The Portland daily press., 1881-10-25
Eating and Sleeping.
How to Secure q Full Stomach and a
Clear Conscience.
IIournal of Commerce.l


These two occupations, eating and sleeping,
have closer connection than most persons in
active life are willing to admit We gave
some advice to our readers on this subject
year or two ago, drawing largely from expert
ence in confirmation of our theory, and have
reason to know that many profted greatly by
what was to them new revelation. We have
been asked by several of our correspondents,
who changed their habits at our suggestion, to
repeat the lesson for the benefit of others.
The notion is widely prevalent that it is un
healthy to eat late at night or just before retir
ing. This came from the severe denunciation
of "lste suppers," contained in nearly all the
old popular works on diet. The argument in
these publications was not directed against the
food at late hour in the day, but against
what was involved in a late supper, at period
when the jewellers slipped from their chairs
and spent the night under the table, or were
carried by waiting lackeys insensible to their
beds.
1t was the midnight debauch that was the
object of attack; and even here it was less the
gluttony than the drunkenness which alarmed
the doctors and called forth their reprehensions.
A man may induce apoplexy by gorging HIM
self with food at any hour of the day, but the
bottle after bottle of heady wine or the bowls
of hot punch at the evening revel were what
did the business for most who ran brief ca
reer of dissipation to an untimely grave.
Man is the only animal that can be taught
to sleep quietly on an empty stomach. The
brute creation resist all efforts to coax them to
such violation of the laws of nature. The Ii
on roars in the forest until he has found his
prey, and when he has deyoured it he sleeps
over until he needs another meal. The horse
will paw all night in the stable and the pig will
squeal in the pen, refusing all rest or sleep un-
til thew are fed The animals which chew the
cud have their own provision for late meal
just before dropping off to their nightly slum-
bers.
Man can train himself to the habit of Sleep
ing without preceding meal, but only after
long years of practice. As he comes into the
world nature is too strong for him, and he must
be fed before he will sleep. A child 8 stomach
is small, and when perfectly filled, it no sick
ness disturbs it, sleep follows naturally and in
evitably As digestion goes on, the stomach
begins to empty A single fold in it will make
the little sleeper restless; two will waken it;
and if it is hushed again to repose the nap is
short, and three folds put an end to the slum-
ber Paregoric or other narcotic may close its
ewes again, Dub WlbuOub OltHoI lOOd VI ooho
stupefying drug it will not sleep, no matter
how healthy it may be- Not even an angel
who learned the art of minstrelsy in celestial
choir can sing babe to sleep on an empty
stomach.
/ We use the oft-quoted illustration, sleeping
as sweetly as an infant" because this slumber
of child follows Immediately after its stom-
ach is completely filed with wholesome food.
The sleep which comes to adults long hours al
ter partaking Of food, and when the stomach
te Wv fto
infantile repose There is all the difference IN
the world between the sleep OF refreshment
and the sleep of exhaustion.
To sleep well the blood that swells the veins
back. leaving greatly diminished volume be-
hind the brow that lately throbbed with such
yehemence. To digest well this blood is need
ed at the stomach and nearer the fountains of
life 1t is fact established beyond the posi-
bility of contradiction that sleep aids digestion,
and that the process of digestion is conducive
to refreshing sleep. 1t needs no argument to
convince US of this mutual relation. The
drowsiness which always follows the well-or-
dered meal is itself testimony OF nature 10
this inter-dependence.
The waste of human life by the neglect of
this lesson is very great. The daily wear and
tear of the body might be restored more 1uily
than it usually is if this simple rule was not so
systematically violated. Sleep IS wonderiuiiy
recuperatiye, but it may be shorn OF half It's
benefits by unfavorable conditions. Foul air
in the bed-chamber leaves the sleeper almost
az exhausted in the morning as when weary
with the days labors he sank upon his bed. A
gnawing stomach, empty of food, takes out of
the nightly sleep that refreshing sense Of COM
fort which properly belongs to it. 1t leaves
the blood to throb in the heated brow, and
haunts the slumber with an ever-present source
of disquiet. 1t is like the sleep which the
mother takes while her sick child is under the
care of watchers in another room. An uneasy
stomach is just like an aching heart In lts
effect upon the nightly repose.
A healthy person who goes to bed on full
stomach will always awake in the morning
with a better appetite for his breakfast. If
dinner be eaten in the middle of the day and q
light supper is served at six in the afternoon,
hearty luncheon should be provided at ten in
the evening or just before the hour of retiring