Year: 1874

Persons who live by mental labor not
only require full supply of sleep, but
they also need letting down gradually
to the level of repose. Hence, the
longer the interval between the time of
the active use of the brain and the hour
of rest, the better the chance Of refresh
ish and restful sleep.


The american Journal of Insanity
not long since attributed much of the
prevalent nervousness and impaired
health of individuals to the want Of
sufficient and quiet rest. 1t says ''To
procure this it is important, in the first
place, that the mind should not be dis
turbed for several hours before retiring
to rest. Study during the evening is
improper. Some few persons, we know,
are able to perform much mental labor,
and to study late at night, and yet sleep
well. Some require but little sleep.
But such individuals are very rare"


Another medical authority, the Lam
Get, places the minimum of sleep at six
hours for men, and seven for women,
with an extra hour or two to be taken
whenever practicable. DR.. Hammond,
an authority on nervous diseases, says ::
''For the brain there is no rest except
during sleep" Southey slept seven
hours and half at night, but he also
took siests during the day. "Sleep
agrees with me" he wrote, "and have
good substantial theory to prove that
it must for as a man who walks much
requires to sit down and rest himself,
so does the brain if it be the part most
worked, require its repose."


In respect to sleep, President Grant,
E. E. Hale, and others have confessed
to requiring nine out of twenty four
hours. Milton in winter invariably
took eight hours repose, and seven in
summer. Humboldt is reported to have
slept but four hours in the twenty-four,
but this was in his old age, when he did
not need much sleep, and besides it is
said that he was q great ''lie a-bed, !"
and spent many hours in this half-wake-
full state.


Campbell slept over seven hours
Douglass Jerrold retired at 10 and rose
about 7, while he slept little after
dinner. Chief-Justice Story always
slept eight and often nine hours. John
G. Calhoun went to bed at 10 and rose
at daybreak. DR.. Arnold allowed him
self about eight hours sleep. DR..
Charming usually took an after-dinner
nap, besides taking full nights rest.
Melanchthon used to take but six hours
rest, but he would not even ocen q let
ter in the evening, and retired at nine.


This whole subject may. perhaps, be
summed up in q sentence, viz. that
man must proportion his sleep to his
work so as to give time during the
former for the brain to restore the
waste which has taken place during the
latter. II he can get along with small
supply of sleep it shows either that his
nervous energies recuperate rapidly, or
that the rate of waste during work is
slow.


Again In every example of an e1-
traordinary amount of work being per-
formed by any individual, it was always
followed by long rest, or resulted in
injury to the constitution of the person,
or death, as in the case of Horace
Greeley, who was q lifelong sufferer
from sleeplessness.


Lastly: 1t would appear from the
number of examples of such q practice
that taking q midday nap is q prudent
policy. Among those who make this q
rule ara Theirs, and Beechsr, not to
mention others.-Golden A0e.