Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-10-14
We sleen too I.IitIe.

IL night, and not day, is the time to sleep
then il may be said that the general prin.
ciple prevails, that the amount Of sleep should
| he regulated by the dividing line between
light and darkness; and that this view
may be accepted as the correct one, is de-
| terminable from analogy it being true that
| animals accept IL and act upon it in the
temperate latitudes, which are supposed 10
be the most favorable for the development
Of the human organism in its highest pro
! portions. Take the year altogether, day
and night are about equal; and were man
kind without these latitudes to live accord
ing to the laws of life and health in other
directions they would sleep while darkness
is on the face of the earth, and be active
only during the period in which light was
abundant. As habit and fashion with
our people, we sleep too little. II is admit
ted by all those who are competent to speak
upon the subject, that the people of the
United States, from day to day, do not get
sufficient rest.
BY the preponderance of the nervous over
the vital temperament, they need all the re-
cuperating benefit which sleep can offer
during each night as it passes A far bet
ter rule would be to get at least eight hours
sleep, and, including sleep, ten hours of re
cumbent rest. 1t is a sad mistake that some
make, who suppose themselves qualified to
speak on the subject, in affirming that per-
sons of highly wrought nervous tempera-
ment need-as compared with those of
more lymphatic or solid organization-less
sleep. The truth is, that where power is
expended with great rapidity, by consti-
tutional law it is regathered slowly-the
reactions after a time demanding much
more time for the gathering up of new force
than the direct effort demands in expending
that force. Thus man of the nervous
temperament after he has established a
habit of overriding, RECEIVERS from the effect
Of such overaction much more slowly than
man of different temperament would, if
the balance between his power to 20 and
his power to rest is destroyed AS between
the nervous and the lympathic temperament,
therefore, where excess of work is demanded,
it will always be seen that at the close of
the days labor-whether it has been of
muscle or thought-the man of nervous tenn
permanent, who is tired, finds it difficult to
fall asleep, sleeps perturbedly, wakes up cx-
citedly, and is more apt than otherwise to
resort to stimulants TO place him in condi-
tions of pleasurable activity; while a man
of lymphatic temperament, when tired
falls asleep, sleeps soundly and uninter-
ruptedly, and wakes up in the morning
new man.
The facts are against the theory that nerv-
Gus temperaments recuperate quickly from
fatgues to which their possessors are sub
jected. Three fourths Of our drunkards are
from the ranks of the nervous tempera-
ment. Almost all the opium eaters in our
cOuntry-and their name is Legion--nre
persons of the nervous or nervous sanguiue
temperament. Almost all the men in the
| country who become victims of narcotic
drug-medication are of the nervous or of the
nervous sanguine temperaments. That the
very general habit of dependence upon
stimulants, or stimulant- narcotics, is al
most entirely confined to persons of the
| nervous temperament, shows that the taxa
ton to which they subject themselves are
not readily reacted from, and that under
their methods of living they find it difficult
to depend upon the natural force, to make
good their losses within the time they allot
for that purpose The rule, therefore, should
be the other way from that which it is sup
posed to be, that persons of highly wrought
nervous organizations need but little sleep
1t should be the habit with such persons to
sleep largely, and to insist upon such free
dom from exercise, both OF body and mind,
and such external conditions of repose, as
gradually to bring the brain to acknowledge
such relations to the general structures as
well as to enable its organs to become SO
refreshed that they may, when duty is re-
sumed, perform it with accustomed yet
healthy vigor.-Doctor Jackson.