The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-09-18
M E N w o M EN
 A N D T H N G s

| one, and while have much to be thank ful for. just now my heart is filled with gratitude because I am good sleeper.
 Now, any man or woman who can sleep ought to consider it one of the best blessings which have befallen them, for know of nothing which is more nerve raek'ne than insomnia, ana although I have never suffered from it, yet in oc- cssional sickness I have a taste of it. |
 l have no desire to set down here any very exact knowledge about sleep, but merely to talk of it in a chatty way, and leave to those of scientific or ques- tioning mind to study the subject in it's more serious phases if they bc so in- chned, and it opens up wide and diver gent avenues of thought.
 |
 l got to thinking on the subject from a very simple thing. On Monday night a friend asked me if I cared to g. 10 early market with him, and it appealed 10 me in such manner as to make me ac- cept enthusiastically "All right" said he, T will call you in the morning when am ready to go." I went to bed glad of a q ance to go with him.
 ] Have you ever noticed what a differ enee the night before and the morning after have on q proposition I went to sleep charmed with the idea of getting chance to market and bring my purchases horne in car but when was walked up before my usual rising hour by a voice, saying, Hurry down." all my enthusiasm to get up had evaporated, and I craved another cat nap before crawling out or bed.
 l II aH your life you have been a good sleeper the gods have been good to you, that is, provided it has come naturally and without having to call on Morphia to help you woo slumber. The sleep which is natures gentle restorer' is one of the l best boons that can come to mankind but the kind which comes only by the use of drug is deadening in it's effects. 1 To be able to sleep in peace and wake Tn joy is the thing to be desired, and Ovid well spoke of sleep, thou most gen. tie of the deities' Old Ben Franklin. with his usual pith, said, Fatigue is the best pollow,' meaning the kind which is pro- duced by an honest days labor. And with Cervantes we can agree that sleep IS the best cure for waking troubles. But Shakespeare sums it all up by saying, Balm of hurt minds, great natures sec ond course, chief nourisher in lfe's feast"
 But l am drawing too much on the lit- erary celebrities when I meant to have kept closer to experiences in my own and others lives which may have been similar to the ones had by those who read this column; my only desire in writing about 1t being not so much to furnish my readers with story, but to have them make up one out of their own excursions into the Land of Nod.
 
 The amount of sleep needed by differ ent persons varies with age and condition Occupation, race, sex, climate and habit have to do with the amount of sleep re- |euired. Sleep is sounder and longer in cold climates and among northern races. Brain workers as a class take less sleep than laborers, and I was surprised to see the statement that women usually require more sleep than men. I had thought that mothers did on very little.
 To he 1ittIa y,,ora da6r;to +L. notion that child sleeps half it's time, and an adult persons one-third is not far from right. The greater part of infancy is spent in slumber. which is also much more profound than that of an adult. It is true, likewise, that very old persons may do little but eat and sleep; that is, in their second childhood. The infant may sleep twenty hours out of each twen- ty-four. while the growing child may take twelve hours at "a stretch
 My father, a graduate of the old Jeff ferson Medical College of Philadelphia, and who made his way partly there on horseback, would never wake one of his children even to go to school, holding
 
 and need for it. I'm afraid that such a kind parent in these days, when all the world (and particularly the public school is run by the clocl) would be worse than a bull in china shop by upsetting the prescribed schedules I merely relate his position as h-.ng out of me usual.
 The authorities are pretty unanimous in saying that in middle age about eight hours. (But they both are dead) It is agree with them I want as much or more. In the sixties the average person can get along on seven, though some seeh to think six hours ample. It is re- ported of Frederick the Great and Ma poleon that they slept but three or four hours. Out they both are dead. It is also common Knowledge that Thomas A. Edison is able to go on mighty little slumber. but then he Is wonder worker"
 By the way, had an invitation from friend who has an apartment in the Rdgely to come up and spend the night and see for myself if it was quiet place to repose. I fear that he is in the fix found myself few seasons back at our Baptist encampment at Pelham Heights. The hotel was crowded, and it became