River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1886-11-11

Ny prayer shall be TO win
A resting place with men like Bill,
Whom God has mustered in.
Icy Green in Troy Telegram.
THE SALVATION OF SLEEP.
1t is manifestly impossible to lay
down any universally applicable rule
as to the number Of hours which it is
desirable TO sleep. Probably no two
persons require precisely the same
amount of slumber, and it is scarcely
likely that any person needs the same
length OF sleep on all occasions. Even
the most monotonous lives involve the
expenditure of varying quantities of
energy, and make differing demands
on the stores of nerve and muscle
power on several days. We do not,
of course, mean to imply that sleep is
the season of recuperation. That is
unlikely in view of the ascertained
facts in relation to tiSsue-feeding, and
physiological change; but it is never
theless true in practice that prolonged
a" exceptionally severe exertion,
Whether of brain or muscle, requires a
correspondingly lengthy or deep re-
pose. Speaking broadly, sleep is the
state in which the fires are, to say,
damped down and the machinery has
opportunity for cooling. The bow is,
as it were, unstrung, and may recover
its elasticity during the recurring
periods of slumber. The great point
is to secure what Bichst characterized
assgeneral sleep made up of particular
sleeps The whole body should be
rested-sO far as any avOidable de-
mand on its energy 5 concerned-dur-
ing sleep.
The freshman who explained that a
short sleep did for him because when
he slept he paid attintion to it utter
ed a truth in his witticism. If sleep be
thorough, then a short spell will do
more good than a much longer dura-
ton of sleep that is incomplete and i'm
perfect. both in ITS nature and in its ef-
fects. We cannot discuss the physiol-
ogy of sleep in this place, but two or
three propositions, based on experience
and observation, may be briefly set
down by way of suggestion worth think
ing out for special application in indi-
vidual cases.
Sleep is distinctly natural function,
and therefore, both as regards its in
duction and management, ought to be
performed in conformity with natural
laws. That it is a state which should
recur periodically is evident from the
rotation of day and night, and approx
imately we ought to 90 to sleep when
the natural light fails and wake with
the sunrise.
1t will therefore be evident that nature
meant US to sleep longer in the winter
than in the summer. for the sufficiently
PLAN reason that the maintenance of
animal heat during the cold season
necessarily requires a larger cOnsump-
ton of energy than is expended on this
vital purpose in the warm season. 1t
has been alleged that the organism
takes in and stores just as much OXy gen
during sleep as it has expended during
the waking hours, and when the re-
serves are replenished wakes; but this
is only half truth, in so far as it is
truth at all. What happens is rather
a rest from the rapid movements of
waking life, during which the slower
activities of function have time TO over
take the faster ones. Recuperation by
nutrition is a more tardy process than
consumption by work and heat produc-
ton, and if the hare were not 10 sleep
the tortoise would be left hopelessly
behind. 1t is essential to health that
the tortoise should not lag far in the
4.
will enable the laggard nutritive pro-
cesses to overtake the impetuous de-
structive processes. Practically, there
fore, man should sleep until he is re-
freshed.
The mistake many persons make is
in attempting to govern what must be
a matter of instinct by volitional con-
troll. When we are weary we ought TO
sleep, and when we wake we should
get up. There are no more vicious
habits than adopting measures to
keep awake or employing articles,
or. still worse, resOrting to drugs and
other devices to induce or prOlOng
sleep. Doing is the very demoraliza-
ton of the sleep function, and from
that perniciOus habit arises much of
the so-called sleeplessness-mo
accurately wakefulness-frsm which
multitudes suffer.
That day is not the time for sleep is
evident upon the face of the fact that
nature has provided the night. where
in no man can or ought to work.
Instead of trying to lay down arbitrary
rules as to the length of sleep, it would
be wiser in a common sense and
physiological way to say, Work while
it j. day, sleep when you are weary,
which will be at night if the day has
been spent in honest and energetic
labor.
When you wake, rise; and if the
DAYS work has been sufficiently well
done. the time Of waking will not be
earlier than sunrise. Tie difficulties
about sleep and sleeplesness-apart
from dreams-are almost uniformly
fruits of perverse refusal to comply
with the laws of nature. Take, 70
example, the case of man who can
not sleep at night, or rather who, hav-
ing fallen asleep. wakes. If he is what
is called strong minded, he thinks, or
perhaps reads, and falls asleep again.
This being repeated LAYS the foundation
of a habit of waking in the night and
thinking or reading to induce sleep.
Before long the thinking or reading
fails to induce sleep. and habltual
sleeplessness occurs, for which RENE
dies are sought and mischief is done.
If the wakeful man would only rouse
himself on waking and get up and do a
full DAYS work of any sort, and not
doze during the day, when next the
night came round his sixteen or twen-
ty hours of wakefulness would be
rewaId died by a sleep of nine or ten hours
in length; and one or two of these man
full struggles against a perverted
tendency TO abnormal habit would rec
tify the error and avert the calamity.
The cure for sleeplessness must be
natural, because sleep Is state OF nat
ural rhythmical function. You can
not tamper with the striking movement
of a clock without injuring it, and you
cannot tamper with orderly recurrence