Omaha daily bee., 1917-06-07
Sleep
Bg Frederic j. HGskh.

Washington, June Allow long do you sleep?
This is almost the first question the up-to-date
physician asks when you go to him with anything
from swollen tonsil to a nervous breakdown.
If you sleep too much, you are likely to be
anaemic, phlegmatic lethargic with more fat
than muscle. Your organs, including your brains,
are apt to be a trihe inactive from lack of the
proper amount of use. On the other hand, if you
sleep too little, you are certain to be nervous,
hystcral, restless, lean rather than muscular, and
your organs, including your brains will be in
constant state OF fatigue, and your power Of
resistance to disease is below par.
The average person should sleep at least eight
hours out of the twenty -four He may get along
with less than that for short stretch. and with
more than that for longer stretch, but the aver
age to be maintained is eight. In the case of men
OF creative ability nine hours OF sleep is not too
much.
Whenever anything is said about the amount
Of sleep required by the human animal, someone
Immediately comes forward with the case OF the
sleepless Bonaparte, and Mr.. Edison to prove
that eight hours Of sleep is really quite too much.
But it is well to remember that Napoleon died
a comparatively young and that Mr.. Edison
has reached the age where five or six hours of
sleep is all that is necessary.
President Wilson sleeps from nine to nine
and half hours out Of the twenty-four, and ex-
President Roosevelt regularly sleeps eight hours,
to ten hours
Sleep occupies third of our existence and
should therefore be entitled to some attention. it
has large influence on our physical welfare, and,
there is still great deal to be discovered con-
corning its various phenomena From the days
Of Aristotle, the subject OF sleep has had fas-
cination for poets philosophers, Psychologists and
hygenists, but it is only within recent years that
the psychologist has entered the field and joined
forces with the psychologist to solve the mystery
of sleep.
What causes sleep? was the first question to
be taken UP by the scientists.
To this question, there were numerous answers
all correct so far as they went, but wholly in
adequate. Physiological theories have appeared
caused by the thyroid gland in the neck The
blood from the brain was supposed to accumulate
in this gland and cause people to go to sleep, but
this theory was soon shattered by the fact that
persons who had had this gland removed slept
as soundly as before. Inasmuch as the brain
seemed to undergo the greatest change of all the
organs during sleep, this has been the center of
most investigation. Sleep was said to be caused
by flow of blood to the brain; flow Of blood
out of the brain; by the enlargement of the brain,
and the diminishing of the brain-all Of which
theories turned out to be fallacies After that the
nerve cells began to attract attention, then the
eyes and the digestive organs and the blood
vessels.
Now the cause of sleep is as mysterious as
ever, but a great deal of data has been &C
cumulated on the changes that take place in the
body during sleep. 1t is we'll established for in
stance, that the brain does diminish in size and
become pale when person is asleep The
respiration is changed-the inspirations are longer
and the expirations shorter The temperature of
the body decreases during Sleep in winter falling
to lower degree than in summer. The amount
Of carbon doxide eliminated is less during sleep
Digestion is not retarded. 1t is we'll not to go to
bed until the digestive process is going forward
however, which is usually from an hour to an
hour and a half after dinner The fact that
digestion goes on effectively during sleep is so
well established that in cases where people have
died in the night, the time of death is calculated
In an autopsy by the extent to which the persons
food is dgested. r,,-.,-- .... b..
The principal fact brought out by scientific in
vestigations however, is that while sleep is the
great remedy for fatigue it is not wholly caused
by it. In experiments made upon animals. separate
tests were made to distinguish between sleep from
fatigue and sleep without fatigue Experiments
were recently made by noted Psychologist R.
Legendre, connected with the Smithsonian inst-
tute. He proved that lack of sleep develops a
toxic fluid in the brain, which would produce
sleepiness when injected in fresh and vigorous
animal.
From this it became apparent that the human
animal, as we'll as the dog has something within
his body, quite separate and distinct from fatigue,
that induces sleep. Just what it is science has yet
to discover. What science does know however,
is the harmful effects of too much sleep, and the
! still more harmful effects of insomnia.