The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1882-11-03

The truth is that the very rapidity OF
our life, the wakefulness and wasteful-
ness of our times, the strain and drive
of all pursuits, make longer periods OF
sleep necessary fer us than people living
in more quiet countries and at a slower
rate. We get tired enough to sleep all
over and clear through, it is a sign OF
nervous disorder. Sleeping is some
thing more than q luxury for Ameri-
cans, though the very opposite would
be inferred from our habits. There is
no way by which the wear and tear,
the drain and strain of American life
can be neutralized but by large feasts
of sleep every now and then, and a
generous allowance every tw~enty-four
hours. Four hours work Of a man
who is thoroughly awake and vitalized,
at the top OF his faculties, are worth
more for all practical business or liter
airy or social purposes than fourteen
hours of weary muscles and jaded
nerves and fiaccid impulses. The man
at his best is worth one hundred per
cent. more than the same man is ia
tigued, depressed and demoralized. If
he has no vital electricity playing
through him, he is a w~eoriness to Others
and Il burden to his own soul, if he is
conscious of having one. And TO keep
at this top condition of fibre and fac
ulty he must be a good sleeper, and
sleep well. When Mr.. Beecher was
asked how he managed to keep his con-
~gregation 80 wide awake at a second
service, he replied: 'By taking a big
dose Of sleep in the afternoon. 1t is
my sleeping that keeps my congregation
awake" The time gwen to sleep is
not much loss Of life, but SO much
gained, and at a doubly enhanced val
uation.
1t is easy to say ''sleep much and
WE'LL" but there are many unfortunate
people who cannot sleep much, and the
little sleep they get is disturbed and
unrestful. How to sleep is a question
which, in some instances, it taxes the
skill of physicians to the utmost TO an
swer- Persons afflicted with insomnia
are often great sufferers, and their lives
are shortened by the disease. There
are persons WHO require much less sleep
than others, and it is useless for them
to woo soft slumbers to their pillow, for
they will not come. A popularity of
constitution is not a disease and should
not be doctored. With the disorder
known as insomnia we shall not ven
ture to deal. But with the majority OF
people sleep is regulated by habit, con-
v%eDience and within. They make it
yield to every other consideration. Peo-
pie who would not omit a meal on any
account will throw away half their al
lowance of sleep for the merest tribe.
They do not feel the Importance of
giving the system its fill of unconscious
refreshing, and hire entertainers to
clip off two or three hours for the need
ed restorative in the evening, and set
an alarm clock to cut away an hour or
more at daybreak. They seem to think
that they can steal from sleep with i'm
punity, when it is pretty much the only
thing that Furnishes every pilferer of it
as he goes along. Others destroy the
possibility of sleeping well by carrying
all their cares and troubles and grIefs
and ambitions to bed with them, and
one might as well seek rest on a rack
as with such bedfellows. The ability
to lay off cares and pe~rplexities, like
ones clothes, and dismiss everything
that can excite the brain or disturb the
emotions may be gained by continuous
effort, even when it is lost.