I can give a further example from my personal experience. The incident occurred just recently, after my first submission of this manuscript to the publishers. I developed an abscess on a tooth. My face was swollen right up to the eyes. In spite of the pain I found I could put myself to sleep in two or three minutes by the relaxing exercises. However, in about half an hour, when I was deeply asleep and off guard, the pain woke me. But I was able to put myself asleep again quite quickly only to be awakened by the pain again in half an hour or so. This sequence was repeated several times during the night, so that I actually had a reasonable amount of sleep. Next morning I had the tooth extracted without anaesthetic and without discomfort.

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Of all the various therapeutic measures employed by biological medicine in treatment of arthritis fasting is, perhaps, singularly the most important one.

Fasting has been used in treating arthritis for centuries, mostly in Europe, but also on this continent. The big difference is that in the United States the majority of doctors who employ fasting in their practice usually advocate a complete or water fast, while European, biologically oriented doctors employ mostly juice fasts.

Although fasting is without a doubt one of the safest therapeutic agents known to medicine,1 in the minds of the uninitiated and uninformed it is often associated with fear of the possibility of doing harm to the body. This is quite understandable, considering that the average man has the impression that complete abstinence from food just for a couple of weeks would result in death. The truth is that man can live without food for months. In fact, man can kill himself by overeating in a shorter time than by fasting.2 There are recorded cases of fasting up to 90 days on water and up to 249 days on juices and liquids. In recent tests at Stobhill General Hospital, in Glasgow, Scotland, a 54-year-old woman was put on a liquid fast and lost 74 of her 262 pounds along with a painful arthritic knee condition, during a fast of 249 daysl2 Although therapeutic fasting usually is of no longer duration than 40 days, the great majority of fasts in European clinics are ten to 20 days long.

Although liquid fasting is not a dangerous measure and could be safely undertaken without supervision at home, I would advise that the average patient, who does not have a thorough understanding and insight into all the details and various phases of fasting, should not undertake it on his own, but only under expert supervision. This will assure him of peace of mind which is imperative for the successful outcome of any therapeutic measure.

In Sweden, fasting is a national sport. Thousands of healthy young and old, men and women members of the national health organization, Halsoframjandet (Health-promotion, Inc.), fast for a week or two every year. Regular short fasts are considered an effective way to cleanse the body of wastes, build up resistance and physical stamina, and prevent diseases. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t get weakened or depleted by fasting. On the contrary, fasting will strengthen the body in many ways. The stomach and digestive tract will receive a rest and will be strengthened by fasting. Actually, the total regeneration and rejuvenation of all functions of the body is the objective which induces thousands of Swedes to fast. These fasts are done on

their own. in their own homes, without supervision of doctors. But then again, these Swedes are experts in fasting; they are well informed and acquainted with the mechanics and philosophy of fasting.

Just to show you how safe fasting actually is, I like to refer to two famous fast-hikes, which were performed in Sweden in recent years under the direction of Dr. Lennart Edr6n, world famous authority on fasting. First, 11 Swedish health enthusiasts walked from Gothenburg to Stockholm (over 300 miles) in ten days. During that time they fasted—did not consume any foods at all, only plain water. A couple of years later about 20 persons repeated the hike under tight scientific control. During the whole hike, and for an extended period after it, various medical tests of their condition were made: blood count, blood sugar tests, heart tests, pulse, physical endurance tests, etc. All tests showed that in spite of the unusual stress of the combined fasting and strenuous hike, all participants were in perfect health and did not suffer any damage of any kind. However, quite the contrary was later found to be true because of the discovery that some of the participants were freed from various ailments they suffered before the fast-hike began.

At the time of my last visit to Sweden in July of 1966, Dr. Edr6n himself had already fasted a total of 45 days so far that year. At 50 he is a picture of youthful vitality and health, and he is regularly fasting to keep his superior health condition at an optimum level.

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