The herald., 1898-10-30
EVERY SLEEPER NEAR DEATH
Strange Nearness to Dissolution That
Comes at a. m.

Very curious and interesting is the TEN
porary uneasness of all night-slecping hui
mans and animals at about o'clock every
morning. at that hour they give little
moans, awaken partially or wholly, and then
either drop back into slumber or into death.
Physical giants among mon and hons
among animals have this experience, just as
do the fralcst babies or weakest kittens.
Viewed in any and every light, the occur
renee is remarkable. Why it is not at mid.
night, at ! a. m, 2 a. m, or, i'll the case OF
late sleepers, why does it not come at q or
o'clock? An Enquirer man asked some OF
the leading physicians regarding this occur
renee and cleaned some most interesting
information.
At the hour of about o'clock every morn
ing every night-sleeping man, woman, child
and animal is nearer death than at any other
moment in all the twenty-four hours. 1t is
then that the more active of the vitals come
the nearest to stopping or running down.
They come so near it that if they came
breath-an atom-nearer it they would stop
The machinery of life comes within just "A
hairs breadth of stopping at some moment
near 3 a. m. The why of this is explained
MS follows: The composlire of the body when
lying still produces not only rest, but that
same element of danger so omnipresent to
all machinery left unattcnded-t absence
of a watchful brain.
In welcoming the hours of sleep you un-
consciously welcome deaths most advan-
tageous time for conquering you. Every mo-
ment you are asleep your physical self is
supply of coal Qood) for the furnace is with
held. The steam (blood) in the pipes runs
low. This neglect OF the engine room Of the
body continues until some moment at about
8 a. M the machinery all but stops In the
healthy or fairly healthy body the coming of
this moment produces wild shock to the
system. and this shock causes you uncon-
scionsly to throw, out your arms and legs,
rub your nose violently, moan, take a deep
breath and turn over. Your doing all this
or most of it-has literally and of sober
truth saved your life. 1t gave fresh impetus
to the almost stopped action Of the heart,
which in turn restored the well-nigh stopped
circulation all throughout your body. The
moan and deep breath guckened the action
of the lungs and reused them to their usual
rate of speed. The rest that these organs
had received bv being allowed to run slow
to run almost down enabled them, with the
restarting administered by the o'clock COM
motion, successfully to begin another run,
carrying you over the death point and allow
ing you to resume completion of the full
period of rest necessary to the brain and to
the nerves and muscles of the limbs and
other portions of the body.
As to what causes this little shock that
carries us over the bridge of death, the wis
est OF the wise know nothing. The theories
about it are legion. But they are only theo-
ries. The percentage of deaths at this mar
velous moment exceeds that of any other in
the twenty-four hours. while the number of
old people who die at about o'clock in the
morning is appallingly in excess of their
death rate for any other time In all cases
at all critical it is said that the physician
secretly breads the hour 3 a. m a hundred
fold more than scarcely any other incident
in practice, while to all that lives and
breathcs it brings the most momentous time
of all existence.-Cincinnati Enquirer.