SLEEP AND FATIGUE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 17, 21 January 1924, Page 20

SLEEP AND FATIGUE

.WARNING TO SCHOOL

TEACHERS

HOW TO OVERCOME INSOMNIA,

Sir Robert Armstrong Jones, expert in mental diseases, lecturing recently in London on fatigue and sleep for the People's League of Health, was speaking chiefly to teachers, so he told them how to watch for and recognise symptoms of fatigue in their pupils, reports the " Manchester Guardian." There are, he said, about five million children in British schools, and it is very important that the teachers, who number about 19.000, should direct their attention to the physiology of the nervous system. Many pupils were ill-prepared for mental exertion, and to push them on too fast was to court disaster. The nervous or backward child might in time develop into • something finer than his fellows, but if pressed he was certain to break down. Before the war, said Sir Robert, we regarded mental disease as being mainly due to pathological causes; the tendency now was to credit them often to mental causes. The aim of instruction was to qualify the child, for the duties of citizenship, and it should conduce to his ethical upbuilding. The teacher should work with the school doctor, and should realise that both mental health and physical health were required. The only success was to make teaching as far as possible happy. There should, of course, be the reaction of the intellect, but what went into the mind should go in in a pleasurable way. It was most important that the teachers should understand the effects of fatigue, a subject that has only within the last few years been scientifically studied with regard to industry. The view held by some people that fatigue was a normal condition was rather apt to do harm. There were two signs of fatigue—the subjective, such as a feeling of tiredness and a loss of attention, and the objective, which came first. The trouble was that so often the results of I fatigue were manifest before a person realised that he was tired. That accounted for many accidents, especially with railway signalmen. This was a dangerous condition to get intoj and often resulted in a serious mental "break- j down. ■ . . The teacher should note the preliminary signs, such as irritability. The person suffering from fatigue became acutely conscious of sounds which otherwise might pass unnoticed. A closing door seemed to slam, the ticking of a clock sounded loudly, but this state of menial excitement sometimes led to increased effort and output. The teacher's object should be to secure the maximum output with the minimum effort. The nervous tissue was the " master tissue " in the body, and must have rest. Fatigue was really related to the central nervous system and not to the muscles, and it was due to the exhaustion of the cential nervous system, which only recuperated during sleep. j Discussing the best methods of inducing sleep, Sir Kobert said that auto-suggestion was one good way. M. Cove's method was excellent, but one could overdo it and keep himself awake by his insistence that he was going to sleep. Sir Robert suggested that it was much better to think about other people, and to picture someone else going to sleep. Bedtime should be not later than 11 o'clock. The bedclothes should be light; yet warm, and in winter time 60 degrees was the best temperature for the room. Everyone should have eight hours' sleep. Heavy workers could do with an hour more, and a short, unbroken sleep was much more restful than long- but broken hours. A hot bath, a glass of milk and a biscuit, or a brisk walk after supper was helpful to sleep. Miss Olga Nethersole, who presided, had suggested that the lecturer might say something about dreams and what they meant, but Sir Robert said that though, like everyone else, he could talk for hours about dreams, he thought too much stress had been laid on their interpretation. Dreams were quickly over. They were very much interrupted, and people relating them filled in the gaps. Followers of Freud laid great stress on dreams and on the instinct of sex, but that was a very great mistake. We all had a whole lot of instincts, and sex was only one. He thought that the enthusiasm of the psychoanalysts— very I honest men—carried them away.