Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1869-04-27
A New Philosophy-Lying in Bed Ben
efcial-Night the Time to Enjoy.

The fact is that, as life become
more concentrated, and its pursuit
more eager, short sleep and earl,
rising become impossible. We tax,
mole sleep than our ancestors, ant
we take more because we want more
six hours sleep will do very we'll 10
a plougman or bricklayer, or any
man who has no other exhaustion
than that produced by manual labor
and the sooner he takes it after hi
labor is over the better but for /
man whose labor is mental, the stress
of whose work is on his brain anC
nervous system. and who is tired il
the evening with day ofmental ap
plication, neither early to bed MOI
early to rise is wholesome. he need.
letting down to the level of repose.
The longer the interval between the
active use of the brain and his retire
ment to bed, the better his chance OF
sleep and recruitment. To him an
hour after midnight is probably as
good as two before it, and even then
his sleep will not so completely and
quickly restore him as it will his
neighbor who is only physically tired.
tie must not only 60 to bed later,
but lie longer. His best sleep prob
ably lies in the early morning hours
when all the nervous excitement has
passed away, and he is in absolute
rest
There is, therefore, good deal to
be said in favor Of the late habits of
modern life. 1t was all very we'll
for Englishmen to go to bed early
and get up early in the times of the
Tudors, Plantaganets, and Stuarts. -
Their lights were bad, and it was ex
pensive work to make room light
enough to be pleasant. They did
not turn night into day as we do !;
but 1t was probably because they did
not know how to do it, as we know.
Gas is responsible for a good deal of
our love Of the long evening hours.
A London house at this time of the
year is never SO bright as it is after
dark. When the blinds are down
and the shutters are closed, and the
soug curtains are drawn, and the
room is flooded with brilliant gaslight,
and the bright fire is stirred up in
the shining CRATE, nobody regrets the
sickly daylight, which all day long
has been feebly struggling through
the fog and smoke. Why should a
man wish to shorten the brightest
hours of the twenty>four for tho sake
of an extra hour or two offoggy in.
etfectual morning? 1t is not mere
relation on our ancestors; it is sim
ply the adoption of their maxims to
our modern needs to say that, for
many of us, one waking hour after
10 o'clock at night is worth two
hours before 9 o'clock in the morning.
We live double at that social even>
ing times and to waste such hours in
sleep when there is spare hour in
the morning which may just as we'll
be spent in bed is an unwise substi.
tuition Of the old maxims for new ex-
perience. No doubt the old maxims
were wise, and would still be wise if
our conditions were of our great
grandfathers but while the maxims
spand, the times have changed, and
we have changed with them, We
must have society, and we can only
have it at night, we must have ample
rest, and we can only take it in the
morning. The stress of life with US
is on the brain and nerves, and they
can only bear the pressure by being
allowed to sleep out. For man
whose work is intellectual to have
sleep violently cut short every morn
ing would be half equivalent to sui
eide. True wisdom teaches us to
adapt ourselves to circumstances
Nature does not change and what
was good for our fathers is doubtless
good for US, provided the conditions
are the same But when this is not
the case we must not allow their ex.
ample to become tyranny Modern
habits are not more readily indulgent
than the habits, of earlier times, and
they best suit modern needs.