The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-05-11
HIP HooRAY, WHEN DO WE SLEEP?

lucky or perhaps we should say right living individual boards 8 train, sees 10 the sfnwine away of his goods and chattes. makes a contribution toward the support or tne com @ : pany's employees, and at hls customary ,., l, retires to his cubbyhole and enjoys his nignt rest nut as though he were tslumbering Tn ms own little beddy at home. But SS:44 per cen. of us are not trained that way. We 'us. serve time in ironic solitary confinement and are tossed all through the hideous night, the wnlie we plot unheard-of crimes against almost any body behind that curtain. It's all m the aena- nt rites If you live right your dentrites are right. Dendrites are not something that gets in your hair, nor do you pick them up by getting out of bed barefoot. We're all born with dend- rites. Here is at least one point of absolute equality. Makes not a particle of difference whether your grandfather or his was a a horse thief or financier. you start life With pre-. ciseIy the same standard dendritic equipment that all other makes and models Of your year
 Dendrites are microscopic contractile pro- cesses of Nhe central nerve or brain cell, which receive the impulses that come in through the wee retraction of the dendrites breaks the connection with the nerve terminal arboriza- tions and in effect insulates the organism from all minor external stimuli or impressions Tnat means sleep.
 Most people take the same unphysiological view of sleep that they take of other functions of the body, notably defecation. These morbid Conceptions are created and constantly kept in he mind of the laity by the nnostrum interests whose business is the exploitation of popular oredulity. Do not the majority of the popula- lion belive that it Is necessaryte "regulate"the bowels, to do something to make the bowels move sometimes if not all the time? Wise acres and so-cailed "educatedr persons in gen eral in their ludicrous ignorance of psysiology fall easy prey to the suggestion that constant attention to the regulation" of the bowels is la fundamental principle of health. Likewise they readily assume that when one does not sleep well something should be done to make him sleep. s ShsF-
 If the distinction am trying to draw be- tween letting one sleep and making him sleep or between letting ,he bowel cat and making it act. seems bubble, it seems so because you fail to graps the physiological fact involved. Perhaps cannot better explain than be re- mnding you that person can. be made to breathe deeply or more slowly by various physical chemical or emotional means or by his own will and attention to his manner of breathing. Yet no one doubts that the breath ing will be best regulated and most efficient if the person pays attention to it and we do not attempt to influence it by physical, chem ical or emotional means.
 We'll, belve it or not the function of diges- ton is under the same automatic or autonomic unconscious and involuntary control as Is the function of breathing, and so is sleep. i, M
 In any circumstances, avoiding things which prevent or disturb sleep Is far better than resorting to any means to make one sleep wen have another talk about this later.