Even at midnight I still do not feel sleepy, but I know I ought to get a good night's rest, so I take a sleeping pill and go to bed. It's often two o'clock in the morning before the pill puts me to sleep. Just a few hours after that I have to drag myself out of bed again to go to work. All day I feel too tired to work. I just drag myself around until it's time to go home.
Do you think there might be something wrong with my blood?
             J. T. L.
When this letter appeared in the DEAR DOCTOR column of a newspaper, the doctor's reply zeras printed belozo it. Here is mhat the doctor answered :
Dear Mr L. :

    I don't think there is anything wrong with your blood. The key to your problem is that long nap after dinner.
    If you didn't sleep for hours during the early part of the evening, you would be more ready to sleep at bedtime. If you didn't nap after dinner, you would not want to stay up so late, and you would not feel the need to take a sleeping pill. The pill is still working in your system when you get up in the morning. This helps account for the fact that you feel tired all day.

    You should get out of the habit of sleeping during the evening. Right after your evening meal, engage in some sort of physical activity-a sport such as bowling, perhaps. Or get. together with friends for an evening of cards and conversation. Then go to bed at `your usual time or a little earlier, and you should be able to get a good night's rest without taking a pill.

    If you can get into the habit of spending your evenings this way, I am sure you will feel less tired during the day. At first it may be hard for you to go to sleep without taking a pill. If so,get up and watch television or do some jobs around your house until you feel sleepy. If you fall asleep and then wake up a few hours later, get up but do not take a leeping pill.

 Read a while or listen to the radio, and make yourself a warm drink. Eat a sandwich or a cookie. Then go back to bed. Even if you get only a few hour's sleep that night, you will feel better, in the morning than you usually feel after taking a pill. The next night you will be ready to sleep at an earlier hour.
    The most important thing is to avoid taking that nap right after dinner and to avoid taking pills.

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