The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-08-05
SLEEP USELESS.
Opinion of Men Who Get Along with
Small Portion.

Whether sleep is habit or a ne
cessitv might be considered a strange
question to most persons, who regard
sleep as a solace and recreatlVe
force. Yet there are physicians who
not only doubt the value OF sleep Dut
maintain that fatigue, oVer-eXertlon
and the other tense eXcitements of the
day can be neutraliZed and cured by
merely resting in a reclining position
for seven or eight hours in a dark
ened room or at night. These same
doctors hold that the sweetness, con-
tentment and freedom from that
tired feeling" that follows sleep is
consequent to the sleep, true enough,
but not the result of sleep.
Rest and placing yourself in the su-
pine position with the eyes closed is
just as restorative as sound sleep,
according to them. Thomas Edison
AYERS that sleep is the cause of the
backwardness of the earth's inhabi-
tants He asserts that there has been
more time wasted by the human race
in sleep than in the profligate ex-
penditure of rakes and rousta bouts.
sleep is a bad habit" is his dictum,
and Gus Lieblich, a gentleman who
has not slept for twenty-five years.
corroborates Edisons belief. despite
the we'll established experiments of
the laboratory that animals die if not
allowed to fall asleep.
Certain brute creatures can do
without food a longer time with less
harm than they can do without sleep.
Professor Paul Haupt, of the Johns
Hopkins university, has accomplished
twice as much work as the ordinary
man by sleeping only two hours in
the twenty-fOur for almost a genera
ton. If it were possible for him to
stay awake altogether there is no
doubt he would do so.
The brain takes no rest in sleep un-
less you consider a change of actiV-
ity rest; the heart does not falter in
its rhythm while natures alleged re-
storer is ON the job: nor do the lungs
and liver pause in their appointed
work during your Inconsistencies
The blood flows the kidneys work,
the stomach and vital organs carry on
their allotted tasks; consciousness
alone is dulled.
Can the twenty-three years that ev-
cry normal who reaches three-scOre
and then spends in this loss of con-
seriousness, in dead sleep, be put to
living, stirring, active use without
danger to his health, his efficiency, his
limbs and his life? Here is the cruN
of the matter. Shall a man do as
Professor Haupt, as Mr. Edison, as
Mr.. Lieblich and thus try and add al
most a generation of eNert1on TO ms
seventy years? Will it profit a man
to cut out all sleep, and use 1T for
work?
Honestly. I cannot believe it; even
the mental life seems to be the only
ma rtiaIlv-that is actually different
from the waking life. Just as an
overworked bricklayer recuperates by
dancing the tango; just as the tense
bookkeeper, hard at his task, finds
relief by writing short stories at night;
tust as the stock clerk, who has
thrown hundreds of heavy articles
about during the week, finds relief in
pitching a game of baseball on sun
day: so that the busy vital organs Of
oh nf Il
night that rejuvenates them for the
next days excitement.
Far be it from me to pose as re-
dictionary and to block the thrilling
iconocIasts in their efforts to startle
and satisfy q sleepless age. Nothing
is farther from my intentions. In
deed, it is n great pleasure always to
swat a universal custom and d popu-
lar belief, or to explode a platitude
that everybody is convinced is true
There is no doubt. however, that
exceptional individuals work at
maximum of efficiency-that is to