Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-11-17
HABIT AND SLEEP
By H. Addington Bruce

r NAV he an exaggeration-indeed, it is an
| exaggeration-to say as some do that
sleep is merely a habit. Yet habit un-
doubtedly does play far larger part in the
determining of sleep than most people are
aware.
Witness for instance the familiar fact
that nearly everybody, without alarm clock
or other external aid, awakens at his accus-
toned hour day after day Those who 90
not so awaken, who need an alarm CLOCK TO
arouse them, are simply persons who nave
fallen into a habit of listening for the clock
They may-many do-acquire haolt OF
sleeping despite their clock.
Tt is notorious that it, for a few mornings,
the clock is consciously dsregarded, "a few
minutes more" being given to sleep, the time
soon comes when such sleepers are not even
disturbed in their slumber by the CLOCKS
raucous ringing. They have formed dlsre-
gard habit that renders them psycntcally
deaf and as a consequence they obtain the
additional sleep they want however little
they really need it.
The part played by habit in sleep is fur
Their emphasized by the interesting c1rcum-
stance that many persons have difficulty IN
falling asleep if kept up beyond their usual
hour of retiring .
They have, 50 to speak, "set themselves"
to go to sleep at certain hour. CTcum-
stances make this impossible. When they
do get opportunity to sleep, they are aston
ished, perhaps worried, to find themselves
unaccountably wakefu1.
If their habit of sleeping at a certain time
is broken for few nights in succession,
they are almost certain to acquire either
better habit of going to sleep whenever they
happen to retire, or a worse habit of 1ncreas-
ing wakefulness. Many stubborn case OF
insomnia has thus originated.
Habit again. enters into sleep in the case
of those numerous persons who have dill
1+xy c1n mo in CT rn
This is true of all sorts of persons-ot
phlegmatic as we'll as nervous types. 1t is
not matter of temperament 1t is matter
of habit The trouble is that the uneasy
away-from- home sleepers have unconsciously
permitted themselves to develop habit or
sleeping only when the bed, the pillows, the
bed clothing, etc, are "just right'-meaning
by that, are precisely what they have allowed
to become habitual to them.
1t is proverbial too, that country people
at first have difficulty in sleeping in cities,
and city people may for time be hard put
to sleep in the country. Both complain of
being kept awake by noises, yet neither
would be kept awake were not the noises
heard different from the noises they had
habituated themselves to disregard
Of course there are fortunate souls Who
sleep we'll amid the least familiar surround
ings. That they are able to do this is, once
more. proof of the far-reaching influence
exercised by habit sleep.
Consciously, to begin with, then uncon-
sciously, they have learned to pay no atten-
ton to factors interruptive of the sleep Of
others They have taken for granted that
sleep, that prime necessity of life, is as much
in their control as eating, drinking and
walking.
Thanks to this assumption they have made
sleep as habitual to them any other bodily
process Which, be it said, is possible to all
people except the comparatively few who
rendered wakeful by organic conditions mill
tating against sleep. AS one authority on
sleep and sleeplessness has with reason
stressed:
at is remarkable what can be done to Sc
cure regular and automatic sleep by follow
ing a fixed habit of rapidly preparing for bed
and plunging, as it were. into a state of un-
consciousness. This habit can be acquired,
and it is a wonderful safety first habit for
all classes Of people,"
Copyright, 1929