The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1889-06-06
Written for THE NATIONAL TR1BuNEI
BEALTH HINTS
For Old and Young.
BY FELIX L. OSWALD, NJ. D.,
Author of Physical Education"; Household
Remedies; The Bible of Nature" etc.
CHAPTER XIX.
overwhelmingly


overwhelmingly
There is a story of soldier who fell heir to
large fortune, and who, after procuring his
| discharge from the army, hired man to wake
| him in the middle of the night, merely to
! enjoy the satisfaction of kicking him down
| stairs.
The ''second Relief, get up" is, indeed,
one of the chief Affections of army life; yet
! the requisite amount of uninterrupted sleep
| varies amazingly, according to differences of
! age, as well as Of constitution and occupation.
As rule the length of the rest which slumber
alone can give should be proportional to the
waste of vital energy; but in the years of man.
hood it is not necessary that the account should
| be squared at the end of every solar day. In
stress of exigencies, farmers, sailors and sol
diers can do double work for half weeks to-
| gether, and propitiate nature by a subsequent
double ration OF sleep. Yeteven under pressure
| OF the most urgent emergency night-workers
| Will find an egregious difference between two
| hours nap and no sleep at all. Twenty-four
hours of uninterrupted work is risky expert
ment on the vitality of the hardest constitu-
ton, and long postponement of needed rest
may lead to that distressing condition when
sleep becomes difficult from sheer nervous ex-
| element. Infants and invalids need all the
| sleep they can get, and to children under IA
minimum of eight hours should always be.
| granted, with the option of two hours more.
After Ia, nine hours should be the normal
average, and a habtnal excess of that allow
ance may be considered presumptive symp-
| tom of over-eating or over-study, though ILL
| treated children sometimes take refuge in
! Sleep as iife-weary men in still deeper sum-
| Der. For adults eight hours of sound sleep is
! generally more than enough to restore the
| equilibrium of the vital energies, though BRAIN
workers may occasionally find it necessary to
! exceed that limit; while cold-blooded, passion
! less men eloapa0 in rOutiua OcPunationS like
certain animals, are often able to get along with
mere maps. | knew an old tavern keeper who
! fingered in the guest-rOom, smoking and chat
| ting till considerably after midnight, but was
! up again at ~ m, and Gibbon History of
| Rome, Vol VII, p. AGO. records ne plus ultra
which can be explained only by combination
of a phlegmatic temper with the fanaticism of
| a superstitious age. The Emperor Justin
/ ian he says, excelled in the private virtues
of chastity and temperance, but his abstemi0ns
diet was regulated not by the prudence of
| philosopher but by the superstition o! monk.
He frequently passed two days without tasting
any food and the measure of his sleep was not
less vigorous; after the repOSe Of single hour
the body was awakened by the soul, and to the
establishment of his chamberlains, Justinian
| walked or studied till morning light"
Frederick the Great, on the other hand,
needed all the energy of his iron will to restrict
! himself to six hours. In the long run. stinting
| due in the half-slumber of dreary business
hours An abnormal I'll of somnolenee, though
at the time perhaps unexpected, should never
be disregarded. The organism thus often an
nounces its request fora temporary suspense of
conscious activity, in order to concentrate all its
! energies upon some problem of reconstruction.
| The recovery from severe wounds is often ac-
companied by that disposition, which is also an
occasional effect of intense mental excitement.
! Great drowsness after rising in the morning is
| likewise pretty sure symptom of insufficient
/ sleep, or of sleep under specially unfavorable
circumstances. as in Simmer time, when the
| attempt to get few hours rest i'll a sitting,
| ill-ventilated bedroom results only in a tenn
! porary loss of consciousness akin to a fainting
fit much more than to anything like healthy
| slumber.
/ At such times it can do no harm to sleep by
| instruments, after the fashion of our Spanish
| American neghbors who devote a large por-
! ton of their warm Simmer nights to outdoor
| recreations Nothing bat combination of the
/ strangest prejudiees can. indeed, have engen-
| dered the belief in the necessity of sending our
/ children to bed just when the outdoor world
| becomes pleasantly cool, when flowers breathe
! their sweetest perfume and fawns and young
rabbits leave the shadow of the thiekets to
| play on the moonlit mountain meadows. The
! alamedas or public parks of the Spanish Ameri-
| can cities swarm after dark with pTomenaders
/
night with utter disregard of dew and damp
| grass At 1890 children of eight or nine years
can still be met in beYies, chasing lightning
4 bugs and running races through grass aud
/ bush; yet the next morning the same young
! sters, nevertheless, are up with the sun, but
| indemnify themselves by an after-dinner nap
/ of two or three hours.
And why not? As we have seen in the fore
/ going chapter, the siesta-dread of the northland
| nations is wholly gratuitOus. What, indeed,
! can be the origin of the strange yetso very far
/ spread idea that sleep after dinneris injurious?
/ The fact perhaps, that it is natural. The fact
| can certainly not be doubted by anyone study
ing the bias of his physical intuitions. The
language of instinct, in its plainest terms, de-
mands rest, and, if possible, sleep, after every
| full meal. In Midsummer the persistence of
| that demand is apt to thwart all opposition.
] At p. m. we find deacons nodding in their
! pews and schoolteachers in their chairs, and
/ even the dread of an immediate discharge does
not prevent poor factory children from falling
asleep at the side of their crashing looms. In
! Puebla Mexico, once was called to the guard
| house of the French barracks to examine a SOL
/ der who had asked to be relieved from his post
at the sentry gate on the plea of being unable
to keep awake. Just feel his pulse, Doctor"
| laughed the officer of the day. There's not
the least thing the matter with him except q
disease they call tired-bones in this country
in plain words, lazness."
Are you sick ?" / asked the suspect
"That's not the right name for it, / suppose"
said the soldier. "I'll be all right in an hour
or two if they will just give me chance"
"a chance for WHAT"
"To sleep. l can't keep awake to save my
life, and don't want to be shot for sleeping on
post. l had the fever two months ago and this
drowsiness in the heat is the after of it,
presume"
A private interview with the Sergeant estab-
lished the fact that the victim of drowsiness
| was on the whole the most wide-awake and
most reliable man of his company aud after an
| hours nap he volunteered to make amends by
declining to take the benefit of the next relief ;
in other words, remained on post for twice the
prescribed time. At my advice they kept him
off the noon-time guard for week or two and
his fits of drowsiness never required.
In menagerie the after-dinner hour is the
quietest of the "a. Ny pet Chacma baboon
likes to keep late hours as long as the chimney
fire keeps up its flicker; but after a good dim
ner of milk and bread she often volunteers
nap in the early afternoon. After full meal
cows doze in the tree-shade and lions in their
den and even the reckless hyena stops its zig
gag rushes and takes a stretch in the corner of
its cage. The most ravenons eater of all verte-
brate animals enjoys the deepest slumbers the
after meal rests of the deer swallowing boa be-
ing two-weeks' suspense of all voluntary mo-
TONS Infants sleep soundest after a good
nursing.
| M. r. uc a4ts,., oh ;1dra,, Taova fha bnusa