SLEEP IS VERY ESSENTIAL TO ALL ANIMALS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 7, 8 March 1950, Page 8

SLEEP IS VERY ESSENTIAL TO ALL ANIMALS

Is there a baby in your house? Or a young child? If so how many times, as you’ve tucked him into the cot or bed have you gnvied his right to fall off to sleep from that moment, while you still have an evening’s work in front .of you? You know how it is with babies; a feed, a sleep, a feed, a sleep, and so on. Less sleep will be needed as baby grows, of course. Here are some figures for the sleep needs as supplied by the Department of Health. At three years, 12 hours’ sleep; at eight years, about 11 hours; at 16, nine or ten hours; at 30, eight to nine hours; and at 60, well seven hours are usually enough. Many old people are quite happy with only five hours.

Animals Die /' It is known that if animals are kept' awake for a few days, they die. ‘A puppy without sleep is a dead puppy in five days at most. Humans can go a bit longer than that without sleep-—one man claimed to have gone 100 days without sleep, while others have died for want of sleep in 20 days. And children need sleep more than grownups.

Sleep makes good the wear and tear of today. The brain tires more than muscles. Some muscles, like the heart, never stop working. But the brain is like a telephone exchange with five times as many wires as their are people in the world. '

Incidentally, it is no fallacy that the more sleeping before midnight, the better. It is well called beauty sleep. Whether children appear tired or not when their bed time comes, pack them off. And abide by the same pi’inciple yourself.