Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-03-03
SLEEP AS A HABIT.

OlUII AO Il uAUl1s
An experiment that is as strange as it
is interesting is being tried by an or
ganization of students in several Amer
lean universities. which has for its pur-
nose the le%ngthsning of working hours.
This experiment is based upon the pc
lief tina sleep is, to "a large extent, d
matter of habit and that 1t can De les
sened materially if proper care OF Inc
system is taken. They believe that
rules can be devised by which they will
be able to reduce the sleeping hours 70
a minimum consistent with continued
health and they are working nara 10
bring his condition of things aoous.
who united to '"bless the man OF sucn a
project is a matter mot pleasant to coh-
template, but that the investigation -
one that will be followed with great m
terest by physicians n IS d
certainty. It is known that Thomas A.
Edison has long held that a majority
of mankind was criminally extravaganza
in wasting so many precious hours IN
slun1bsr Others have held a similar
opinion and AVE even been ape 70
sleeping little and working more, but 1t
has generally been supposed that sucn
rules applied only to individual cases
and hat some persons required mucn
more sleep than others. Ii the assoc
cha of students now experimenting
along these lines has the courage to
persist in its purpose these questions
will be setued once and for all we
shall know just how much sleep is q
necessity and how mcuh is a luxury.
Although there is probably no neces-
sary connection between a lack Of sleep
and a brilliant career 1T is nevertheless
a fact thai many of the most eminent
men spent less hours in their beds
than most Of us. 1t is 40 unusual
six hours continuously at a single
problem and seldom does he do
more than snatch an hour or two
of sleep when nature
proves too strong for him. Humboldt,
spent more than four hours in bed, and
Littre, who lived to be eighty, thought
that to spend more than five hours a
day in Sleep was shameful s~elf-lndul-
gence. jules Verne is another believer
in the virtues of little slunnber. AL
though he reads nul late into the
might he Is at his desk at dawn in sum-
mer and by 6 o'clock in winter. Lord
Wolseley. like Bismarck and Won
Moltke, has always got along very
men who have made a name in the
world in spite of the fact that they
have been almost strangers to their
beds might be almost indefinitely ex-
tended.
OF course this proves nothing more
than that certain individuals lave been
able to live and do good work with ex-
tremely little sleep, but the students
who are now experimenting along these
lines nave taken it for granted that
what others hav lone they too can do,
a theory that cannot always be made
to work well.
This organization of students is not
IN the nature Of a secret society, al
hhNy,rh ~ hne 1Nanr we ~ -
order to get the most representative
college men interested in the subject.
The experiment was at first begun in
g University of Iowa, and while it
has not vet assumeo the character of
an intercollegiate organization students
in the University of Wisconsin and sav-
era other Institutions rave already Sig
nified their Willingness to participate
In this psychological investigation.
The theory upon which the members
ts that it will We. be possible for them
to gain such comb e control over the
body as to keep part of the system at
rest while the other part is engaged In
It's labors. In tbs way any unneces-
sary waste of vital energy would be
avoided.
Professor Herrera, the eminent scien-
fist, has expressed opinions that to a
certain extent at least, uphold this
theory. He says:
81 do not admit, o metaphysicians!
the existence of any hand and fast line
between sleep and waking. I do not be-
lieve that any organism can ever be
completely awake or completely asleep.
There is always something living, one
organ sleeping and another palpitating.
A goose never happens to shut both its
eyes at once. My own heart has at no
time slept as my brain does; it hardly
ever rests. poor, perpetual sentinel!
And you, o muscles? Ye yawn, wake
and work too. There are some distli.
herited, beggared organs sleeping in
ascetics. Yet, there is a weak and slow
nutritive current even there. / deny,
then, any hard and fast line; there ara
no barriers between sleeping and walk
ing, just as there are no absolutely
separated and divided things in nature,
whether stars or organisms."
This is the principle advocated by the
new association of college students,
They hold that one organ sleeps while
h other is wakeful, and they believe
that they win yet be able to discover
some means Of gaining control over
their body.
At the same time they are making 4
careful study of the question of sleep
as a necessity. In other words, they
are Trying 10 discover how sleep may
Se made s,osl advantageous. They be-