Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-12-09
EVERY SLEEPER NEAR DEATH.
Strange Eearncss to Dissolution
That Comes at 3 A. VI.
Cincinnati Epnuirar


temporary uneasiness OF all night
sleeping humans and animals ut about
3 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 men, and lions
among animals, have this experience,
just as do the frailest babes or weakest
kittens. Viewed in any and every
light the occurrence is remarkable.
Why it is not at midnight, at | A. NJ,
, A. NJ, or, i'll the case OF late sleepers,
why does it not come at 6 or Z O'Clock? =?
An Enquirer man asked some of the
leading physicians regarding this oc-
currence, and cleaned some most in
tcresting information.
At the hour of about o'clock every
morning 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
n breath-an atom-ncarer it they
would stop. The machinery of life
comes within just hairs breadth of
stopping at some moment near 3 A. NJ.
The way of this is explained as follows:
The composure of the body when ly-
ing still produces not only rest, but
that same element of danger so omni-
present to all machinery left unattend-
ed-the absence of a watchiul brain.
In welcoming the hours of sleep you
unconsciously welcome deaths most
advantageous time for conquering you.
Every moment you are asleep your
physical self is running unmatched by
the engineer. The supply of coal
(food) for the furnaces is withheld.
The steam (blood) in the pipes runs
low. This neglect of the engine.room
of the body continues until some mo-
ment at about 3 A. NJ. the machinery
all but stops. In the hoalthy or fairly
healthy body the coming of this mo-
ment produces a mild shock to the
system and this shock causes YOU un-
consciously to throw out your arms
and legs, rub your nose violently,
moan, take 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 we'll
nigh stopped circulation all through
out your body. The moan and deep
breath quickened the action OF the
lungs and reused them to their usual
rate of speed. The rest that these or
gans had received by being allowed to
run slow-to run almost down-en-
abled them, with the restarting adj
ministered by the 3 o'clock commo-
ton, successfully to begin another
run, carrying you over the death point
and allowing you to resume compile
tion of the full period OF rest necessary
to the brain and to the nerves and
muscles OF the limbs and other por-
tions of the body.
AS to what causes this little shock
that carries us over the bridge of
death, the wisest of the wise know
nothing. The theories about it are
legion. But they are only theories.
The percentage of deaths ut this mar
velous moment exceeds that of any
other in the twenty-four hours, while
the number of old people who die at
about 3 o'clock in the morning is ap-
pallingly 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. NJ. a hum
dred-fold more than scarcely any other
incident in practice, while to all that
lives and breathes it brings the most
momentous time of all existence.