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There are two biological clocks that govern our sleep-wake rhythm, the circadian rhythm and the ultradian rhythm.

Circadian rhythm. This is the familiar 24 hour rhythm. Chronobiologists have demonstrated that if we lock ourselves underground, away from all time cues and in free running conditions, our natural endogenous biological clock is about 25 hours. Hence we wake and sleep one additional hour later with each subsequent day. Hence if we normally feel sleepy at 10 p.m. at night, after three days we will be feeling sleepy at 1 a.m., which is three hours later. If we still go to bed at 10 p.m. as before, we will be twisting and turning in bed until 1 a.m. For those who suffer from insomnia, it is most important to reset the biological clock to the 24 hour clock. The way to do this is to wake up at the same time every morning. Chronobiologists call this exercise entrainment of the biological clock to a time cue called Zeitgeber (or synchronizer). In this case the Zeitgeber is the alarm clock waking us up at the same time each morning, even on Sundays and public holidays.

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A twenty-six-year-old woman was frigid, but that was not what she came to consult me about. She had been married for three years to a man twelve years older than herself, and she desperately wanted a baby. She could not become pregnant. She had been very fully examined by gynecologists who could find no organic reason as to why she could not conceive, and she was told it must be because she was so tense.

She became pregnant about six weeks after starting the relaxing exercises, and subsequently gave birth to a baby girl. This of course was a rather dramatic outcome. I expect the cynics would say that it was mere coincidence. But the patient and her husband believe beyond all doubt that learning to relax had allowed her to conceive. I think that they are probably right in this, as anxiety can cause contraction and blockage of the tubes down which the ovum has to pass.

Loss of Strength-When we are in normal physical health we are often unaware of the degree to which anxiety affects our bodily strength. This is so because in normal health we have an abundance of strength for our usual needs and our strength must be reduced quite a lot before we come to notice it.

This was very well shown in the case of a twenty-one-year-old student. The lad has a very severe congenital deformity of his heart, so that he can just manage to walk from one classroom to another without becoming breathless. At examination time he developed quite severe anxiety. Besides the usual feeling of tension and apprehension, his general bodily strength was affected so that he could no longer walk without becoming breathless, and in fact his strength was so reduced that he tended to become breathless in normal conversation. He learned to do the exercises. His anxiety was relieved, and he regained his former level of physical strength. His mother later wrote to me, thanking me again, and saying he had passed all his exams.

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