Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1882-08-04
EATING AND SLEEPING.


SOhctn1uB OF hyKicnlC Interest 10 ALL
These two occupations have closer
connection than most persons in active
life are willing to admit We gave some
advice to our renders on this subject a
year or two ago, drawing largely from ex
perience in confirmation of our theory,
and have reason to know that many pro-
fited greatly by what was to them a new
revelation. We have been asked by sew
eral correspondents, who changed their
habits at our suggestion, to repeat the
lesson for tine benefit of others.
The notion is widely prevalent that it is
unhealthy to eat late mt night or just be-
fore retiring. This came from the severe
denunciarion of "late suppers,' CON
tanned in nearly all the old popular works
tions was not directed against the food at
n late hour in the day, but against what
was involved in late supper, at period
when the jewellers slipped from their
chairs and spent the night under the
table, or were carried by waiting laekeys
insensible to their beds.
II was the midnight debauch that was
the object of attack and even here it
was less the gluttony than drunkenness
which alarmed the doctors and called
forth their reprehensions. A man may
induce apoplexy by gorging himself with
food at any hour of the day, but the bot
tie 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 career of dissipation to an m
timely grave.
Man is the only animal that can he
taught to sleep quietly on an empty stom,
opl, Tho br,,to orao f;,p roeapf all .,fYn,tu
to coax them to such violation of the
laws of nature. The lion roars in the
forest until he has found his prey, and
when he has devoured 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 until they are fed. The ami
mails which chew the cud have their own
provision for late meal Just before drop
ping off to their nightly slumbers.
Man can train himself to the habit of
sleeping 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's stomach is small,
and when perfectly filed, if no sickness
disturbs it, sleep follows naturally and
inevitably. AS digestion goes on the
stomach begins to empty. A sinlge fold
in it will make the little sleeper restless
two will waken it !; and if it is hushed
agrin to repose the nap is short, and
three folds put an end to slumber. Par
egoric or other narcotic may close its eyes
again, but without either food or some
stupefying drug it will not sleep, no mat
ter how healthy it may be. Not even an
angel who learned the art of minstrelsy
in Il celestial choir can sing babe to
sleep on an empty stomach.
We use the oft-quoted illustration
"sleeping as sweetly as IN infant" be-
cause this slumber of child follows
Immediately after its stomach is COM
pletely filled with wholesome food. The
sleep which comes to adults long hours
after partaking of food, and when the
stomach is nearly or qnite empty, is not
after the type of infantile repose. There
is all the difference in the worll between
the sleep of refreshment and the sleep of
exhaustion.
To sleep well the blood that swells the
veins in the head during our busy hours
must flow back, leaving great dimin-
ished volume behind the brow that lately
throDbed with such yehemence. To di-
gest well this blood is needed at the stom-
ach and near the fountains of life 1t is
n fact established beyond the possibility
of contradiction that sleep aids digestion,
aud that the process of digestion is con-
ducive to refreshing sleep. 1t needs no
argument to convince us of this mutual
relation. The drowsiness which always
follows the well-ordered meal is itself
testimony of nature to this inter-dapend-
ence.
The waste of human life by the neglect
OF this lesson is very great. The daily
wear and tear of the body might be re-
stored more fully than it usually is if this
simple rule was not Systematically vio-
lated. Sleep is wonderfully recuperative,
but it may be shorn of half its benefits
by unfavorable conditions Foul air in
the bedchamber leaves the sleeper almost
as 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 comfort which pro-
perly 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 its effect upon the night
ly repose.
A healthy person who goes to bed on Il
full stomach will always awake in the
morning with better appetite for his
breakfast. If dinner is eaten in the mid
die of the day and light supper is served
at in the afternoon, a hearty luncheon
should be provided ut 10 in the evening,
or just before the hour of retiring. The
rule should be to eat at the last moment
before going to bed, whatever that hour
may be.
And this latest meal should not be of
"light" viands, as this phase is com non
ly understood. The less person eats at
any time of cake or pie, or the countless
iiummeries that go to make up q fancy
tea-table, the better but none of these
should be eaten at bedtime. Cold chick
en-, cold roast beef, corned beef or whole
some meat Of any kind, with well-baked
bread and butter (sauce and pickles will
do no harm), will serve the substantial
requisites for this collation.. Milk is per-
haps the best of all where the pure arti-
Gle can be obtained "Borden's Con
densed" will supply it in the best shape
to suit our taste, and if this is used it
should be mixed with warm or hot water,
instead of cold, and eaten before it cools.
With bread and fruit (baked apples will
serve when berries and peaches fail, this
makes very wholesome evening meal.
All persons should be cautious when
they reform their habits in this respect.
A mouthful or two each night at first is
all that should be attempted, gradually
increasing the quantity until the luncheon
becomes pretty substantial meal. If
indigestion follows at any time, chewing
the meat of one or two peach pits (for tho
prussic acid in them) after eatiug, is
better than sending for the doctor. With
clear conscience and full stomach, any
man in tolerable health may derive from
his nightly sleep that recuperation which