The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1910-07-01
Usually TO BE Found in a Miserly
Indulgence in Natures
Sweet RestOrer."
SLEEP IS A FINE MEDICINE
Exhausting Strain Of City Life Can
Be Guarded Against by Well
Regulated Dozes.

Learned men and the casual opserY'
er have waXed eloquent about the
awful strain of city life, the wear and
tear of its tremendous and incessant
activities upon the nerve force Of men
who have not yet keyed up their re-
ssting power to Withstand the de-
mands OF the vast commercial and sci
entilic machine they have built up.
Fudge. They say that the noise and
rush and hustle, the excitement u
being In the midst OF the seething
throng, eXhausts ones vitality. More
/ fudge, Man adapts himself to his en-
yironment so swiftly so almost instan-
taneOusly, that the denizen of the deep.
est forest or remOtcst mountain peak
can become thoroughly city broken in
a few weeks, Why, then, do we find
in the great cities so many cases OF
nervous breakdown, which it Is the
polite and merciful fashion to ascribe
to irritating environment and over
work? Chiefly because Of lack Of
sleep says William Hemingway in
Harper's Weekly If, besides robbing
himself Of sleep, a man eats TOO much,
drinks too much, and otherwise dissi-
pates his energies, the breakdown win
come all the sooner and be all the more
severe; but sleep robbery alone is
enough to make a weakling of the
strongest man. Moreover, even the
dlssipated person who averages, say,
sixty hours Of sleep per week, will long
outlast the sober one who averages
but forty
Is 1t possible to obtain eight or nine
hours sleep every night in the great
and noisy city? Surely it is. The man
or woman who pretends that this is
impossible is either a victim of self
deception or a very rare invalid. Let
US consider a few cases in New York,
the biggest and noisiest city in Amer
lea. There are living in that city some
half-million or more Of men who work
as day laborers, and who sleep as
soundly in tenements in the most con-
gested districts as in the equally noisy
outskirts of the city. Any cases of
neurasthenia or insomnia among them?
Not to any great extent. OF course
their hard manual labor gives them a
fine appetite, their means are small
and their diet therefore plain, and the
good, honest fatigue resulting from a
day of physical toll sends them swiftly
into sleep that restores to them abound
ing vigor next day.
Dppbo b1Tr M bfe+,rfg gotgDv hoe avr1,.
done more harm than the legend that
Napoleon required only four or five
hours of sleep in each twenty-four
The truth is that while he was in
good health and doing his most won
derful feats he habitually took eight
hours sleep every night. In later life,
when his energies had been depleted
by luxury and the long, fierce gamble
for power his health gave way and
his sleep was brief and ftful. This,
however, was a symptom of decay not
an evidence Of great strength, and it
led most logically to defeat, eclipse,
early death.
No man can be great or successful
or even tolerably decent unless he
sleeps enough and with regularity.
During the hours of sleep the heart
beats become about ten to the minute
slower as well as less forceful, and
that busy organ enjoys at least par
tial rest from its incessant labors;
that invisible but useful agent in the
blood that floats away the broken
down tissue resulting from physical
and mental effort is constantly en-
gagged in carrying down all the waste
products Of the preceding day to the
organs of elimination which rid the
body of them. In one word, the ashes |
are disposed of and the engine is
cleaned and oiled for its next days |
work.