Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-12-22
NcW LONG TO SLEEP.
Sleep WelI-Defined State of Natural
Ishythmical Function.

u
down any universally applicable rule
as to the number of hours which it is
desirable to sleep Probably no two
persons require 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 expendi-
ture 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 rela-
ton to tissue-feeding and physiological
change; but it is nevertheless true in
practice that prolonged OF exception
ally severe exertion, whether of
brain OF muscle, requires a cor
respondingly lengthy or deep repose.
Speaking broadly, sleep is the state
in which the fires are, SO to say,
damped down and the machinery has
opportunity for cooling. The bow is,
as it were, unstrung, and may recover
it's elasticity during the recurring pc
RODS of slumber. The great point is to
secure what Bichat characterized as
general sleep made up of particular
sleeps. The whole body should be
rested-so far as any avoidable demand
on it's energy is concerned during
sleep. The hishman who explained
that short sleep did for him
because when he slept he 'paid
attention to t." uttered truth in his
witticism. If sleep be thorough, then
a short spell will do more good than
much longer duration of sleep that is
incomplete and imperfect both in It's
nature and in its effects. We can not
discuss the physiology of sleep in this
place, but two or three propositions,
based on experience and observation,
may be briefly set down by way of sug-
gestion worth thinking out for special
application in individual cases. Sleep
is distinctly natural function, and
therefore, both as regards its induction
and management, ought to be per-
formed 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 go to sleep when
the natural light fails and wake with
the sunrise. 1t will therefore be evil
dent that nature meant us to sleep long
er in the winter than in the summer,
for the sufficiently plain reason that the
maintenance of animal heat during the
cold season necessarily requires larger
consumption of energy than is expend
ed on this vital purpose in the warm
season. 1t has been alleged that the
organism takes in and stores just as
much oxygen during sleep as it has ex-
pended during the waking hours, and
when the reserves are replenished
wakes; but this is only a 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 overtake the faster ones.
Recuperation by nutrition is more tar
dy process than consumption by work
and heat production, and if the hare
were not to sleep the tortoise would be
left hopelessly behind. 1t is essential
to health that the tortoise should not
lag far in the rear, and sleep must be
just as long as will enable the laggard
petuous destructive processes. Prac-
tically, therefore, man should sleep
until he is refreshed. The mistake
many persons make is in attempting to
govern what must be matter of in
stinct by volitional control. When we
are weary we ought to sleep, and when
we wake should get up. There are no
more vicious habits than adopting
measures to keep awake" or employ
ing articles, or, still worse, resorting
to drugs and other devices to induce or
prolong sleep. Doing is the very
Generalization of the sleep function,
and from the pernicious habit arises
much of the so-called sleeplessness-
more accurately wakefulness from
which multitudes suffer. That day is
not the time for sleep is e. dent upon
the face of the fact that nature has pro-
vided the night, wherein 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 common
sense and physiological way to say:
Work while it is day; sleep when you
are weary, which will be at night
if the day has been spent in honest
duO cHcI S0IlC 1dUOI. w HOh JOo
wake rise; and if the days work has
been sufficiently well done, the time of
waking will not be earlier than sunrise.
The difficulties about sleep and sleep
lessness-apart from dreams-are al
most uniformly fruits of perverse re-
fusal to conform to the laws of nature.
Take, for example the case of man
who can not sleep at night, or rather
who, having 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 wax
ing in the night and thinking or read
ing to induce sleep. Before long the
thinking or reading fails to induce
sleep, and habitual sleeplessness ocs
ours, for which remedies are sought
and mishief is done. If the wakeful
man would only rouse himself on wax
ing, and get up and do full day S
work, of any sort, and not doze during
the day, when next the night came
round his sixteen or twenty hours Of
wakefulness would be rewarded by q
sleep of nine or ten hours in length