The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-06-22
HOW MUCH SLEEP
DOES ONE NEED?
Thomas A. Edison Says That
Four Hours Daily Are
Enough.
FAMOUS INVENTORS IDEA
TELLS OF PRACTICAL TEST HE
MADE.

After all, sleep is only habit; there
| is nothing to prove that men really
need it.. said Thomas A. Edison the
other day Men first learned TO sleep
/ because when darkness came they had
nothing else to do. Through the ages
their descendants, doing likewise, made
sleep d custom-a matter of course. But
| if men had always lived in land OF
perpetual light and sunshine. l dom
suppose we would sleep at all.
! The famous inventor backed up the
/ idea by telling of a practical test. IL
was not his own ability TO live with
| little sleep. AS is we'll known, Mr.. Edi-
son limits himself to four or five hours
sleep in the twenty-fOur. He said he
| had not slept more than five hours in
night for forty years. In much OF
that time he averaged only four hours
Nor was il the case of his wife, which
/ he mentioned incidentally. Mrs Ed
son. he said, sleeps only five hours in
a night, and the habit seems to agree
with her The test he described in
volved nearly 100 men of average ply
sique i'm Mr. EdisOn's laboratory.
The test was made" Mr.. Edison
said, while l was experimenting with
my assistants at MenlO Park l linn
| tied each man to four hours sleep in
the twenty-four. They kept 1t up for
two years. II did not seem TO hurt
them"
Were they aided by special diet or
treatment to make up for the loss of
| sleep?"
No, except that there were four
meals a day instead of three. We had
| breakfast, dinner and supper in the
| daytime a 5 usual, and an extra supper
at midnight. There was nothing pecu-
| liar about the food The meals con-
cd af "a a
and the rest which ordinary people
eat.
Each man was assigned TO four
hours in the twenty-fOur in which he
was entitled TO sleep. When the time
came he went TO our clubhouse near
the laboratory, tumbled into one of the
hunks, and was sound asleep in a mo-
ment He didn't get his full four hours
either, for we would call him a trife
ahead of time. l suppose he slept three
/ hours and 80 per cent of the last hour
What was the effect Of cutting down
their Sleep"
For the first week or so it was hard
very hard They would come back
TO work limp and heavy footed, their
/ eyes sometimes looking as if they had
been drinking heavily. The old habit
of sleeping which men had followed
for so many ages was telling on them.
The habit was hard to break. But after
the first week or so the reduction in
their hours of sleep seemed to make no
difference i'm their work or mental ca
pacity. Indeed, they gained in agility.
They seemed TO be lighter on their
feet.
There is this significant point I'm such
a test: The men who slept four hours
in the twenty-fOur had absolute rest
The person who sleeps too much not
only experiences a heavy feeling in the
body, but usually does not enjoy absO
ute Inconsistencies while he sleeps.
I remember the case of my wife
some years ago. 1 was sleeping four
hours a night-nO more. She said she
wanted her full eight hours sleep. In
that eight hours she would dream She
would wake up several times of a night.
Her rest was by no means complete.
I persuaded her to give only five
hours to sleep in the tWenty-fOur. She
trained herself TO do so. Her rest be-
came intense, absolute, without dreams
or moments OF awakening. Ever since
then she has allowed herself no more
than FIVE hours sleep in the twenty
four. Does it hurt her? WelT'-this
with a satisfied laugh-"my wife looks
so young that she might be her daugh-
ter's sister.
should it be put to a test" Mr.. Edi-
son continued Il think YOU would find
that if the time lost i'm awakenings and
dreams were measured, the person who
thinks he is having his full eight
hours of sleep is not having more than
five or six.
Persons are likely to sleep less as the
number of lights increase, and the
things that can be done at night become
more numerous. Take the modern city
man, for instance. 1t is quite the usual
thing for him to be awake until 1
o'clock in the morning or later. He is
up early the next morning and off TO
business. Yet the city man is just as
healthy as the man who lives in the
country and has many more hours of
sleep.
rs it not said that sleep is required
bOdy?"
Can you prove it?" Mr.. Edison re-
piled. Il don't think So"
In Mr.. Edisons opinion careful diet
was more important than sleep in pre-
serving a mans strength and prevent
ing the decay of old age.
Professor Metchnikof's idea is a big
one in this connection" he continued
Professor Metchnikof. you know. is
biologist at the Pasteur institute in
/ Paris. His theory is that sour milk
preserves life and has much to do with
Graduating disease from the body.
"Old age, as he sees ii, is caused by
the presence of poisonous bacilli in the
human system, which continue TO in
crease as the years go on until the toxic
conditions cause death. There is a say
ing that a person will live five times
the number of years he or she has at
tanned when fully developed. But there
is nothing in that idea. With what
facts does Professor Metchnikof back
up his theory?
He found a district in the noun
tains of Bavaria where the number of
aged peOle was very unusual. Some of
them lived to be 104. or even 105, years
old. In the Bavarian villages il was
not exceptional TO find three or four
who had lived to be 100.