Morning journal and courier., 1881-07-18
The Necessity of Sleep.
Tendency to Extended Repose Indica-
 tive or a Long Life and Mental Power.

A Tendency to Extended Repose Indica-
 tive ofa Long Life and Mental Power.
 IDr. Oswald in the Popular Science Monthly.l
 There is no danger of child's-especially boy's-oversleeping himself, unless the hardships of his waking hours are so intol- erable that oblivion becomes 8 blessing but 1t can do no harm to make the health giving morning hour as attractive as pos- sible. Provide some outdoor amusement, prize 'foot-race, butterfly hunt, or gathering windfall in the apple-orchards; if the desire for longer sleep can outweigh such Inducements, there must be something wrong-plethoric diet, probably, or over study. The requisite amount of sleep de- bends on temperament and occupation as well as on age with children under ten however, too much indulgence would be. an error on the safer side. Let them choose their allowance between eight and ten hours; in after years, seven hours should be the> minimum, nine the maximum for healthy children /; sickly ones ought to have carte 6IG7ache, both as to quantum and time of re- pose; consumptiyes especially need all the rest they can get. Profound sleep in cool quiet retreat is natures own specific for all wasting diseases, @ panacea without price or money. Nothing can be more injudicious than to stint chil- dren in their sleep with view of gaining a few hours for study. ''That plan, " says Pestolozzi, defeats it's own purpose, for such children are never wide-awalze you can keep them out of bed, but you cannot prevent them from dozing with their eyes open. A wide awake boy will learn more in one hour than day-dreamer in ten.' Habitual deficiency of sleep will un- dermine the strongest constitution head ache, throbbing and feverish heat are pre- cursors of grave evils, unless a temporary loss of mental power compels an armistice with nut1 Kinry ga. Kepler, Victor Alfiere, Madame de Stael, and Frederick Schiller killed themselvs with restless study Beethoven and Charles Dick ems, too, probably prepared the debt of na- ture by their habit of fighting fatigue with strong coffee. Sleeplessness may lead to chronic hypochondria, and even to idiocy; without their long vigils, the monks of the Thebais and the fathers of the Alexandrian church could hardly have written such stupendous nonsense. It is curious fact that compulsory wakefulness combined with mental activity often in- duces a state of morbid insomnia, an abso- Iute inability to obtain the sleep which it was at first so difficult to resist In such cases the only remedy is fresh air and complete change of occupation. During sleep the brain is in 8 comparatively blood less condition hot head and throbbing temples are unfavorable to repose, and it has been suggested that insomnia might be
 
 arms and legs, or any similar operation that would divert the blood from the head toward the extremities, and thus tend to diminish the activity of the cerebral circulation
 Listening to distant music or the ripple of a river cnrrent has also a wonderful hyp- notic effect, the repetition of monotonous sounds, or, indeed, of any sensonal impress sions, seems more favorable to repose than their entire absence. The philosopher Kant assures us that he could obtain sleep in a paroxysm of gout by resolutely fixing his attention on some abstruse ethical or mathe- nautical problem, but remarks that the suc- cess of that method depends upon the labo- riousness of the mental process the mind, as it were, takes refuge in sleep as the alter native of drudging at 8 wearisome task Robert Burton, too, gives number of sim lar recipes, besides list of wondrous me- dicinal compounds to be swallowed or in haled ad hor0m sOna7aS but in ordinary cases 1t IS better to try the effects of out door exercise before resorting to dormouse- fat, theological textbooks or other desper- ate remedies.
 Being naturally sound and long sleeper has been ranked among the surest prognos- ties of long life, and sleep after a wasting disease as the most certain symptom of re- covery. Most brain-workers are subject to occasional fits of insomnia, but the faculty of sustaining health and vigor upon Q very small allowance of sleep is generally a eoncomitant of mental inferiority, or at least inactivity. The most intelligent animals, dogs and monkeys sleep the longest stupid brutes merely stretch their legs their inert brain requires no rest. A COW never sleeps in the proper sense of the word. Mirabeau, Goethe and James Quin often slumbered fer twelve or fourteen hours successiyely, while Seopold l. of Aus tria and Charles ". of Spain, the heartless and brainless bigots, could content them yrTfh Gvrn o1r A twenty four, and their prototype, the Empe- TOT Justinian. often with one