The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1919-03-19
THE OYSTER is THE ONLY ANIMAL THAT
SLEEPS ALL THE TIME

The strange sleeping sickness which doctors
report as an after-effect of flu, is no more new
than sleep itself, that greatest mystery of life.
On March II, 1890, the London Daily Chron-
icle printed the following dispatch from Vienna
Several cases Of new disease, which recently
appeared in Mantua Immediately after the sub
sidence Of the influenza epidemic have occurred
in the comitat of Pressburg Persons suffering
from this complaint fall into death-like trance,
lasting about four days, out Of which the patient
wakes in state of intense exhaustion. Recovery
is very slow, but, so far, no fatal case has been
reported
Twenty-Five years have passed since then, but
the doctors are still in the dark.
What is this strang process called sleep?
Why must we spend third of our only too
short life in bed dead to the world mctionless,
unconscious?
Sleep continues as battling mystery as in the
days when Eve was created in the sleep of man. 4
You. reader, few hours from now will slip
into bed and mentally vanish from this world
What happens then? Does your soul live in
another world at night? %. l:., ~
The Coriat school of doctors believe that sleep
is the result Of relaxing of the muscles, the re-
Taxing being necessary to rid the system of poisons
that have accumulated during wide-awake hours.
Claperede's theory was that sleep is Natures
to prevent US killing ourselves by ex-
haustion.
DR.. Boris Sds decided that monotony is the
cause OF s!eep-that we slumber when there are
no longer interesting, stimulating sensations to
keep US awake. If we believe Sidis, we sleep be-
cause we are bored. For instance, the man sleep
ing in church when not fatigued
Eight hours is the average sleep required,
though there are unusual cases such as William
Depue who Weakened January Is, 1896, in Bushkill
Pa, after sleeping steadily for seven years. tDepue
insisted that he slept only one night, that jokers
had shifted calendars on him. =.
Edison says We all sleep too much He gets
along with four hours slumber nightly So did
Napoleon, Frederick the Great, Mirabeau and John
Hunter, the English surgeon '~- -
Edlson's theory is that we are approaching the
time when the human being will require practically
no sleep. ..
An oyster, one Of the lowest forms of life
lacks the power Of movement-it sleeps always
A child sleeps most of the time "slept like a
babe AS it natures, the need of sleep grows
less. Old folks need fewer hours of seep-and
are easily awakened by slight, sounds
This tendency in the maturing of the indi-
vidual is true of the maturing of civilized races
The city-dweller of today requires much less sleep
than his prehistoric ancestors-or even the lower
forms Of present human life such as the dog-eat-
ing Igorrotes.
AS man develops further, will sleep become less
and less necessary?
Though it wastes third of your time, would
you do away with the bliss Of warm blankets and
absolute forgetfulness if you could? b.,
lamblichus, that great philosopher, wrote that
the nighttime Of the body is the daytime of the
soul-a beautiful theory that har,nonizes with
the idea OF the eventual sleep that knows nc
waking. "
We are closest to the Creator when asleep
apart from evil. Under it's spell the worst criminal
is as innocent as babe in arms. Sleep may be the
real life, and our waking period but dream o,
nightmare. The weirdest mystery of life, it con.
sumes one-third Of our valuable earthly time and
eventually clutches us in the Last Sleep, the 9rea,
adventure in which all are drafted on an equal
footing.
II the Hun is to pay for his food with potash
wouldn't it be well TO get the potash in advance
There = as,an,naksan ~ffsvsx.x t..A