The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1895-06-18
The Pa11acy Of Early Rising.

Medical Journal.
Proverbs are responsible for a
great deal of folly, and none perhaps
for more mischief under the present
conditions of town life than those !
which inculcate early rising as a
virtue. When the great majority
lived i'm villages, and were engaged
in the cultivation of the soil, early
rising may have been conducive to
health and wealth, if not TO wisdom,
but even u early forefathers proba-
bly, did no more than make a virtue
of necessity. 1t is said to be natural
-thatis, physiological-to rise early
and enjoy the beauties of the sun
rise; if we ask why, we are treated
to various transcendental theories
about the yiyifying influence of the
sun, and are told to take example by
the birds of the air and beasts of the
field, or so many of them as are not
nocturnal in their habits. But as a
matter of fact physiology, SO far as
it has anything to say on the subject
ut all, is all against the early rising
theory. Physiological experiment
appears to show that a man does not
work best and fastest in the early
morning hours, but on the contrary
about midday. The desire to rise
early, except in those trained from
youth to outdoor pursuits, is COM
monty a sign, not of strength of
character and vigor of body, but of
advancing age. The very old often
sleep much, but they do not sleep
long. A long, deep sleep, the sleep
Of youth, requires for it's production
u thoroughly elastic, vascular sys-
tenn. The stiffening vessels of age
are not SO completely nor so easily
controlled by the vasomotor nerves.
Hence shorter sleeps. Thus pater.
, familias, who goes to bed at III p. m.
wants to get up at S or 6 a. m, and
looks upon his healthy son, who pre-
fers to lie till 8, as a sluggard. Whel
r this foolish Interpretation of
proverb about the health and wealth
? to be got from early rising is com
bined with the still more foolisl
; adage which says of sleep, "Six hour
Il for u man, seven for q woman, an,
y eight for a fool" then we have
u vicious system capable of workin
d great mischief to young people Q
Ii both sexes. There is a tendenc,
greatly encouraged in the towns b
- the spread of cycling, to curtail III
n duly the hours for sleep, Partit
" of young men and lads are to be me
"a %careering about the streets at mit
~ night. They would be far better i
Ii. bed. They have probably to be j
Iy their offices or shops by 8 a. NJ, {
~ even earlier, and when time is d,
n. Quoted for supper, toilet, breakfas
tx and the journey to the place of bus
rr ness, it is evident that the hours f,
., sleep cannot exceed six, or at mo
10 seven. These young men are !
re- doubt encouraged by the silly adas
rs quoted above. There is n dispos
", ton in town youths to overdo on
=. door exercise /; the cycling clu
10 "night spins" are instances in poin
., AS Nordau has said, with a gre,
81 deal of truth, the town dweller
r, these last decades of the nineteent
re century suffers from nervous fatigu
,e and is so ill-advised as to make Ii
y very r%ecreations sources, not of T.
cuperation, but of increased exhau
III ton. If our forefathers were earl
risers, they went also early to be-
e. 1t would be well for the rising gel
Is Grafton if it paid more heed to th
l. part of the proverb.